Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The legendary voices of The Tallis Scholars return to BEMF for a program of transcendent Christmas music from the Renaissance on Friday, December 6

DOWNLOAD PDF

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
For a thousand years, plainchant represented the heart of Western “classical” music. The legendary voices of The Tallis Scholars revisit this living tradition with a transcendent celebration for the Christmas season. Director Peter Phillips leads his beloved ensemble in their 36^th consecutive season performing for BEMF audiences with a journey through centuries of chant music and the polyphony constructed from it, from boundary-pushing chants composed by 12^th-century abbess Hildegard von Bingen, to Renaissance works including chant-based motets such as Nunc dimittus by Lassus and settings of the Salve regina by Obrecht, Victoria, and Franco, to the medieval In dulci jubilo melody set by Praetorius and Pearsall, and to Arvo Pärt’s reconceptualizing of the chant tradition, inspired in part by Eastern Orthodox practices.

“The most traditional way to celebrate Christmas is to turn to Gregorian chant,” says Director Peter Phillips. “For a thousand years, chant represented all there was of 'classical' music. And it remains second to none in evoking the atmosphere of the great feast days.”

ASSOCIATED EVENTS
A pre-concert video featuring director Peter Phillips will be shared on BEMF.org and social media the week of December 6.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
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. In 2020, Gimell Records celebrated 40 years of recording the group by releasing a remastered version of the 1980 recording of Allegri’s Miserere. As they celebrate their 50^th birthday, the desire to hear this group in all corners of the globe is as strong as ever. They have now performed well over 2500 concerts. 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. 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 and in their 40^th anniversary year, they were welcomed into the Gramophone ‘Hall of Fame’ by public vote.

Peter Phillips has dedicated his career to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony, and to the perfecting of choral sound. He founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973, with whom he has now appeared in over 2,500 concerts and made over 60 recordings, world-wide. As a result of this commitment Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars have done more than any other group to establish the sacred vocal music of the Renaissance as one of the great repertoires of Western classical music. Peter Phillips also conducts other specialist ensembles. He is currently working with the BBC Singers, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Intrada (Moscow), and El Leon de Oro (Spain). He is Patron of the Chapel Choir of Merton College Oxford. In addition to conducting, Peter Phillips is well-known as a writer. For 33 years he contributed a regular music column to The Spectator. In 1995 he became the publisher of The Musical Times, the oldest continuously published music journal in the world. His first book, English Sacred Music 1549-1649, was published by Gimell in 1991, while his second, What We Really Do, appeared in 2013. During 2018, BBC Radio 3 broadcast his view of Renaissance polyphony, in a series of six hour-long programs, entitled The Glory of Polyphony. In 2005 Peter Phillips was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2008 Peter helped to found the chapel choir of Merton College Oxford, where he is a Bodley Fellow; and in 2021 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford.

ABOUT THE BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL
Recognized as the preeminent early music presenter and Baroque opera producer in North America, the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) has been credited with securing Boston’s reputation as “America’s early music capital” (The Boston Globe). Founded in 1981, BEMF offers diverse programs and activities, including one GRAMMY Award–winning and five GRAMMY Award–nominated opera recordings, an annual concert series that brings early music’s brightest stars to the Boston and New York concert stages, and a biennial week-long Festival and Exhibition recognized as the “world’s leading festival of early music” (The Times, London). The 23^rd Boston Early Music Festival will take place from June 8 to 15, 2025, and will feature a fully staged production of Reinhard Keiser’s Octavia. BEMF’s Artistic Leadership includes Artistic Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Opera Director Gilbert Blin, and Orchestra Director Robert Mealy.

The Boston Early Music Festival is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Constellation Charitable Foundation, and WCRB Classical Radio Boston, as well as a number of generous foundations and individuals from around the world.

For more information, please contact Kathleen Fay at kathy@bemf.org.

###