The Tallis Scholars are back in Greater Boston with music for the Virgin Mary from the English Renaissance on Friday, December 5
| ARTISTS: | The Tallis Scholars Peter Phillips, Director |
| LOCATION: | Friday, December 5, 2025 at 8pm ET St. Paul Church, Cambridge, MA Virtual Premiere: Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 8pm ET |
| PROGRAM: | Mother and Child: English music for the Virgin Mary
Thomas Tallis: “Gloria” from Missa Puer natus Thomas Byrd: Votive Mass of the Virgin Matthew Martin: Salve Regina Tallis: “Sanctus and “Agnus” from Missa Puer natus Benjamin Britten: Hymn to the Virgin John Taverner: Mater Christi John Nesbett: Magnificat |
| TICKETS: | Tickets are priced at $140, $105, $70, $55, and $35 for the in-person performance, and $25 for the virtual event. All in-person tickets include a complimentary ticket for the virtual performance. To purchase tickets, visit BEMF.org or call the BEMF Box Office at 617-661-1812. Discounts are available for students and seniors. |
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
For more than 50 years, the legendary singers of The Tallis Scholars have earned international acclaim for performances of unparalleled purity and clarity—and for the past 37 years it has been BEMF’s privilege to welcome them annually to Greater Boston. Director Peter Phillips leads these transcendent voices in a seasonal program of music from the English repertoire written about the Virgin Mary. Whether celebrating her own divinity in Byrd’s Votive Mass or her role as the mother of Christ as in Tallis’s epic Missa Puer natus, these selections are some of the most glorious works of the Renaissance. The program also includes Britten’s timeless A Hymn to the Virgin and the newly commissioned Salve Regina by Matthew Martin which will receive its world premiere with the ensemble one night earlier at the Miller Theatre in New York City.
“The theme behind our seasonal program is the Virgin Mary, whether celebrating her own divinity (in the Votive Mass written by Byrd), or in the context of the birth of Christ (in Tallis’s epic Missa Puer natus),” says Director Peter Phillips. “The choice of music is taken exclusively from the English repertoire, featuring not only Renaissance masterpieces but also compositions by Britten and Matthew Martin.”
ASSOCIATED EVENTS
A pre-concert video featuring director Peter Phillips will be shared on BEMF.org and social media the week of December 5.
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 40th 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. 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 40th 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 well over 2,500 concerts and made over 60 recordings. 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 six GRAMMY Award–nominated opera recordings, an annual concert series that features early music’s brightest stars on the BEMF concert stage, and a biennial week-long Festival and Exhibition recognized as the “world’s leading festival of early music” (The Times, London). The 24th Boston Early Music Festival will take place from June 6 to 13, 2027, and will feature a fully staged production of Telemann’s Emma und Eginhard. BEMF’s Artistic Leadership includes Artistic Directors Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, Opera Director Gilbert Blin, Orchestra Director Robert Mealy, and Dance Director Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière.
For more information, images, press tickets, or to schedule an interview, please contact Kathleen Fay at 617-661-1812 or email kathy@bemf.org.
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