Danish Fiddle Quartet: Four strings, two traditions: a new voice in Nordic chamber-folk

By Signe Hansen | Videos: Danish Fiddle Quartet

Still a young ensemble on the Nordic music scene, the Danish Fiddle Quartet has already earned enthusiastic reviews and a nomination for Årets Nye Rootsnavn at the Danish Music Awards Roots. Formed by two experienced folk musicians and two elite classical players, the quartet brings together the rhythmic grounding of traditional fiddle music and the tone, balance and precision of chamber performance – a contemporary form of new Nordic chamber-folk with a bow in both worlds.

The group consists of violinists Jørgen Dickmeiss and Ditte Fromseier Hockings, both widely recognised on the Danish and international folk scene, together with violist Bruno Sanches and cellist Mathilde Helding from the younger Danish classical elite. Since releasing their debut album at Tønder Festival in 2023, the quartet has performed at Windros Festival in Germany, Davinde Festival and, most recently, SPOT Festival in Aarhus, as well as a number of churches, small halls and local classical music societies.

“It is pure folk music,” says Dickmeiss, who composed and arranged the music. “But in some pieces, I have tried to move a little away from the usual way of thinking and arranging it. It is still folk at its core, and it still has to swing like fiddle music, but it is performed in a more classical tradition.”

That same curiosity led him from Irish folk music into the Danish tradition, where he completed his studies in 2002. Since then, he has lived entirely from music, performing widely across Denmark and abroad, often in duo with his wife.

From COVID to concerts

Though highly successful in his genre, the wish to build a string-based folk quartet had played on Dickmeiss’ mind for years. “It is an old dream,” he explains. “I have made a living from folk music for many years, but I had long dreamt of playing with a string group because it is a fantastic format. It rings in a different way, and you can really dig into detail together.”

The first sketches for the project appeared just before the pandemic, and when live performance paused, Dickmeiss, in his own words, got through COVID by composing and arranging music.
The next step was to find the right people. Dickmeiss wanted musicians who were not merely genre-curious but deeply grounded in their respective traditions. Fromseier brought the shared rhythmic instinct and vocabulary of folk playing; Helding, already known to Dickmeiss through earlier collaborations, had the sensitivity and flexibility needed to integrate that feel; and Sanches, originally from Brazil but based on Funen, completed the balance of timbre the music required. With touring on hold, rehearsals became long-form workshops – not rushed preparation but a gradual building of ensemble identity. The debut album followed soon after.

Danish Fiddle Quartet: Four strings, two traditions: a new voice in Nordic chamber-folk

“It is a superb ensemble, matched by an album of the same calibre. Blending chamber music with contemporary folk, it moves so fluidly between the two that the boundaries all but dissolve,” wrote one international reviewer of the quartet’s debut album, Nattens Favn. Photo: Ard Jongsma

Between classic and folk

The real transition lay not in repertoire but in feel. “That was something we had to play our way into,” he says. “Bruno and Mathilde are classically trained, but they have played a lot of rhythmic music, so it was easy to work together – but we still had to find out exactly where the emphasis lies in the bowing to get the right swing and the right colour.”
In folk playing, notation is typically an optional reference rather than a command. In this quartet, however, everything is written down – though not fixed in spirit. “In all the years I have played folk music, it has never been about notation,” Dickmeiss explains. “Here everything is written down, but there is still the same kind of freedom you have when you play by ear. I often carry the melody, and I take small liberties – not to change the piece, but to respond to how the music wants to breathe in the moment.”

At times, however, the framework of the string quartet opens up entirely, when the two violinists switch to mandolin, guitar or vocal lines, woven seamlessly into the texture of the music.

Up close with the audience

That open approach also defines other aspects of performances. The quartet aims to keep the communication of folk music intact, even when the format resembles chamber repertoire. “It is very different from the classical world,” Dickmeiss says. “In folk music, we are used to being at eye level with the audience – not separated by the stage. You feel where people are, and that closeness is part of the music. We bring that into the church or the concert hall as well.”

Recently, this approach has also been tested in more classical chamber music settings and with great success. “They were extremely happy with us,” Dickmeiss recalls of a recent performance in a local chamber music society. “It was a good feeling to see that it also works in practice – playing for a classical audience, in a room almost made for string quartet sound.”

Looking ahead, Dickmeiss concludes; “the long-term hope is to cross into the classical world, and at the same time open the door for the audience standing on the other side of it.”