Laurence Dreyfus

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Laurence Dreyfus is one of the world's leading performers and scholars of early music and also occupies a position as an international researcher and writer on performance practice through the ages. He is the Thurston Dart Professor of Performance Studies and Head of the Music Department at Kings College, London University. Laurence Dreyfus is the founder and director of the viol quartet Phantasm which has been acclaimed for its performances and recordings of music of the 16th and 17th Centuries, and especially works by Purcell and Byrd. Although deeply immersed in the historical background to these composers' lives and works, Laurence Dreyfus's and Phantasm's performances combine meticulous authenticity with fresh recreativity. Within the framework of the composers' scores, performing on valuable period instruments the artists yet allow themselves the kind of freedom and spontaneity that is essential to music making from any period, but which has often been lacking in the more 'academic' early music ensembles. Laurence Dreyfus's musical background is catholic and eclectic. He studied the cello with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School of Music, and with Philadelphia Orchestra cellists Marcel Farago and William Stokking (now the principal). He then studied the viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken at the Brussels Royal Conservatorium, where he was awarded the Diplome superieur. After obtaining his Doctorate in musicology at Columbia University, Laurence Dreyfus began an i

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