Phantasm Viol Consort: Portrait William Lawes, Exceptional Eccentric

Since mid-March 2025, the Ensemble Phantasm, a viol consort, has been hosting its own concert series at St. Elisabeth Church in Berlin-Mitte. The concerts are devoted entirely to polyphony and each focuses on a composer who is particularly renowned for this compositional technique. The concerts of the 2025/26 season offer Berlin audiences the opportunity to explore new compositional territory—the English composers Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell, and William Lawes are well known in their home country, but little or nothing is known about them on the European mainland.

The Polyphonic Encounters aim to introduce Berlin audiences to part of this beguilingly beautiful repertoire. With their gut strings, light construction, unobtrusive bowing, and sparing use of vibrato, viols played together may be the ideal combination for perceiving the various polyphonic strands, while at the same time exploiting all the expressive possibilities of instruments of the violin family.

The multi-award-winning Phantasm Viol Consort was founded in 1994 by Laurence Dreyfus and soon established itself as one of the best viola da gamba ensembles in the world. It has made a name for itself not only through its excellent playing technique, which draws on the great traditions of chamber music, but also through its dramaturgically sophisticated and musically sensual programs. Phantasm recently attracted considerable attention in Berlin with "The Art of Being Human," a project in which music, dance, and visual arts entered into a fascinating symbiosis, which premiered at the Pierre Boulez Saal in March 2023.

With its own concert series, Phantasm aims not only to promote the English polyphonic repertoire, which is rarely performed in Berlin, but also to engage directly with its audience. After the concerts, the ensemble cordially invites the audience to informal discussions at the bar – where you can ask anything you've always wanted to know about viols, consorts, etc.

Performers:
Phantasm Viol Consort
Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and conductor / Emilia Benjamin, treble viol / Jonathan Manson, alto viol / Heidi Gröger, bass viol and violone / Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, bass viol
Concept and artistic direction: Laurence Dreyfus

Tickets: €25, reduced €15 plus fees.
Online via eventim or at the box office. Free choice of seating.
(Tickets available at all eventim network advance sales outlets / order hotline: + 49 (0) 1806-570070 (€0.20/call incl. VAT from landlines, max. €0.60/call incl. VAT from mobile networks) available Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

Further information on ticket prices can be found here: Service/Tickets

Further information: www.phantasm-consort.com

Organizer: conc.arts berlin gUG in cooperation with Kultur Büro Elisabeth 

Photo (©) Marco Borggreve