“The rock stars of Renaissance vocal music”
— New York Times
Program
| Orlando Gibbons | O clap your hands |
| Thomas Tallis | Suscipe quaeso |
| Nico Muhly | Rough Notes |
| William Byrd | Tribue domine |
| Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina | Tu es Petrus |
| John Rutter | Hymn to the Creator of Light |
| Nicolas Gombert | Lugebat David |
| Josquin des Prez | Absalon fili mi |
| Arvo Pärt | Which was the son of… |
Artist Biographies
The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create, through good tuning and blend, the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serves the Renaissance repertoire, allowing every detail of the musical lines to be heard. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.
The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, giving around 80 concerts each year. In 2013, the group celebrated its 40th anniversary with a world tour, performing 99 events in 80 venues in 16 countries. The group now looks ahead to its 50th anniversary in 2023. In 2020, Gimell Records celebrated 40 years of recording the group by releasing a remastered version of the 1980 recording of Allergri’s Miserere. As of the beginning of the cancellations caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the Tallis Scholars had made 2,327 appearances, worldwide.
2020-21 season highlights included performances in: Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ Amsterdam, Oslo and RheinVokal Festivals, Festival Alte Musik Zürich, Klangvokal Musikfestival Dortmund, and tours of Italy, in addition to their usual touring schedule around the USA, Europe and the UK. In 2021, the group celebrated Josquin des Prez’ 500th anniversary with performances of all 18 of the composer’s masses, culminating in a complete performance in the Boulez Saal, Berlin over the course of four days in August.
Recordings by The Tallis Scholars have attracted many awards throughout the world. In 1987 the recording of Josquin’s Missa La sol fa re mi and Missa Pange lingua received Gramophone magazine’s Record of the Year award, the first recording of early music ever to win this coveted award. In 1989 the French magazine Diapason gave two of its Diapasond’Or de l’Année awards for the recordings of a mass and motets by Lassus and for Josquin’s two masses based on the chanson L’Homme armé. The recording of Palestrina’s Missa Assumpta est Maria and Missa Sicut lilium was awarded Gramophone’s Early Music Award in 1991; the group received the 1994 Early Music Award for its recording of music by Cipriano de Rore; and the same distinction again in 2005 for the recording of music by John Browne.
The Tallis Scholars were nominated for a Grammy Award in 2001, 2009 and 2010. In November 2012, the recording of Josquin’s Missa De beata virgine and Missa Ave maris stellareceived a Diapason d’Or de l’Année and in their 40th anniversary year the group was welcomed into the Gramophone ‘Hall of Fame’ by public vote. In a departure for the group, in 2015 The Tallis Scholars released an album of music by Arvo Pärt called Tintinnabuli02/16/2021, which received great international praise. The latest recording of Josquin and Bauldeweyn masses was released in 2019 and was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. This is the eighth of nine albums in The Tallis Scholars’ project to record and release all Josquin’s masses before the composer’s 500th anniversary in 2021.