Continuo Connect — Flutes & Frets Duo

The Flutes & Frets Duo are a unique ensemble passionate about showing the versatility of the flute and plucked instruments combination. Fundamentally, their aim is to play all types of music on the instruments they were in use at the time of composition. They achieve this by exploring a wide scope of repertoire ranging from medieval all the way through to contemporary.

Enthusiastic about developing in knowledge, they are devoted to keeping primary sources at the core of their historically-informed approach to performance practice. They enjoy exploring a huge spectrum of repertoire including much underrepresented music and also arrangements of more well-known works. Another central part to their objective is expanding the repertoire for flutes and plucked instruments by arranging music that hasn’t yet been published for this combination and by commissioning new works.

The Flutes & Frets Duo have had the pleasure of performing all over England and Europe. Notable concerts in England include the London International Early Music Festival, the Lichfield Festival, Great Exhibition Road Festival and performing at the National Gallery. They were chosen as an “IYAP Selected Promising Ensemble 2022” for the International Young Artist Presentation, enabling them to perform in the Early Music Festival, “Laus Polyphoniae” at AMUZ, Antwerp, Belgium. This led to being selected for an award from the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA) arranged by the European Festivals Association in collaboration with the Flanders Festival Antwerp in order to receive coaching from Peter Van Heyghen and perform in festival concerts in Antwerp, Krakow and York which will take place in the autumn of 2023. They have recently been awarded a place in the ECOS Labs 2023, organised in collaboration with REMA (the European Network of Early Music). This enables them to spend a week in Murcia, Spain, performing, recording and discussing sustainability and diversity in early music.

They have been awarded numerous prizes in international competitions including the first prize for the 2021 La Follia Nuova International Chamber Music Competition; the first prize of the 2022 “22nd LAMS Matera Award” chamber music category scoring 98/100; and the 1er Prix à l'unanimité for the International Music Competition (IMC) of Association Les Musicales Du Centre. In 2022, they were also finalists in the Royal Overseas League Competition Mixed Ensembles Category and in 2023, will enjoy a trip to Serbia as a result of winning the second prize of the Vršac International Chamber Music Festival “Music in the Vineyards”. They are currently a Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) Live! ensemble for the 2022/23 scheme, and are both members of the new BREMF Medieval Ensemble. They are DEBUT Horizon artists and frequently perform at events, working with Hitched and the Alive Network agency.

One of the main aims of the duo is to bring awareness to diverse audiences of the wide possibilities that this combination of instruments provides and also the variety of sounds that composers of every era would have intended their audiences to hear. Through this, they produce a special sound palette by exploring historically-informed practice and modern conventional performance.