The Tallis Scholars

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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 their 40^th anniversary with a World Tour, performing 99 events in 80 venues in 16 countries. They now look ahead to their 50^th 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.

The 2020/21 season includes performances in: Mosel, Oslo and Macau Festivals, Festival Alte Musik Zürich, Klangvokal Musikfestival Dortmund, a joint concert with The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble in Zaryadye Concert Hall, Moscow, and tours of Japan and Italy, in addition to their usual touring schedule around the USA, Europe and the UK. In 2021, the group celebrates Josquin des Prez’ 500^th anniversary with performances of all eighteen 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 their 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 Diapason d’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. Their recording of Palestrina’s Missa Assumpta est Maria and Missa Sicut lilium was awarded Gramophone’s Early Music Award in 1991; they received the 1994 Early Music Award for their recording of music by Cipriano de Rore; and the same distinction again in 2005 for their disc of music by John Browne. The Tallis Scholars were nominated for a Grammy Award in 2001, 2009 and 2010. In November 2012 their recording of Josquin’s Missa De beata virgine and Missa Ave maris stella received a Diapason d’Or de l’Année and in their 40^th anniversary year they were welcomed into the Gramophone ‘Hall of Fame’ by public vote. In a departure for the group in Spring 2015 The Tallis Scholars released a disc of music by Arvo Pärt called Tintinnabuli which received great praise across the board. The latest recording of Josquin and Bauldeweyn masses was released in November 2019 and was Editor’s Choice in the Gramophone. This is the 8^th of 9 albums in The Tallis Scholars’ project to record and release all Josquin’s masses before the composer’s 500^th anniversary in 2021.

Promoters please note: if you wish to include this biography in a concert programme etc, please contact James Brown Management to ensure that you receive the most up to date version.  Email: Lucy Rice

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