About

Jens Franke, guitarist and theorbo player, was born into a German family of distinguished  musical heritage.

Admired for his pioneering research as a period guitar performer, his international concert appearances, recordings and broadcasts are characterised by a refined, lyrical and aristocratic sound. He records principally for Naxos.

As a continuo-player, he has appeared with groups such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Maxim Emelyanychev, English Touring Opera, Instruments of Time & Truth, La Nuova Musica, La Serenissima, Oslo 415, Ensemble Hesperi and the choirs of Christ Church Cathedral and Magdalen College, Oxford.

Jens's CD releases, available on the major digital platforms, include a Schubert song album with Anna Huntley featuring period guitar accompaniments recorded at the Wigmore Hall (Quartz). A solo album of late Viennese Biedermeier pieces by Johann Kaspar Mertz (Stone Records). And, together with his Norwegian guitar duo partner Jørgen Skogmo, Antoine de Lhoyer’s integral chamber music for guitar trio and quartet, the complete guitar duets of José Ferrer, and a collection of guitar duos by Filippo Gragnani (Naxos).

A passionate and intuitive song and recitative accompanist, Jens works regularly with the British soprano Isabelle Peters. Exploring French and Portugese involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade, their 2026 project, Sarambeque!, in collaboration with the American soprano Francesca Chiejina, has been awarded a residency by the  Association des Centres culturels de rencontre (ACCR), supported by the French Ministry of Culture and hosted by the Abbaye aux Dames, Nouvelle Aquitaine.

While specialising in Baroque, Classical and early Romantic repertory, Jens is an artist of eclectic taste, equally at home in the concert room, theatre or pit. He has toured as an orchestral guitarist for English National Ballet and, in student days, with the European Union Youth Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, playing venues such as the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Konzerthaus, Berlin, and the Casa de Música, Porto. Chief among contemporary works he has commissioned is a theatre cycle by Óscar Colomina i Bosch, Dean of the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, setting Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, an 18th century guide to London prostitutes, staged at the Barbican Centre, London.

Jens’s critical editions are published by Schott, London. These include first editions of works by Ferrer, chamber music by de Lhoyer, and two series of Baroque and Romantic anthologies including eight supporting CDs recorded at Champs Hill, Sussex.

Jens studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and King’s College, London.