PHANTASM, an award-winning consort of viols, was founded in 1994 by Laurence Dreyfus. The ensemble quickly set a new standard for consort playing internationally both in the depth of its interpretations and its commitment to flawless string technique.
The winner of three Gramophone Awards among other prominent citations, the consort has travelled the world over, performing on concert series and in festivals throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. Phantasm’s performances and over 20 recordings have garnered steady praise with critics singling out their ‘intensity and homogeneity of tone and their acuity to the music’s ever-active emotional flux’. Their most recent honours are the 2017 Gramophone Award for Early Music and the 2017 Diapason d’or de l’année bestowed for their recording of Dowland’s Lachrimae.
The members of Phantasm (from the UK, Finland and Germany) were Consort-in-Residence at the University of Oxford and Magdalen College from 2005 to 2015. In 2015, the group’s art activity shifted to Berlin.
In March 2025, Phantasm is launching its own concert series POLYPHONIC ENCOUNTERS at St Elisabeth Church in Berlin. Under the title The Well-Tempered Consort, the opening concert on 14 March 2025 will be dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach. With works by the English composers Orlando Gibbons, John Jenkins and Henry Purcell, the concerts of the 2025/26 season offer an opportunity to discover new musical territory.
VIDEO
PRESS
„Phantasm’s playing brims with imaginative fantasy and dance-like momentum“
Gramophone
„Rigorous intellect with sensitive musicianship.“
BBC Music Magazine
SELECTION OF PROJECTS 2026/27
August – 7 September 2026 and upon request
SECRET BYRD – AN IMMERSIVE PERFORMANCE BY CANDLELIGHT
Secret Byrd was jointly commissioned by St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Washington National Cathedral to mark the 400th anniversary of William Byrd’s death in 2023. Byrd was a defiant Catholic whose five-part Mass was written for fellow believers who worshipped in secret, risking torture or death. In Secret Byrd, one of his clandestine Masses is brought to life – performed by two of the most renowned specialist ensembles in this repertoire: Phantasm Viol Consort and The Gesualdo Six.
Bill Barclay, künstlerischer Leiter / Phantasm Viol Consort / The Gesualdo Six
Works by W. Byrd
16 – 22 September 2026 and upon request
SONGS AND FANTASIES – The 400th Anniversary of John Dowland’s Death
This programme honours the legacy of the incomparable composer John Dowland in his anniversary year, celebrating the union of words and music in England and Italy through contrasting vocal and instrumental polyphony from the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In the unmatched songs of John Dowland and William Byrd, alongside the proto-baroque madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries, the expressive power of the texts is brought vividly to life through the collaboration between the distinctive tenor Ian Bostridge and the elegant phrasing of the Phantasm viol consort. Instrumental fantasias and dances by Byrd, John Ward, and Tarquinia Merula complement the vocal works, weaving a rich tapestry of poetic expression..
Ian Bostridge, tenor
Works by J. Dowland, W. Byrd, C. Monteverdi, J. Ward und T. Merula
Ian Bostridge © Kalpesh-Lathigra
Availability upon request
The Art of Being Human
with Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and musical direction / Alexander Polzin, visual concept / Sommer Ulrickson, choreography / Dance: Saeed Hani Moeller, Sami Similae, Yamila Khodr, Camille Jackson, Rodolfo Piazza
The Art of Being Human is an exploration of how it feels to be alive and to exist among others, in relationships that are perfectly expressed through the polyphony of Early Music – its dissonances and harmonies – and reflected in the movement of dancers’ bodies, in a performance that offers profound insights into the very meaning of life. The Art of Being Human was commissioned by Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin, where it was premieredn successfully in March 2023.
With works by William Byrd, John Dowland, William Lawes, Henry Purcell and others
“Dreyfus therefore calls the evening ‘challenging’, but the ensemble succeeds in this challenge brilliantly.”
rbbkultur, 24 March 2023
