Midlands Fretted Orchestra was founded in 2001 by renowned Classical Banjoist Danielle Saxon Reeves, with the intention of giving players of fretted instruments the opportunity to play in an ensemble situation. The orchestra is based on the principles of the many fretted ensembles which were at the height of their popularity from the early Victorian period through to the 1950’s; with the intention of reintroducing audiences to the wide variety of repertoire and interesting instrumentation available to such an ensemble. Having begun with only three members in September 2001, the orchestra has grown into fully fledged group and in 2006 elected a committee who help to share the workload. Committee posts include Chair, Secretary, PR and Publicity, Membership, Librarian & Arranger.

MFO have played in venues across the Midlands and up and down the UK; some of their favourites have been Hall Green Stadium, The Waterhall Gallery, Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Brindley Place Bandstand. They have enjoyed performing at Hagley Music Festival and annually at Birmingham’s Artsfest .

 In 2006, MFO won a place on the ‘Adopt a Composer’ scheme organised through the PRS Foundation, SPNM and Making Music.  This acted as a catalyst for an entire concert of pieces written especially for the orchestra which were premiered to a sell-out audience in Autumn 2007.

Midlands fretted Orchestra triumphed at the British BMG Federation Rally 2008, held on 2nd March in Glasgow. They beat some five other orchestras to First Place and were awarded the coveted and highly prized Federation Cup for Musicianship. In addition, Andrew Taysum, Richard Shearing and Gethin Davies were awarded Trophies in Individual Contests.