Inspired by the gloriously virtuosic music from the end of the 17th century, from which the name Stylus fantasticus came, the aim of the ensemble is to recreate repertoire from the early seicento until the late-Baroque searching and exploring the extravagance that flourished when composers and instrumentalists dared to traverse the established limits of the normal.

From the florid excesses of Biber, through the unrestrained harmonic richness of Rameau and the ravishing melodic imagination of Pandolfi Mealli, to the vividness and passion of the forerunners of romanticism as depicted by the generation after Bach, Fantasticus makes no compromises with regard to authentic performance, fearlessly trespassing on the borders of correctness.

Fantasticus is an ensemble based in the Netherlands. Made from three individuals with a wealth of experience on stage, its members are prize winners of important early music competitions (Bruges, Van Wassenaer, Premio Bonporti) and play with the most established Baroque orchestras, including the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, De Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Bach Collegium Japan. The combination of violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord was very popular during the whole baroque period and this allows the group to bring consistently varied programmes to their audiences.

The three members, Rie Kimura, Robert Smith and Guillermo Brachetta (Japan, UK and Argentina) all came to the Netherlands to profit from the fertile early music scene. They spent time learning from the pioneers of the early music movement at the conservatoires of The Hague and Amsterdam before themselves becoming a part of the thriving Baroque music life in Holland. As individuals and as an ensemble, their music takes them all over the Netherlands and indeed all over the world.