The Tallis Scholars: Performers Before Their Time

Notable for their exquisite beauty of tone and a precision in ensemble technique that seems utterly effortless, the Tallis Scholars are superb researchers and teachers...who have become an extraordinary force in the rediscovery, celebration, and continued nurturing of early music performance.

There are very few artists who have worked so intensively, and are so beautifully dedicated, to one era as the Tallis Scholars, a group of singers who have put Renaissance choral music at the very heart of their work for over 35 years. Founded in 1973 by Peter Phillips, the ensemble (which is made up of ten core singers) have become synonymous with extraordinary craftmanship, scholarly care, and truly transporting performances.

One might think that such laser-like focus on a single corner of the repertoire might have proven a professional detriment. Instead, they have been proven extremely prescient: decades before myriad single-artist recording labels became common currency in the classical music world, the Tallis Scholars had already formed their own, in-house label in 1980, making 2010 their thirtieth-anniversary year. Seven years later, the label won the highly coveted Gramophone Magazine Record of the Year award for their recording of Josquin's Missa La sol fa re mi and Missa Pange lingua (now available as part of a larger reissue that also includes their exquisite version of Josquin's famous Missa L'homme arme); that occasion marked the very first time an early music ensemble had won this honor.

Many of their recordings have become iconic, including their interpretation of the astonishing 40-part Spem in Alium written by their namesake, the 16th-century English composer Thomas Tallis, the sublime Requiem by Tallis' Spanish near-contemporary, Tomas Luis de Victoria, and some fascinating work by such relatively rarely heard Franco-Flemish composers as Heinrich Isaac and Jacob Obrecht.

Notable for their exquisite beauty of tone and a precision in ensemble technique that seems utterly effortless, the Tallis Scholars are superb researchers and teachers--just as their group's name asserts-- who have become an extraordinary force in the rediscovery, celebration, and continued nurturing of early music performance. These activities extend from everything from issuing modern performance editions of the works they have toured and recorded to the establishment of workshops, offering coachings by the Tallis Scholars, in the US, the UK, and Australia that take place each summer.

*The Tallis Scholars Ensemble*
	Their latest recording project, traversals of Josquin's Missa Malheur me bat and Missa Fortuna desperata are imbued with all the qualities of loveliness, exemplary articulation, and great musicianship that have become the group's hallmark. It is a worthy celebration of their dual performance and recording milestones, and should make their fans clamor for what is still yet to come.