The Taylor Concert Series at Kenyon College presents Fretwork Ensemble with soprano Emma Kirkby

GAMBIER, Ohio (September 23, 2004) England's renowned viol consort, Fretwork, with special guest soprano Emma Kirkby, will appear at Kenyon College at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 12, in the College's Rosse Hall Auditorium. The program, titled "All the Colours in the Air," features the English consort song literature of William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell, and other Elizabethan composers. Sponsored by the Taylor Concert Series, the performance is free and is open to the public. For additional information or directions, please call Kenyon's Office of Public Affairs at 740-427-5158.

Since its London debut in 1986, Fretwork has established itself as a major force in early music. Its repertoire spans the entire English consort tradition and the music of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, along with new works commissioned for the ensemble.

Emma Kirkby studied classics at Oxford University and then worked as a teacher. Although she studied voice, she had no expectations of becoming a professional singer. Moving from choirs and small groups to performances with the Consort of Musicke and the Academy of Ancient Music, Kirkby found her niche in a sound that beautifully complemented the instrumentation of early music. In addition to her many live performances, she has made well over a hundred recordings, among them sequences of Hildegarde of Bingen, madrigals of the Italian and English Renaissance, cantatas and oratorios of the Baroque, and works by Mozart and Haydn.