The
Tallis Scholars are a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers.
Formed in 1973 by their director
Peter PhillipsPeter Phillips was born in Southampton on 15 Oct 1953. After winning a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford in 1972, Phillips was offered the opportunity to study Renaissance music with the influential musicologists David Wulstan and Denis Arnold...
, they specialise in performing
a cappellaA cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style...
sacred vocal musicReligious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion. Many forms of traditional music have been adapted to fit religions'...
written during the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
by composers from all over Europe. They are currently recognised as one of the world-leaders in this field, having risen to a place of prominence among other professional ensembles.
They record widely on their own label, Gimell Records, which has world-wide distribution and some 50 releases, covering a repertoire from over 150 years of music history (approximately the years 1450–1600).
The
Tallis Scholars are a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers.
Formed in 1973 by their director
Peter PhillipsPeter Phillips was born in Southampton on 15 Oct 1953. After winning a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford in 1972, Phillips was offered the opportunity to study Renaissance music with the influential musicologists David Wulstan and Denis Arnold...
, they specialise in performing
a cappellaA cappella music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato style...
sacred vocal musicReligious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion. Many forms of traditional music have been adapted to fit religions'...
written during the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
by composers from all over Europe. They are currently recognised as one of the world-leaders in this field, having risen to a place of prominence among other professional ensembles.
They record widely on their own label, Gimell Records, which has world-wide distribution and some 50 releases, covering a repertoire from over 150 years of music history (approximately the years 1450–1600). They tour widely, including to America at least twice a year and Japan at least once every two years.
They are well known among music lovers and academics alike and have paved the way for many younger groups such as
The SixteenThe Sixteen is an internationally acclaimed choir – of six women and ten men – and period instrument orchestra; founded by Harry Christophers in 1979....
,
The Cardinall's MusickThe Cardinall's Musick is a United Kingdom-based vocal ensemble specialising in music of the 16th and 17th centuries and contemporary music. They have earned themselves an enviable reputation around the world both for the excellence of their voices and the way in which they work together as a...
,
The ClerksThe Clerks are a British early music vocal ensemble. They have authored a series of recordings and concerts featuring music by Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin des Prez, Jacob Obrecht and other composers of the Franco-Flemish Renaissance...
, The Binchois Consort,
Trinity BaroqueTrinity Baroque is a group of musicians who focus on the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Founded originally at Trinity College, Cambridge, they are formed of a pool of 6-8 singers, sometimes expanding to larger vocal and instrumental forces. The ensemble has formed close relationships with the...
, and the Gabrieli Consort.
Various members of the group have scholarly interests on top of their activities as professional musicians with Phillips having published a scholarly text ("English Sacred Music 1549-1649": London: Gimell Records, 1991) and Sally Dunkley, Francis Steele, and Deborah Roberts all active as music editors and publishers with interests spanning the Renaissance and early Baroque.
Andrew Gant-Biography:Andrew attended Radley College before going on to read Music and English at St John's College, Cambridge. He was a choral scholar and sang in the College Choir under George Guest. He subsequently studied composition with Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music and completed his PhD...
is also organist at the
Chapel RoyalA Chapel Royal is a department of the Ecclesiastical Household of the monarch in right of either Canada or the United Kingdom, formally known as the royal Free Chapel of the Household...
.
In 2000 the group established the Tallis Scholars Summer Schools, a program providing amateur singers and promising young professionals the opportunity to be coached by Phillips and other members of the ensemble in their specialist repertoire. The program now includes three courses which take place in
Oakham-Oakham's horseshoes:Traditionally, members of royalty and peers of the realm who visited or passed through the town had to pay a forfeit in the form of a horseshoe...
in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, Seattle in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
.
External links