Polyphonic Encounters

Polyphonische Begegnungen – Polyphonic Encounters

The Phantasm Viol Consort invites you to polyphonic encounters in Berlin’s St Elisabeth Church: four composer portraits under the sign of polyphony.

From mid-March 2025, the Ensemble Phantasm, a viol consort, will be hosting its own concert series at St Elisabeth’s Church in Berlin-Mitte. The concerts are dedicated entirely to polyphony and will each focus on a composer who is particularly prominent in this compositional technique.

Under the title The Well-Tempered Consort, the opening concert on 14 March 2025 is dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach. Transcribed for three to five viols in various sizes, Bach’s works will plunge listeners into unimagined depths both intellectually and emotionally – even if they are already familiar with the repertoire. The concert also presents the ensemble’s latest recording, The Art of Fugue, which will be released on the same day by Linn Records/Outhere Music.

After the approximately one-hour concert, the ensemble is happy to meet the concert audience at the bar and invites every visitor for a drink.


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.

Advance ticket sales have started: 4 tickets for the price of 3 are available at Eventim.

POLYPHONISCHE BEGEGNUNGEN – POLYPHONIC ENCOUNTERS
The Well-Tempered Consort: Music by Johann Sebastian Bach

Friday, 14 March 2025, 6.00 p.m. – Tickets
Invalidenstraße 4a, 10115 Berlin
Works by Johann Sebastian Bach, transcribed for viol consort
Phantasm Viol Consort: Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol, conception and artistic direction / Emilia Benjamin, treble viol / Jonathan Manson, alto viol / Heidi Gröger, bass viol and violone / Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, bass viol

Save the date – Concerts season 2025/26
Sunday, 12 October 2025, 05.00 p.m, St. Elisabeth – Tickets
Sunday, 11 January 2026, 05.00 p.m, St. Elisabeth – Tickets
Sunday, 8 March 2026, 05.00 p.m, St. Elisabeth – Tickets

The concerts take place in the church St Elisabeth, Invalidenstraße 4a, 10115 Berlin.

If you would like to get to know this wonderful ensemble better: In December 2024, WDR3 published the wonderful programme Klangreden der Besonnnenheit – Laurence Dreyfus und sein Gambenensemble, which you can listen to in the media library.

Media partner:

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

Dear colleagues and concert friends,
Before we say goodbye for the Christmas holidays, we would like to wish you a happy and relaxing festive season and a happy new year!
It was an eventful year for us with many special concert experiences: With the young pianists selected for Sir András Schiff’s Building Bridges programme, we performed at venues including the Ehrbar Saal in Vienna, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, deSingel in Antwerp and Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt. Sarah Willis and Sarahbanda have travelled across Europe, to Taiwan and South America. Both projects will of course continue in 2025, the next dates can be found here.

We are particularly looking forward to a new concert series that we are launching in March 2025 together with the wonderful Phantasm Viol Consort in Berlin! You can find out more here.

Mozart y Mambo

CELEBRATING WITH THE SARAHBANDA

Sarah Willis and her Sarahbanda guarantee a party atmosphere at its best, as we have experienced several times ourselves – most recently at our company anniversary party last September. On Boxing Day, the ensemble will be performing at the Berlin Philharmonie – there will definitely be dancing under the Christmas tree! The dancing will continue in January at the 82nd Vienna Philharmonic Ball, both in triple and quadruple time.

Together with conductor José Méndez and pianist Jorge Aragón, Sarah Willis has been invited to present the Mozart y Mambo repertoire with the Las Palmas Symphony Orchestra at the Canary Islands International Music Festival at the beginning of the year. Musical island hopping!

Dates & venues
26 December 2024, Philharmonie Berlin / 23 January 2025, Musikverein Wien / 26 January 2025, Kreuznach Klassik
FIESTA CUBANA
Sarah Willis, horn / Sarahbanda
Works by W. A. Mozart, J. Davis a.o. Arrangements: J. Aragon a.o.

15 – 18 January 2025, Festival International de Música de Canarias
MOZART Y MAMBO
Sarah Willis, horn / Jorge Aragón, piano & arrangements / Sinfónica de Las Palmas G.C. / José Méndez, conductor
Works by R. Egües, W.A. Mozart, J. Davis, J. Peña, I. Carrillo, M. Simons

Building Bridges 2024/25

Season 2024/25
Tähe-Lee Liiv, Jérémie Moreau, Chloe Jiyeong Mun
Building Bridges – András Schiff presents young pianists

Even after graduating from a prestigious conservatory, it is not easy for young musicians to position themselves successfully in the international music market – because regardless of talent and technical excellence, they often lack performance practice and access to important networks. This is where Sir András Schiff’s programme Building Bridges comes in, with which he has been providing targeted and sustainable support for young pianists since 2014.

Each season, András Schiff, who himself built his international acclaimed career without the springboard of a major competition win, selects three gifted pianists with unique musical personalities and, in cooperation with conc.arts berlin, arranges recitals for them at concert venues and festivals throughout Europe. As honorary artistic director, András Schiff selects the participants and develops the repertoire together with them. Implementation and organisation are carried out by conc.arts berlin gUG.

With Building Bridges, Sir András Schiff has established a unique model for the sustainable promotion of young musicians, enabling young pianists to build their own bridges to the professional music world.

With the kind support of the Melinda Esterházy de Galantha Foundation, C.Bechstein and the Ernst-Herbert und Christiane Pfleiderer Stiftung.

Find more information about the pianists of the current and following seasons, the concert dates and the idea at Building-Bridges-website.