The Tallis Scholars

Detroit
Saturday, April 22, 8 PM

Pre-concert talk at 7:15 pm

Masterpieces from Europe

Do you want to attend the Tallis Scholars concert, but would rather not drive to Detroit? The Academy of Early Music is offering deluxe motor coach transportation from Zion Lutheran Church (our 2022-23 Ann Arbor concert venue) door-to-door to the Tallis Scholars performance at Basilica of Ste. Anne de Detroit. The vehicle has WiFi, electrical outlets, reclining seats and an onboard lavatory.

Departure from Ann Arbor is at 6:00 p.m. on April 22nd, and we return to Ann Arbor immediately after the concert. Cost is $30 per person. Seats are limited and must be reserved and pre-paid by April 14th.

To add bus fare to your ticket, please choose an Adult + Ann Arbor Bus ticket in either the general or preferred seating sections.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Program

Celebrate the group’s 50th birthday with music by Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Tallis, Palestrina, Josquin des Prez and more. A note on the program from Peter Phillips: In this program I wanted to give a snapshot of the musical scene as it was in England and on mainland Europe during the renaissance. Some of these composers flourished early in the period – Josquin and Fayrfax. Some were writing by the mid 16th century – Tallis, Gombert and White. Some were the undisputed masters of the High Renaissance – Gibbons, Lassus, Palestrina and Victoria. But they all used the same polyphonic techniques. And it is fascinating to hear how this refined style developed as the years went by, as these geniuses successively turned their minds to expressing themselves through it.

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 its 40th anniversary with a world tour, performing 99 events in 80 venues in 16 countries. The group now looks ahead to its 50th anniversary in 2023. In 2020, Gimell Records celebrated 40 years of recording the group by releasing a remastered version of the 1980 recording of Allergri’s Miserere. As of the beginning of the cancellations caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the Tallis Scholars had made 2,327 appearances, worldwide.
2020-21 season highlights include performances in Amsterdam, Vienna, Dortmund, Bremen, two tours of Italy, a number of appearances in London as well as the usual touring schedule around the USA, Europe and the UK. As part of the Josquin des Prez postponed 500th anniversary celebrations, The Tallis Scholars sing all 18 of the composer’s masses over the course of 4 days at the Boulez Saal in Berlin in July 2022.

Recordings by The Tallis Scholars have attracted many awards throughout the world. In 1987 the 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. In 1989 the French magazine Diapason gave 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. The recording of Palestrina’s Missa Assumpta est Maria and Missa Sicut lilium was awarded Gramophone’s Early Music Award in 1991; the group received the 1994 Early Music Award for its recording of music by Cipriano de Rore; and the same distinction again in 2005 for the recording of music by John Browne.

The Tallis Scholars were nominated for a Grammy Award in 2001, 2009 and 2010. In November 2012, the recording of Josquin’s Missa De beata virgine and Missa Ave maris stella received a Diapason d’Or de l’Année and in their 40th anniversary year the group was welcomed into the Gramophone ‘Hall of Fame’ by public vote. In a departure for the group, in 2015 The Tallis Scholars released an album of music by Arvo Pärt called Tintinnabuli to great international praise. The latest recording of Josquin masses including Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie was released in 2020 and was winner of the BBC Music Magazine’s much coveted Recording of the Year Award in 2021. This album is the last of nine albums in The Tallis Scholars’ project to record and release all Josquin’s masses before the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death in 2021.