Fantazy: Consortium of Viols

Ensemble Members
Laura Moore, viol
Reidun Turner, viol
Laura Vaughan, viol
Victoria Watts, viol
Ruth Wilkinson, viol

Consortium unites a band of Australia’s finest viol players to explore the rich repertoire for viol consort. Drawing upon a wealth of professional experience in its players and a deep-shared love of the consort experience, Consortium enables Australian audiences to experience the beauty and crystalline purity of the traditional repertoire for viol consort alongside exciting avant-garde new music being written for this unique medium.

A tapestry of interwoven lines that produce a harmonious whole, the sound of a consort of viols is both captivating and intriguing, inspiring not only musicians from the viol’s heyday centuries ago, but contemporary composers too.

An enigmatic romantic genius of the 17th century, William Lawes’ inventive and profound Consort Setts are eccentric masterworks of the viol consort repertory, as moving and startling today as they were centuries ago. The Fantazias by Henry Purcell are no less brilliant. These remarkably intricate pieces astonish listener and player alike with unexpected harmonic shifts, pleading dissonances and masterful counterpoint. Juxtaposed against these works we hear the voices of contemporary Australian composers through the venerable medium of the viol consort  in compositions by Peter Scuthorpe, Elena Kat-Chernin and Brooke Green.

consortiumviols.com