Founded in 1985 in London, few ensembles can match the range of Fretwork’s repertory.

In these last three decades, the ensemble has explored the core repertoire of great English consort music, from Taverner to Purcell, and have made classic recordings of this music. In addition to their performance of early music, Fretwork have become known as pioneers of contemporary music for viols, having commissioned more than 40 new works.

Fretwork has performed in all London’s major chamber halls, including King’s Place, Cadogan Hall, and the Wigmore Hall. The group debuted at Carnegie Hall, New York in February 2010, and returned in 2019 on their tour with countertenor Iestyn Davies. 

2022 will be the 400th anniversary of Matthew Locke, one of the great English composers before he ceded the title to his pupil, Henry Purcell. Locke wrote some of the most distinguished and intensely idiosyncratic music in an age of eccentric individualism. He wrote a large body of music for viols, and Fretwork will be celebrating and championing Locke with a series of recordings and concerts. The ensemble will pair this music with the precocious Purcell’s viol consorts, written in the glorious summer of 1680, when Purcell was not yet 21. Definitively the last consort music of the ancient era.