“The Fretless” Fiddle Foursome this Thursday Night!

Thursday May 10 at 7:30 pm at Orcas Center

Want to hear top-of-their-form, young, traditional yet energetic fiddlers? Then come to Orcas Center this Thursday night to hear “The Fretless” — four guys who in the last five years have made five award-winning albums, including Canada’s folk music, instrumental and  Juno™ awards.

The Fretless is based in Toronto and comes to Orcas Island at the start of its west-coast tour to cities including Seattle, Tualatin (Ore.), Salem, Helena, and Calgary and Edmonton. Internationally, they have performed at:

• Cologne Philharmonic
• The National Arts Centre
• Winnipeg Folk Festival
• Mariposa Folk Festival
• Vancouver Island Music Fest
• Luxembourg Philharmonie
• Celtic Colours
• The Rogue Folk Club
• Calgary Folk Club
• Irish Folk Festival Tour – Germany
• Regina Folk Festival
• West End Cultural Center (Vancouver)

The Canadian fiddle foursome’s 2014 tune “Waving To Ryan” has topped a million Spotify plays, and in 2016, The Fretless took home a Juno™ award for Instrumental Album of The Year for its 2017 full-length release “Bird’s Nest”.

Bob Williams, Kansas Public Radio wrote, “And it was that band, The Fretless, that was the final stop, after 3 a.m, on my musical tour of showcase rooms at Folk Alliance for the night. And what a nightcap they were—the instrumentation of a classical string quartet—two violins, viola and cello, but deeply versed in folk music. An amazing band, and I am looking forward to sharing music from their debut album.”

“There are countless fiddle styles across Canada and around the globe that have been stagnating over time, and The Fretless is working to incorporate a new approach and a new audience with these styles.

“As a band, all four members  – Karrnnel Sawitsky, Trent Freeman, Eric Wright and Ben Plotnick -have come from very different traditional and contemporary backgrounds, and are influenced by a vast array of art.  They harbor all the energy of fiddle tunes, while shattering all expectations in writing, creativity and performance.”

Tickets: $25, $17 students
$3 off for Orcas Center members
$5 Subsidized Tickets available at the Box Office or at https://orcascenter.org/events/the-fretless/ (Turn the sound up)