The Tallis Scholars have established themselves as leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music through world-class recordings and concert performances. Their exploration of the depth and variety of this repertoire has reached a world-wide audience. 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 renowned.

Winners Announced for the NCEM Composers Award 2009

The prestigious NCEM Composers Award 2009, presented in association with BBC Radio 3 and The Tallis Scholars, has been won by 16-year-old Elizabeth Edwards and 23-year-old Michael Perrett.

The winners were announced at a special finalists’ concert at the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM) in York, where all six short-listed pieces were performed by the York-based Ebor Singers. The competition was judged by Peter Phillips, Director of The Tallis Scholars, Chris Wines, Senior Music Producer with BBC Radio 3 and Delma Tomlin, Director of the NCEM.

The competition saw over 50 entrants from up and down the country, with the youngest aged 11 years old. The winning pieces written for four-part a cappella (unaccompanied) choir will be premiered by the internationally renowned Tallis Scholars at the opening concert of the York Early Music Festival on Friday 10 July in York Minster. Highlights of the concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show on Saturday 25 July 2009.

All compositions from short-listed candidates were recorded by University of York music technology students and are available to listen to on the NCEM website. Information about the 2010 NCEM Composers Award will be available from September 2009 on the following websites: www.ncem.co.uk, www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/earlymusicshow and www.thetallisscholars.co.uk.

The National Centre for Early Music is administered by the York Early Music Foundation and funded by Arts Council England, Yorkshire.

Sing with The Tallis Scholars in Florence Cathedral!

Renaissance Music Workshop
Florence, 25 - 30 September 2009
Auditions: 13 - 14 June 2009

A Masterclass-Workshop of Renaissance Polyphony will be held at OPA, Centro Arte e Cultura, Firenze, from 25 to 30 September 2009, and offers to the selected students the rare opportunity to study a concert programme with Peter Phillips. The workshop will culminate in a public performance with The Tallis Scholars at the end of the course, under the Brunelleschi's Dome in the Florence cathedral.

For more information on how to get involved, please consult the following document.

ADVICE_Peter Phillips_Master Class in Florence_09-2009.pdf

NEW RECORDINGS

JOSQUIN: Missa Malheur me bat & Missa Fortuna desperata

"As we expect by now, the Tallis Scholars offer first-class ensemble-work (informed by uncompromising scholarship) in characteristically ingratiating performances that always leave us satisfied that we've just heard the most exacting and sincerely "authentic" rendition possible by modern singers."
David Vernier, Classics Today, April 2009

Now available on the Gimell label: www.gimell.com.