Launching Nico Muhly’s appointment as Kings Place Composer-in-Focus for 2027, this special concert reunites Muhly with friends and collaborators Fretwork and countertenor Iestyn Davies for a programme exploring the roots of his musical imagination.

Launching Nico Muhly’s appointment as Kings Place Composer-in-Focus for 2027, this special concert sees Muhly join acclaimed viol consort Fretwork and countertenor Iestyn Davies for a programme exploring the roots of his musical imagination.

Spanning five centuries, the programme places music by Byrd, Ferrabosco and Purcell alongside Muhly’s own compositions, drawing connections between Renaissance consort music, English song and contemporary composition. At its heart is the enduring In Nomine tradition, which inspired generations of composers and continues to resonate in Muhly’s work today.

Byrd’s moving Ye Sacred Muses, Purcell’s O Solitude and Fantasia Upon One Note sit alongside Muhly’s My Days, Slow (In Nomine in 5 parts), Four Traditional Songs and Old Bones, illuminating a continuing dialogue between past and present.

Performed by Fretwork and Iestyn Davies, with Muhly himself joining them, the concert opens his year as Composer-in-Focus by revealing some of the traditions, sounds and ideas that have shaped his music.

This event will last for approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes with an interval.

About Fretwork

In 2026, Fretwork celebrated its 40th anniversary with a performance at Wigmore Hall, with Sir George Benjamin, Ian Bostridge, Iestyn Davies and Susan Bickley. Over these decades, they have explored the core repertory of great English consort music from Taverner to Purcell, made classic recordings against which others are judged, and commissioned an entirely new repertory of music for viols.

The list of composers they have encouraged to create new works is like a roll call of the most prominent writers of our time: Sir George Benjamin, Michael Nyman, Sir John Tavener, Gavin Bryars, Elvis Costello, Alexander Goehr, John Woolrich, Orlando Gough, Sally Beamish, Tan Dun, Barry Guy, Thea Musgrave, John Paul Jones, Nico Muhly, Sir James MacMillan and many others.

They have expanded their repertory to include music spanning over 500 years, from the first printed consort music in Venice in 1501 to music written this year. And, in between, everything that can be played on a consort of viols: Byrd and Schubert, Purcell and Shostakovich, Gibbons and Britten, Dowland and Grieg. Recent albums have been devoted to the music of Arvo Pärt, Orlando Gibbons, Nico Muhly and John Jenkins. This year will see the release of discs devoted to French music, À la recherche du temps perdu, and the complete five-part consort music of John Jenkins.

The future holds many exciting projects based on the thrilling juxtaposition of old and new, making the experience of old music new and bringing the sensibilities of past ages to bear on contemporary music.

Fretwork Reviews

‘Fretwork, that Rolls-Royce among viol consorts.’ Janet Banks, The Strad

‘With beautiful blend, immaculate intonation and deft manoeuvring through closely woven lines, Fretwork found the light and shade in these pearl-like pieces.’ The Times

About Iestyn Davies

After reading Archaeology and Anthropology at St John’s College, Cambridge, Iestyn Davies studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

An esteemed Handelian, he has delighted audiences globally with his vocal agility and supreme musicianship in roles such as Bertarido, Orlando, Rinaldo, Ottone in Agrippina and David in Saul. Committed also to contemporary music, his intelligent and considered interpretations have led to fruitful collaborations with Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and Nico Muhly.

On the opera stage, he has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; English National Opera; Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Welsh National Opera; Teatro Real Madrid; Salzburg Festival; and in Munich, Vienna and Zurich. Recent appearances include Didymus in Theodora and Arsace in Partenope in Madrid, David in Saul at Glyndebourne, Ottone in Agrippina in Hamburg and Munich, Bertarido in Rodelinda for the Metropolitan Opera, and Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea in Versailles.

Concert engagements have included performances at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, with Dudamel; the Concertgebouw and Tonhalle with Koopman; and at the Barbican, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Lincoln Centre, Carnegie Hall and the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, with orchestras that include the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, English Concert, Britten Sinfonia, Concerto Köln, Concerto Copenhagen, Ensemble Matheus, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In recent seasons, he sang Handel arias on tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Robin Ticciati, sang Bertarido in Rodelinda on tour in the U.S.A. and Asia with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, made his role debut at the Paris Opera as Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare, sang Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Atlanta Opera and at Garsington Opera, and the Boy in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, he made his Australian debut singing J.S. Bach and Arvo Pärt in an extensive solo tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

An outstanding recitalist, he has performed in Vienna, Tokyo, Paris and New York in repertoire ranging from Dowland to Clapton. He is a regular favourite at London’s Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, where he has curated residencies.

His recital discs have won three Gramophone Awards, and he performed on the Grammy-winning recording of Thomas Adès’s The Tempest. He is the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award and was nominated for an Olivier Award for his singing role in Farinelli and the King opposite Mark Rylance, premiered at London’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse before transferring to the West End and Broadway. In 2017, he was awarded an MBE by the Queen for his services to music. He has been nominated for a TAPA (Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts) Award for Outstanding Performance by an Individual following his performances as Orfeo with the Canadian Opera Company.

About Nico Muhly

Nico Muhly (b. 1981) composes orchestral, chamber and sacred music, operas, scores for film, theatre and television, and site-specific collaborations. He has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera (Two Boys and Marnie), Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (including a concerto grosso), the Philharmonie de Paris (a concerto for two pianos for Katia and Marielle Labèque) and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he is composer-in-residence.

He has collaborated with choreographers Kyle Abraham, Benjamin Millepied and Justin Peck, and his vocal collaborators include Iestyn Davies, Renée Fleming and Nicholas Phan. Among his concerti are works for violin (Pekka Kuusisto and Renaud Capuçon), viola (Nadia Sirota), trumpet (Tine Thing Helseth), organ (James McVinnie) and piano (Alexandre Tharaud).

He has been composer-in-residence at Christ Church, Oxford, since 2026, and the same year saw single-composer releases from Magdalen College, Oxford, and The Tallis Scholars.