MEET THE MUSICIANS

The Tallis Scholars

The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concerts they have established themselves as the world’s leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music.

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 repertoire from the late 15th to the early 17th centuries.

The ensemble gives around 80 concerts worldwide each year in sacred and secular venues. Gimell Records was set up in 1980 solely to record the group, and their recordings have attracted many awards throughout the world.

Highlights in the 2023/24 season include tours of Japan, the far East, the USA, short visits to Italy, the Netherlands and Germany as well as one off appearances in Paris, Zurich, Dublin and Helsinki to name but a few. This season also marks the 50th Birthday of the ensemble which is celebrated with a special Birthday programme which will be performed around the world. 50 years to the day will see the group celebrating at an exclusive public event at Middle Temple Hall, London on the 3 November 2023.

Their latest recording which included Josquin’s Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie was the last in the series of nine albums, a project to record and release all Josquin’s masses before the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death in 2021. It was the winner of the much coveted BBC Music Magazine ’s 2021 Recording of the Year Award and the Gramophone Early Music Award of the same year.

Founder of The Tallis Scholars, Peter Phillips won an organ scholarship to St John’s College Oxford in 1972.

He has dedicated himself to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony, appearing in over 2,200 concerts and making over 60 discs. As a result of his work, Renaissance music has come to be accepted as part of the mainstream classical repertoire.

For 33 years he contributed a regular music column to The Spectator and is owner and publisher of The Musical Times, the oldest continuously published music journal in the world. In spring 2018 BBC Radio 3 broadcasted Phillips’ view of Renaissance polyphony, in a series of six hour-long programmes.