The Levée is comprised of founding members:
Marguerite Wassermann - Baroque Violin
Josef Laming – Harpsichord
Niels Pfeffer – Theorbo
Martin Jantzen – Viola da Gamba
The Levée is an early music ensemble formed to bring forgotten music back to life and to explore new stories of music history. They want to interrogate why some music had a continuous performing tradition, and why other music remained untouched. They find that relatively unknown music presents exciting challenges to modern historical performance practice and understanding of music history.
The ensemble takes its name from a painting and engraving of the same title in William Hogarth’s series A Rake’s Progress (1732-35). The eight painting series depicts the machinations of a spendthrift, hedonist son of a wealthy merchant who comes to no good but enjoys himself along the way.
The Levée, the second painting in Hogarth's series, shows the protagonist "Tom Rakeford" indulging in sport and artistic luxuries. Present at Rakeford’s levée (morning ceremony) is a harpsichordist thought to represent Handel or Porpora, alongside a dancing master holding a small violin.
Marguerite Wassermann is
a baroque violinist from the UK, now living in Switzerland. She is a student of Amandine Beyer’s and Baptiste Romain’s at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Her undergraduate degree is in Musicology from the University of Oxford, where she became interested in historical performance. Marguerite won the second prize at the Premio Bonporti 2023 for Baroque Violin and third prize at the Marco Uccellini Competition in 2022. She performs and records with Jordi Savall and Les Concerts de Nations, and has been featured as section leader and soloist in their 2024 recording of Vivaldi’s ‘Concerto for Four Violins’ and other Vivaldi concerti. Marguerite has performed and recorded with other ensembles such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Monteverdi String Band, Europäisches Hanse Ensemble, His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, Holland Baroque and London Early Opera. She was selected for Dunedin Consort’s 2025-2026 artist development scheme, Intrada.
Josef Laming is a harpsichordist and organist based in Basel. He was awarded the Harold Samuel Prize for his performance of J. S. Bach on the harpsichord at the Royal Academy of Music, and the 1st Prize at the Daniel Herz International Organ Competition. Josef was harpsichordist-in-residence and concerto soloist with the Oxford Bach Soloists. He works with various ensembles, including the Castello Consort, Les Cornets Noirs, and I Sinfonisti. As organist and director of music at Mariastein Abbey, he directs the ensemble ad·petram, which specialises in the performance of historical music in the liturgy.
Niels Pfeffer studied basso continuo, harpsichord, guitar, and lute in Stuttgart, Freiburg, The Hague, and Basel. He holds teaching positions at the Stuttgart University of Music, the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and at the University of Tübingen, where he is also pursuing his own dissertation project on piano roll recordings from the early 20th century. Niels has played with numerous ensembles, including the Nordic Baroque Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Capricornus Consort Basel, La Cetra, and the Bach Foundation St. Gallen
Marten Jantzen studied viola da gamba with Paolo Pandolfo in Basel, where he completed his master’s degree with distinction. In 2018, he was a finalist at The International ‘Bach-Abel Competition’ in Köthen. In addition to the viol family and the cello, Martin finds inspiration in rare instruments such as the arpeggione. His passion for chamber music is reflected in the successes of his chamber ensembles; first prize at The International “Van Wassenaer” Competition in Utrecht with Amaconsort and first prize at The International “Berliner Bach Competition” with Flor Galante, both in 2021.
