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 2025/26
Availability upon request
AN ENGLISH CHEST OF SIX – Orlando Gibbons anniversary 2025
2025 marks the 400th anniversary of the death of Orlando Gibbons, one of the most important composers of the Elizabethan era. For Laurence Dreyfus, this is a welcome occasion to approach this much too rarely performed work with his viol ensemble Phantasm in the usual intellectually precise and artistically outstanding quality.
Works by O. Gibbons, J. Ward, T. Tomkins, W. Lawes
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
