Carl B. Schmidt, who holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard University where he was a student of Randall Thompson, has written and lectured extensidvely on seventeenth-century Italian and French opera and ballet including works by Antonio Cesti, Jean-Baptiste Lully, and livrets by Philippe Quinault. He has catalogued the music of Francis Poulenc and Georges Aric, written Poulenc's documented biography, edited four works by Poulenc including his famous Flute Sonata, and compiled four volumes of Auric's music criticism. Schmidt's books and editions have been published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and others. He has also contributed to distinguished Festschriften, and his editions of works by Cesti, Lully, and Poulenc have been performed here and abroad and recorded commercially.