Biography
Phantasm was founded in 1994 by Laurence Dreyfus, who dreamed of forming a viol consort embodying the highest artistic standards.
Inspired by the great twentieth-century string quartets, Phantasm have championed a bold and passionate style of consort playing which does full justice to its magnificent repertoire.
In 2005 Phantasm were named Consort in Residence at the University of Oxford where they teach, perform, and collaborate with student viol players and organists.
The international members of the quartet (from Britain, Finland and the US) all trained on modern instruments, but were drawn to the viol consort because of the dazzling sonority of the ensemble and the independence of lines cultivated by the complex polyphony.
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 new arrangements of Bach and Mozart.
Phantasm's recordings are renowned worldwide.
Laurence Dreyfus
Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and director, was born in Boston, Mass.
After learning the cello with Leonard Rose at Juilliard, he studied the viol with Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatoire at Brussels, which awarded him its Diplome supérieur.
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, Laurence has published Bach's Continuo Group and Bach and the Patterns of Invention (Harvard, 1987 and 1996); the latter of which 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, where he taught music history and performance.
In 2002 he took British citizenship and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2005 he moved to Oxford University where he is Professor of Music and a Fellow of Magdalen College.
Wendy Gillespie
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, 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 speciality lies in consort music, Wendy has participated in many performances of both medieval and contemporary music.
Wendy is a founding member of the viol consort Fretwork, who appear worldwide and have won a Grand Prix du Disque.
Wendy makes her home in Bloomington, where she is Professor at Indiana University and Chair of Early Music.
Jonathan Manson
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 plays and records regularly with many leading early music ensembles. 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 with Pinnock.
In 1999, he became principal cellist of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, which in addition to a busy touring schedule, has recorded the complete cantatas of JS Bach.
Jonathan makes his home near London, where he has been appointed a professor at the Royal Academy of Music.
Markku Luolajan-Mikkola
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.
Markku teaches at the Sibelius Academy, 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 François Couperin's viol works (AVIE) and discs of virtuoso viol music by Forqueray, Marais, Couperin and J.S. Bach's gamba sonatas, the latter three issued by BIS.
A special interest of Luolajan-Mikkola's is contemporary music commissioned for the bass viol and the design and production of high quality viols built in Beijing, which he sells under the name Lumi Strings. He is also a member of Bergen Barokk.
