Early music performer’s initially unexpected decade in catalogue (8)
I believe the answer is:
lutenist
'early music performer's' is the definition.
'lutenist' can be an answer for 'performer's' (lutenist is a kind of performer). I am not certain of the 'early music' bit.
'initially unexpected decade in catalogue' is the wordplay.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
'decade' becomes 'ten' (synonyms).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'catalogue' becomes 'list' (a catalogue is a list of items).
The first letter of 'unexpected' is 'u'.
'u'+'ten'='uten'
'uten' placed within 'list' is 'LUTENIST'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lutenist that I've seen before include "Instrumentalist" , "Stringed instrument player" , "Stringed-instrument player" , "Plucky player" .)