The Tallis Scholars

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 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 singers 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 concerts in 80 venues in 16 countries. In 2020, Gimell Records celebrated 40 years of recording the group by releasing a remastered version of the 1980 recording of Allegri’s Miserere. The group celebrated its 50th birthday in 2023–24, and today, the international desire to hear the singers is as strong as ever. The Tallis Scholars have now performed well over 2,500 concerts.

Current season highlights include performances in the United States, Japan, and East Asia, as well as several appearances in London and the group’s usual touring schedule in Europe and the UK.

Recordings by the Tallis Scholars have received many international awards. In 1987, the group’s 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 honor. In 1989, the French magazine Diapason gave the group 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 received Gramophone’s Early Music Award in 1991; the ensemble received the 1994 Early Music Award for its recording of music by Cipriano de Rore, and the same distinction again in 2005 for a disc of music by John Browne. The Tallis Scholars were nominated for Grammy Awards in 2001, 2009, and 2010. In 2012, their recording of Josquin’s Missa de Beata Virgine and Missa Ave maris stella received a Diapason d’Or de l’Année award, and during their 40th anniversary year, they were welcomed into the Gramophone “Hall of Fame” by public vote. In a departure for the group, in 2015, the Tallis Scholars released a disc of music by Arvo Pärt called Tintinnabuli, which received great praise.

A 2020 release including Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie was the last of nine albums in the Tallis Scholars’ project to record and release all of Josquin’s masses before the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death. In 2021, it was the winner of the BBC Music Magazine’s much coveted Recording of the Year award and the Gramophone Early Music Award. The group’s latest Gimell release (November 2024) is of music by Robert Fayrfax and was named an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone.