{"id":120019,"date":"2025-12-04T14:12:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T19:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=120019"},"modified":"2025-12-04T14:12:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T19:12:02","slug":"interview-director-peter-phillips-talks-tallis-scholars-toronto-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/12\/04\/interview-director-peter-phillips-talks-tallis-scholars-toronto-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Director Peter Phillips Talks About The Tallis Scholars And Their Toronto Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Tallis Scholars (Photo: Rodrigo Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Britain\u2019s The Tallis Scholars will perform a holiday concert titled The Mother and Child in Toronto on December 14. The program explores the Virgin Mary as a divine figure, including Renaissance as well as modern works.<\/p>\n

Led by Director and founder Peter Phillips, The Tallis Scholars have become one of the world\u2019s most respected and beloved keepers of the Renaissance polyphonic vocal tradition. They\u2019ve been dubbed \u201cthe rock stars of Renaissance music\u201d the The New York Times.<\/p>\n

Along with touring internationally, the ensemble has accumulated an impressive discography as recording artists, including their 2021 recording of Josquin\u2019s Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie, which garnered both BBC Music Magazine\u2019s Recording of the Year and the Gramophone Early Music Award.<\/p>\n

LV spoke to Director Peter Phillips about the ensemble and their Toronto concert.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Tallis Scholars Director Peter Phillips (Photo: Peter Adamik)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Peter Phillips: The Interview<\/h2>\n

Peter Phillips formed The Tallis Scholars in 1973 with fellow music students at St. John\u2019s College in Oxford. He invited members of chapel choirs from Oxford and Cambridge to form an amateur Renaissance vocal ensemble.<\/p>\n

Did he have any idea, back when the Tallis Scholars began, that it would still be going strong in 2025?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not at all,\u201d says Phillips. \u201cIt was all highly experimental and fun. We were all undergraduates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Popularity was something that came with time. \u201cNo one came to the concerts,\u201d he recalls. Undeterred, he continued. \u201cBasically, nobody stopped me,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

As he points out, a vocal group doesn\u2019t cost a lot of money to put together. And so, they persisted. After about a decade of concerts, the amateur group turned professional, and their reputation grew. The ensemble won a Gramophone Award in 1987, cementing their international reputation.<\/p>\n

Today, they tour the world, and have performed in about 70 countries each year, including stops in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve just been in Australia,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n

Renaissance Music in the 21st Century<\/h3>\n

Over the decades, he\u2019s seen public interest in Renaissance vocal music grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I’ve noticed,\u201d he says. \u201cIt’s built up slowly, but it\u2019s been gratifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he was in Australia recently, the ensemble held masterclasses with local groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re so much better than they used to be. They can sing it straight away,\u201d he notes. It\u2019s not just the art form itself, it\u2019s the demographic. \u201cThey get younger and younger, it seems to me. There are young people everywhere, in Europe and in unlikely places. It’s very heartening.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do modern audiences find in Renaissance vocal music?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey find beauty,\u201d he says. \u201cIf they listen to Beethoven, they may as well listen to di Lasso.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another element at work. \u201cThe average standard of performance is going up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music of the Medieval and Renaissance periods saw a revival through the 20th century, although it would be largely in the 1960s and 1970s before it moved from scholars and individual church choirs to independent ensembles like The Tallis Scholars. The earlier groups didn\u2019t necessarily know how to approach polyphony correctly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds great,\u201d he says of the music. That wasn\u2019t always the case. \u201cIt didn’t used to, frankly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points out that many of the earlier Renaissance vocal groups, for example, attempted to sing the material with operatic techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tuning was dreadful,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople were acting as if they were performing alone on stage. It’s not that at all,\u201d he adds. Polyphonic vocal music requires a different approach. \u201cIt’s very democratic.\u201d In contrast with more modern music, which features a prominent melody and melodic vocalist with supporting harmonies, in the Renaissance, all the parts were considered of equal importance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to understand that they were singing with someone else. They couldn’t deploy their big solo voices.\u201d That changed over the years. \u201cIt’s taken a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It meant that the earliest groups didn\u2019t see the kind of success that The Tallis Scholars would achieve later. Audiences also developed over time. \u201cThe results were dire. No one would pay to go hear a group sing like that anymore, because they know what it can sound like.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the right approach, Renaissance vocal music has a quality all its own. \u201cYou can float off. It’s like yoga really,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople says it’s like a drug, and they don\u2019t want it to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modern ears may take a bit to adjust. \u201cIt takes 10 minutes for an audience to acclimatize, and then they realize they\u2019re in for a wonderful experience.\u201d Since most of the material is in Latin, there\u2019s no real language barrier, as he sees it. \u201cNo one understand the Latin anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tallis Scholars sing William Byrd\u2019s Vigilate:<\/p>\n