Phillips, Peter (Sayer)

Phillips, Peter (Sayer), outstanding English choral conductor, music scholar, and music critic; b. Southampton, Oct. 15, 1953. He was educated at Winchester Coll. (1967–71) and was an organ scholar at St. John’s Coll., Oxford (B.A., 1975). In 1973 he founded the Tallis Scholars, which he developed under his discerning conductorship into one of the world’s foremost choral ensembles. After serving as editor of the Early Music Gazette (1980–82), he became music critic of The Spectator in 1983. In 1981 he co-founded and became director of Gimell Records, with which he made many remarkable recordings with the Tallis Scholars. In 1987 they won the Gramophone Record of the Year Award. In 1988 Phillips conducted the Tallis Scholars for the first time on tour in the U.S., and also at the London Promenade Concerts. In 1989 he conducted them in Tokyo. In 1994 he conducted them in the Palestrina anniversary concert in Rome, returning that year to Italy to conduct them at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. As a guest conductor, Phillips led choral groups far and wide, including ensembles in Florence (1996), Washington, D.C., and Tokyo (1998), and Barcelona and Novosibirsk (1999). He taught at the Univ. of Oxford (1976–81), and in London at Trinity Coll. of Music (1980–84) and the Royal Coll. of Music (1981–88). In 1995 he became proprietor and advisory editor of The Musical Times. In addition to his vol. English Sacred Music, 1549–1649 (1991), he has contributed articles to various journals and periodicals. He has won universal acclaim for his interpretations of the masters of Renaissance polyphony.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire