We delight in playing Baroque music in period style on historically-accurate gut strings (hence our name), giving it the warm and intimate sound it deserves. It's perfectly suited for Groupmuse! We would love to bring to life in your living room the rich and dramatic works of really great composers that you may not have heard of yet, as well as old favorites.

Sylvia is a violinist, John is a cellist and viola da gambist. (What's a viola da gamba? Book us and find out!) Much of what we play are duos, and we also like to showcase John's solo playing. There is a rich and varied world of repertoire written for viola da gamba alone.

Some of our favorite composers:
Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
Alessandro Stradella
Heinrich Schmelzer
J.S. Bach
G. F. Handel
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber
Francois Couperin
Dario Castello
Antonio Bertali
Marin Marais
Antonio Vivaldi
Arcangelo Corelli
Georg Philipp Telemann

Two sample 45-minute programs (these can easily be mixed-and-matched, and we have new rep developing all the time—send us a message and we'll go from there):

Early Italian (with a dash of Renaissance and one Italian-influenced Austrian):
Agricola—Comme Femme III (beautiful Renaissance polyphony)
Pandolfi—violin sonata "La Stella" (great example of divisions—we'll tell you more about this)
Castello—sonata for treble instrument (dashing and flashy!)
Fontana—violin sonata (no. 3) (jolly but complex)
Schmelzer—violin sonata (no. 4) (sunny and virtuosic)
Bertali—Ciaccona (warm and dazzling)
Stradella—violin sonata (an exploratory evolution)

French Baroque:
Couperin—Concert Royal No. 1 (the masterpiece)
Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre—violin sonata in D minor (sexy and brooding)
Marin Marais—Sonate a la Maresienne (tongue-in-cheek character sketches)
De Machy—Suite No. 4 for Solo Viola da Gamba (explores the full range of the gamba)