Emily Ashton

Emily Ashton studied music at Clare College, Cambridge and subsequently baroque cello and viola da gamba with Jonathan Manson at the Royal Academy of Music.  Since then she has worked with most of the UK’s leading period instrument ensembles, including the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Dunedin Consort, Academy of Ancient Music, Classical Opera, Early Opera Company, Orchestra of the Sixteen and Gabrieli.  In 2015 she joined Fretwork, and has since performed with them all around the UK, and on tour in Spain, the US, Canada and Colombia. She was a member of the viol consort Chelys for several years, and recorded discs of Simpson and Dowland (with Emma Kirkby) with them, and has also performed and recorded with Phantasm.  Emily has given solo recitals at the Spitalfields Festival and Cotswolds Early Music Festival, and in various locations in the East of England.  She is also an examiner for ABRSM, coaches the University of Cambridge viol consort, and teaches piano, viol and cello.  Emily’s other passion is environmental activism, and she is a founder member of XR Baroque, a group of early music environmentalists.