Biography
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Years Active
2002 – present (22 years)
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Founded In
Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
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Members
- Paulina van Laarhoven
Formed in 2002, Pantagruel have been delighting audiences across Europe with their semi-staged performances of renaissance music. Hannah Morrison's pure and sweet voyce combined with citterns, gitterns, lutes and flutes played by Dominik Schneider & Mark Wheeler bring to life the passionate music of a distant age.
Pantagruel, the hero of Francois Rabelais’s 1532 Novel, with his motto „do what thou wilt“ is the fitting name for an ensemble that is not afraid to explore innovative ideas of performance and presentation. Combining painstaking musicological research with their experience in classical music, rock music, jazz, theatre and dance, their performances expand classical concert conventions by using renaissance practices of medley, improvisation and gesture.
2003 saw the debut of "Eliza is the fairest queen" a program of Elizabethan ballads, Ayres and Dances, to great critical acclaim, which has since seen over fifty performances in Germany, Holland, Belgium and England. In May 2005 they were invited to perform a lecture recital with the renowned harpist Andrew Lawrence-King (Harp Consort, Hespèrion XX, etc) at Kloster Michaelstein, Germany.
In September 2005 they embarked on an extensive tour which included performances at the Münster Baroque Festival, Utrecht Early Music Fringe Festival and a series of concerts in England including Exeter Cathedral and the English Lute society where they had also performed the year before to great critical acclaim.
Their long awaited debut CD "Elizium" was released in September 2006 to rave reviews in both the early music press and beyond. Recent live performance have included concerts at the National Portrait Gallery in London, Aachen Bach Festival, amd the Belgium Lute Festival.
Pantagruel are at present working on a new CD with the working title "Ladie Louthians Lilt" set to be released in 2008.
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