 |
Peter Phillips | |
|---|---|
 Phillips in St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe in 2006 | |
| Born | 15 October 1953 |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Choral conductor, musicologist |
| Spouses |
|
| Children |
|
Peter Phillips (born 15 October 1953) [1] is a British choral conductor and musicologist. He is the founder of the Tallis Scholars [2] as well as Gimell Records. [3]
Phillips was born in Southampton and educated at Winchester College (1967–71) and St John's College, Oxford (Organ Scholar 1972–75). He studied music with Hugh Macdonald, Denis Arnold and David Wulstan. He subsequently taught at Oxford University, Trinity College of Music and the Royal College of Music in London (where he directed the Chamber Choir in succession to David Willcocks), but had resigned all these posts by 1988 in order to pursue a full-time career in conducting.
Phillips's first concert with the Tallis Scholars took place in St Mary Magdalen's Church in Oxford on 3 November 1973. The group was made up of choral scholars (hence the use of the word 'Scholars' in the title) and layclerks from the leading Oxbridge choral foundations. From the beginning, Phillips aimed to produce a distinctive sound, influenced by choirs he admired, in particular the Clerkes of Oxenford. However the repertoire he chose was idiosyncratic, based in his desire to explore neglected corners of the polyphonic repertories, continental as much as English. This first concert included music by Obrecht, Ockeghem and Lassus. After the foundation of Gimell Records in 1980, the Tallis Scholars have gone on to fill many gaps in the recording catalogue, making discs devoted to such relatively unknown composers as Obrecht, Ockeghem, Cardoso, White, Clemens, Gombert and Mouton.
Since winning the Gramophone Record of the Year Award in 1987, the Tallis Scholars have been recognised as perhaps the world's leading ensemble in interpreting renaissance polyphony. That 1987 disc inaugurated a career-long project of recording all of Josquin des Prez’s masses, ready for the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death, in 2021. The ninth and last disc in the series also won an Award entitled Record of the Year – from the BBC Music Magazine – in 2021, 34 years after the first one.
Phillips first met the composer John Tavener in 1977, which led to a lifelong friendship. For many years Tavener was the only living composer to write for The Tallis Scholars, a connection which resulted in such masterpieces as the Ikon of Light, the Lords Prayer (1999), Let not the Prince be silent, Tribute to Cavafy and The Requiem Fragments. In more recent years Phillips has commissioned Eric Whitacre, Gabriel Jackson, Nico Muhly, Ivan Moody, John Woolrich, Matthew Martin, Christopher Willcock, Michael Nyman; and in 2014 made a disc entirely dedicated to Arvo Pärt's tintinnabuli style.
Phillips gave his first Promenade concert in 1988, since when he has appeared eight more times, always with the Tallis Scholars, though in 2007 also with the BBC Singers, when the two groups joined forces to give the first modern performance of Striggio's 60-part Mass Ecco si beato giorno. Phillips and The Tallis Scholars appeared at the Proms on 4 August 2014 to help mark the anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, with a Requiem written for them by John Tavener, televised on BBC 4. In 2018 they returned to the Albert Hall to sing a specially adapted Compline service.
In 1990 Phillips was the subject of a South Bank Show, introduced by Melvyn Bragg. It followed the course of renaissance polyphony through England and the Netherlands and was entitled "A Personal Odyssey".
In 2013 he directed the Tallis Scholars in a 99-concert year of events, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the group. Amongst other countries they visited New Zealand for the first time, Australia for the seventh time, Japan for the 14th time, and the US for the 61st.
In 1985 Phillips was invited to conduct the Chapelle Royale of Paris (by Philippe Herreweghe), and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, which sparked a lifelong interest in working with groups trained outside the Anglican choral tradition. These invitations also promoted in Phillips an interest in European culture, cuisines and languages. He has owned property in Paris since 1989 and given interviews in French, German, Italian and Spanish. He is also a student of Arabic (in which he has not given an interview). As of 2021, The Tallis Scholars have given more than two-thirds of their 2500 concerts outside the UK.
Phillips started a collaboration with the BBC Singers in 2003, with whom he has now appeared in nearly 25 productions, most recently in May 2021 in a live broadcast from Maida Vale, featuring Mexican polyphony written for Puebla Cathedral. He has recorded with the Spanish group El León de Oro (Oviedo). He also currently has projects in preparation with Intrada (Moscow), The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir (Tallinn), The Nederlands Chamber Choir and The Taipei Chamber Singers.
In 2000 Peter Phillips and David Woodcock set up the first Tallis Scholars Summer School in Oakham. This was followed in 2005 by an extension in Seattle (US), and in 2007 by one in Sydney (Australia). He has also been involved with similar courses in Rimini, Evora and Barcelona. He lectured on the John Hall pre-University course in Venice from 1981 to 2019.
Phillips began an association with Merton College Chapel in 1974 when, as an undergraduate, he directed Tallis's 'Why fum'th in fight' as a prelude to a performance of Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. The Tallis Scholars recorded regularly in Merton Chapel between 1976 and 1987, returning more permanently in 2005. In 2006, with the help of Jessica Rawson and Simon Jones, Phillips established a new choral foundation at the College. This choir sang its first services under Phillips and Benjamin Nicholas in October 2008.
In 2014 Phillips helped to establish the first of three London International Choral Competitions at St John's Smith Square. Among the judges were John Rutter, Emma Kirkby, Alastair Hume, Mark Williams and James O'Donnell. Featured composers have been John Tavener, Gabriel Jackson and Arvo Pärt.
Phillips has recently become a founding trustee of the Muze Trust, a charity designed to help with musical education in Zambia. At the invitation of Paul Kelly he visited Lusaka in 2010, directing Vox Zambesi in a concert and a recording, and continuing as a Trustee to the present.
