PANTAGRUEL

Since their formation in 2002, Pantagruel have been delighting audiences across Europe with their semi-staged performances of renaissance music. Anna Maria Wierød’s pure and expressive voice combined with citterns, gitterns, lutes and flutes played by Mark Wheeler and Dominik Schneider bring to life the passionate music of a distant age.

 “Pantagruel are astonishing! From the first sounds they encourage you to enter a new sound-scape that is both pleasing and abrasive at the same time – you know instantly you are in for something special and different. Immediately they establish their credentials - musicians of impeccable skill and facility, intelligence and wit. They exhibit real “ethos”, that is, Truth within themselves – an ‘authenticity’ of purpose, an excellent sense of history, yet up-dated and relevant for now. Here is ‘Early Music’ going somewhere quite new! I love them.”
 Anthony Rooley

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.