Fred is a member of a number of Pacific Northwest Contra and English Country dance bands, including Full Circle (with George Penk and Heather Pinney) and Calico. He often collaborates with pianist Sue Songer (of Portland Collection fame) to provide backup, under the name of Bottom Line, to a variety of lead players.

He is a sought-after dance musician on both West and East coasts and has been repeatedly invited to share the stage with such notable groups and artists as Larry Unger, KGB, Bare Necessities, David Kaynor, Andrea Hoag, Mary Lea, Daron Douglas and BLT for both English and Contra. Fred has been on staff at Pinewoods, Mendocino English Week, Ashokan Northern Week, Seattle’s Cascadia English weekend, Monte Toyon, Cascade Contras and PCDC’s Northwest Passage (formerly Suttle Lake) weekend camps. He is one of the regular musicians for the annual Portland English Ball (which is put on every November since 1993). He appeared with Jacqueline Schwab, Earl Gaddis and Peter Barnes at the 2000 Brattleboro Dawn Dance weekend. He also spent two and a half years touring with the Lauren Pelon Musique Company, bringing a fusion of renaissance and jazz music to venues all over the United States, especially small rural communities.

With a strong classical background, Fred plays a variety of musical styles that go beyond the traditional contra and English Country repertoire, including swing, world music, Scottish, old timey music, baroque period performance and jazz. He has been known to sing in public and has been adding various kinds of percussion to his performances. He is not averse, on occasion, to tastefully mix the various influences to spice things up.

Fred brings to whatever group he's playing with, a mixture of rich harmonies, punctuating bass lines and rhythms and juicy counter-melodies, exploiting the full range of his instrument. All of this is done with a deep respect for the music and tradition, but with just the right touch of irreverence to make it exciting. For contra music, Fred often pulls out his custom-made, five-string ‘Oregon’ cello/bass, with which he can do all his cello antics, as well as thump out a big bass sound.

Fred often collaborates with his wife, Nan Evans, who is an English Country Dance and Contra Dance caller, much loved in the Pacific Northwest.

Fred was a founding member of the Portland Baroque Orchestra and regularly plays chamber music, mostly for fun.