Phillips wrote a regular column for The Spectator on all aspects of classical music from January 1983 to May 2016. [4]
In 1995 he became the owner and publisher of the Musical Times – the oldest continuously published music journal in the world. Phillips has also written for the Times Literary Supplement, the Times, the Guardian, the Musical Times, the Royal Academy Magazine, the BBC Music Magazine and the Evening Standard.[ citation needed ]
He has written three books:
In 2005, Peter Phillips was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, a decoration intended to honour individuals who have contributed to the understanding of French culture in the world, in his case Josquin des Prez.
From 2008 to 2016 he was made a Reed Rubin Director of Music at Merton College, Oxford, and in 2010 a Bodley Fellow. In 2021 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, where he had been Organ Scholar from 1972 to 1975.
With the Tallis Scholars he has received four Gramophone Awards (in 1987, 1991, 1994 and 2005); two Diapason d’Or de l’Année (in 1989 and 2012); three Grammy nominations (in 2002, 2009 and 2010); and Record of the Year from the BBC Music Magazine in 2021. His 1980 recording of Allegri's Miserere was said by the BBC Music Magazine to be one of the 50 greatest recordings of all time. [7]
In 2009 the Tallis Scholars were voted by Early Music Today the fourth most influential early group in the history of the genre[ citation needed ], after the instrumental ensembles of David Munrow, John Eliot Gardiner and Christopher Hogwood. In 2013 they were voted into the Gramophone's Hall of Fame [8] – about 120 names from the entire history of classical recording – the only early music group to be so listed.
Sir John Kenneth Tavener was an English composer, known for his extensive output of choral religious works. Among his best known works are The Lamb (1982), The Protecting Veil (1988), and Song for Athene (1993).
John Sheppard was an English composer of the Renaissance.
Jacob Obrecht was a Flemish composer of masses, motets and songs. He was the most famous composer of masses in Europe of the late 15th century and was only eclipsed after his death by Josquin des Prez.
Alonso Lobo was a Spanish composer of the late Renaissance. Although not as famous as Tomás Luis de Victoria, he was highly regarded at the time, and Victoria himself considered him to be his equal.
Duarte Lobo was a Portuguese composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. He was one of the most famous Portuguese composers of the time, together with Filipe de Magalhães, Manuel Cardoso, composers who all began their academic studies as students of Manuel Mendes. Along with John IV, King of Portugal, they represent the "golden age" of Portuguese polyphony.
Sir Stephen John Cleobury was an English organist and music director. He worked with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, where he served as music director from 1982 to 2019, and with the BBC Singers.
Sir David Valentine Willcocks, was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, which he directed from 1957 to 1974, making frequent broadcasts and recordings. Several of the descants and carol arrangements he wrote for the annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols were published in the series of books Carols for Choirs which he edited along with Reginald Jacques and John Rutter. He was also director of the Royal College of Music in London.
The Taverner Choir, Consort and Players is a British music ensemble which specialises in the performance of Early and Baroque music. The ensemble is made up of a Baroque orchestra, a vocal consort and a Choir. Performers place emphasis on a historically informed performance practice and players work with restored or replicated period instruments.
The Tallis Scholars is a British professional early music vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers. They specialise in performing a cappella sacred vocal music.
Christopher Alan Gabbitas, is a choral conductor, lawyer and university professor.
Jeremy Summerly is a British conductor. He was educated at Lichfield Cathedral School, Winchester College, and New College, Oxford. While at Oxford he conducted the New College Chamber Orchestra and the Oxford Chamber Choir. After graduating with a first-class honours degree in music in 1982, he started work as a studio manager for BBC Radio, while pursuing postgraduate research in historical musicology at King's College London. Since 1991 he has been a presenter and reviewer for BBC's Radios 3 and 4, in particular for Radio 4's Front Row, and Radio 3's Record Review.
The BBC Singers is a professional British chamber choir, employed by the BBC. Its origins can be traced to 1924. One of the six BBC Performing Groups, the BBC Singers are based at the BBC Maida Vale Studios in London. The only full-time professional British choir, the BBC Singers feature in live concerts, radio transmissions, recordings and education workshops. The choir often performs alongside other BBC Performing Groups, such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and is a regular guest at the BBC Proms. Broadcasts are made from locations around the country: London venues have included St Giles-without-Cripplegate, St John's, Smith Square and St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge.
"Song for Athene" is a musical composition by British composer John Tavener with lyrics by Mother Thekla, an Orthodox nun, which is intended to be sung a cappella by a four-part choir. It is Tavener's best known work, having been performed by the Westminster Abbey Choir conducted by Martin Neary at the funeral service of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 6 September 1997 as her cortège departed from Westminster Abbey.
Stephen David Layton is an English conductor.
The Holst Singers are an amateur choir based in London, England. The choir is named indirectly after the English composer Gustav Holst, taking its name from the Holst Room at St Paul's Girls' School, the venue for rehearsals during the choir's early years.
The Clerks are a British early music vocal ensemble. They have authored a series of recordings and concerts featuring music by Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin des Prez, Jacob Obrecht and other composers of the Franco-Flemish Renaissance.
Ruth Holton is an English soprano singer.
Merton College Chapel is the church of Merton College, Oxford, England. Dedicated to St Mary and St John the Baptist, the chapel was largely completed in its present form by the end of the 13th century. The building retains a number of original stained glass windows, and is noted for its acoustics. A choral foundation was established in 2008 by Peter Phillips.
Caroline Trevor is an English contralto, focused on early music and Baroque music in historically informed performance. She has been one of two alto voices in the award-winning ensemble The Tallis Scholars since 1982.
Christopher Watson is a British tenor specialising in Early music, Baroque and Contemporary repertoire.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
