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 from William Hogarth’s series A Rake’s Progress (1732-5). The Levée depicts 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 and a dancing master holding a small violin.
Marguerite Wassermann is a baroque violinist who studied in Oxford, London, and Basel. She won the Bärenreiter Urtext-Preis at the Internationaler Telemann-Wettbewerb, second prize in the Bonporti Baroque Violin Competition (2023), and third prize in the Marco Uccellini Competition (2022). Marguerite has recorded and performed with Jordi Savall and Les Musiciennes du Concert des Nations and was featured as a soloist with the ensemble in Vivaldi’s ‘Concerto for Four Violins’. Marguerite was selected for the Dunedin Consort's 2025-26 scheme for young artists and Holland Baroque's 2023 Samama Fellowship.
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.
Martin Jantzen is fascinated by the various forms of communication that can be discovered in every musical style. The viola da gamba led him to discover the French repertoire, which is part of the instrument's DNA, and brought him to the Schola Cantorum in Basel, where he completed his studies with distinction. 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.