Phantasm

Phantasm, an award-winning consort of viols, was founded in 1994 by Laurence Dreyfus. The ensemble catapulted into international prominence when its debut CD of works by Henry Purcell won a Gramophone Award for the Best Baroque Instrumental Recording of 1997. Specialising in music from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the quartet have been applauded across the globe for their moving performances, which embrace the eloquent fantasies of Byrd and Gibbons, the magical works of Lawes and Purcell, even arrangements of Bach and Mozart. Since 1997, they have released twelve further recordings which have won several awards, including a further Gramophone Award in 2004 for the music of Orlando Gibbons, and have become recognised as the most exciting viol consort active on the world scene today. Their second recording on the Linn label - named Gramophone's Label of the Year in 2010 - was devoted the consort works of the 17th-century composer John Ward and was Editor's Choice in BBC Music Magazine as well as a finalist for the 2010 Gramophone Early Music Award (Linn CKD 339).  2012 sees the release of 'Consorts to the Organ' exploring the topsy-turvy music of William Lawes.

The consort has performed in festivals and on concert series throughout the world, in cities such as Paris, Prague, Tokyo, and Washington DC. Recent engagements have included the Edinburgh Festival, the Barcelona Early Music Festival, the Bergen International Festival, the Lufthansa Early Music Festival in London, Mazovia Baroque in Warsaw, the Stockholm Early Music Festival, the Vantaa Festival, and concerts at the Brussels Palais des Beaux Arts and in Ghent's De Bijloke concert hall.

Phantasm's international membership (from Britain, Finland and the USA) has been based at the University of Oxford since 2005 when they were appointed Consort-in-Residence. In autumn 2010, they took up a new association as Consort-in-Residence at Magdalen College (Oxford), where they perform, develop viol consort playing among the students, and collaborate with Magdalen College Choir.

Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and director, was born in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). After cello studies with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School in New York, he turned to the viol, studying with Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatoire at Brussels, which awarded him its Diplome supérieur with highest distinction. As a bass viol player, he has recorded CDs of Bach's viola da gamba sonatas, Marais's Pièces de violes and Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concert (all on Simax), and collaborated with Sylvia McNair in a Grammy-winning album of Purcell songs (on Philips). As a musicologist, he has published Bach's Continuo Group and Bach and the Patterns of Invention (Harvard, 1987 and 1996); the latter won the Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society for the best book of the year. Dreyfus taught at Yale, the University of Chicago, Stanford and the Royal Academy of Music before becoming Thurston Dart Professor in 1995 at King's College London. In 2002 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 2005 took up a University Lectureship at the University of Oxford in conjunction with a Tutorial Fellowship in Magdalen College.  He received the title of Professor at Oxford in 2006. His latest book, Wagner and the Erotic Impulse, was published by Harvard University Press in October 2010.

Emilia Benjamin, tenor viol, studied viola da gamba with Sarah Cunningham and Baroque violin with Micaela Comberti at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She spent a year at the Brussels Conservatoire with Wieland Kuijken and is a core member of Sonnerie, playing viol, violin and viola. She is a member of the viol consort Concordia, with whom she has recorded extensively, and also plays with The Early Opera Company. 

Wendy Gillespie, treble and tenor viols, was born in New York and, after attending Wellesley College and the Amsterdam Conservatoire began her performing career with the New York Pro Musica Antiqua. Since then she has played all over the world with leading ensembles including Les Filles de Sainte-Colombe, the Ensemble for Early Music, Ensemble Sequentia, the Waverly Consort and the English Concert.  She has participated in over 80 recordings for Virgin Classics, Decca, Nonesuch, Harmonia Mundi, among others. Whilst her specialty lies in consort music, Gillespie has participated in many performances of both Medieval and contemporary music. Gillespie was a founding member of the viol consort Fretwork, and appeared with them worldwide, having won both a Grand Prix du Disque and a Gramophone Award.  President of the Viola da Gamba Society of America, she is also Professor at Indiana University, teaching in the Early Music Institute.

Jonathan Manson, tenor viol, was born in Edinburgh and received his formative training at the International Cello Centre in Scotland under the direction of Jane Cowan, later going on to study with Steven Doane at the Eastman School of Music in New York. While in America, he became involved with the performance of early music and from there went to The Hague to study viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken.  On both cello and viola da gamba, Jonathan regularly plays and records with many leading early music ensembles. Recent chamber music recordings include a disc of Rameau's Pièces de clavecin en concert with Rachel Podger and Trevor Pinnock and the Bach gamba sonatas, also with Pinnock.  From 1999 until 2009 he was principal cellist of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, with whom he recorded the complete cantatas of JS Bach. Jonathan makes his home near London, where in 2003 he was appointed a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.  His recordings of Bach and Rameau have been acclaimed widely, as has his Purcell recording for Linn Records with the group Retrospect Trio (Linn CKD 332). He has teamed up with the flautist Emmanuel Pahud to give Bach recitals throughout Europe, the USA and the Far East.

Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, bass viol, studied cello with Arto Noras at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, which awarded him its diploma in 1983. An interest in Baroque music led him to a summer course in Norway with Laurence Dreyfus and later to Holland where he studied with Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and received postgraduate diplomas in viola da gamba and Baroque cello. He is active as a chamber musician and has given many solo recitals throughout Scandinavia as well as in the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, Estonia, and Poland. His recording of Marais' Suite d'un goût d'Etranger on ALBA records won a national award for excellence in his native Finland, and other solo CDs have likewise garnered critical acclaim, including discs of virtuoso viol music by Forqueray, Couperin, Marais, and JS Bach's gamba sonatas, the latter two issued by BIS. His special interest is in contemporary music composed for the bass viol as well as in designing and commissioning modern reproductions of viols built to his specifications.

Mikko Perkola, tenor and bass viols, studied viola and viola da gamba at the Sibelius-Academy and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, working under such teachers as Arvo Haasma, Markku Luolajan-Mikkola and Wieland Kuijken. His main interest lies in early music and as a viol player he has toured throughout Europe with Retrover, Battalia and the Spirit of Gambo as well as with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra. Perkola is also active in the performance of contemporary music and has premiered several works involving the viola da gamba and viola. His recording of Bach's viola da gamba sonatas on Naxos was released in 2007.

Laurence Dreyfus
Postal address: Magdalen College, Oxford, OX1 4AU

Email: administrator @ phantasm . org . uk