In addition to his double bass career as soloist, orchestral performer and chamber musician, Phillip W. Serna has emerged among the nation's leading advocates of the viola da gamba. Co-founding the Chicago-area historical-performance ensembles Black Tulip, New Comma Baroque, the Spirit of Gambo and ViolMedium, he’s appeared across the United States with groups ranging from Burning River Baroque, Les Touches, the Newberry Consort, and others. Holding Masters and Doctoral degrees from Northwestern University, Phillip teaches at Valparaiso University, North Central College, the Music Institute of Chicago, the J.S. Bach Academy of Music and is assistant director of Illinois' first public-school period-instrument program at Adlai E. Stevenson High School. Phillip directs Viols in Our Schools earning him Early Music America's 2010 Laurette Goldberg Award for lifetime achievement in Early Music outreach.

Lots of music for solo viol! Renaissance/ Baroque/ Classical: Captaine Tobias Hume (1569-1645), Christopher Simpson (1602/1606–1669), John Playford (1623-1686), Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707), Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (fl.1640-1690), Carolus Hacquart (ca.1640-ca.1701) Philip Hacquart (1645-1691), Le Sieur Dubuisson (died 1681), Marin Marais (1656-1728), Johannes Schenck (1660-1712), J.S. Bach (1685-1750), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788), Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759), Christian Podbielski (1683-1753), Johann Pfeiffer (1697-1761), Johann Gottfried Mente (1698-1760), Johann Christian Hertel (1699-1754), Johann Gottlieb Graun (1702-1771), Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788), Carl Friedrich Abel (17231\-1787), Christian Wilhelm Podbielski (1741-1792) 20th Century/ Contemporary: Rudolph Dolmetsch (1906 - 1942), Martha Bishop (b.1937), David Loeb (b.1939), Lynn Gumert (b.1961), Eliza Brown (b.1985), Carlo Diaz