Fretwork

When George Benjamin contacted me in 1989, asking me come and demonstrate the viol and its techniques, performing contemporary music was not something that anyone of the group had ever imagined as something we would, or even should play. But the experience of working with George over the next few years was truly inspirational, and he was able to show us how the viol was to almost all composers a new family of string instruments, with new sounds and new techniques just waiting to be used. Since then, contemporary music has become of equal importance to our traditional repertory, and it is now rare when a programme doesn't include a work composed for us.