Alamire

Established in London during 2005, Alamire functions as a vocal ensemble dedicated primarily to sacred compositions from the medieval and Renaissance periods, distinguishing itself from other similarly named groups. David Skinner, previously a co-founder and co-artistic director of The Cardinall's Musick between 1989 and 2004, created the consort, taking its title from the 16th-century composer and scribe Pierre Alamire, himself born Peter van den Hove and inspired by the notational symbols devised by the 11th-century Italian theorist Guido d'Arezzo. That same year Skinner launched the Obsidian imprint together with Martin Souter of The Gift of Music.

Alamire's initial releases appeared in 2007, beginning with Philippe Verdelot: Madrigals for a Tudor King, performed by six voices—one mezzo-soprano, three tenors, two basses—and a single player handling lute and gothic harp. Although the roster expands or contracts according to the program, Skinner typically directs nine to twelve singers and frequently collaborates in both live and recorded settings with members of the early-music ensemble Fretwork. The group maintains an active schedule of concerts across the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States, issuing all of its discs on Obsidian; the first of these, Thomas Tomkins: These Distracted Times, also dates from 2007.

Its first American appearance took place in 2008 at Case Western Reserve University. The following June the ensemble opened a British Library celebration marking the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's coronation, joined on that occasion by the instrumental group QuintEssential and gothic harpist Andrew Lawrence-King; the program included works by Verdelot, Robert Fayrfax, and John Taverner. Later in 2009 Alamire issued Henry's Music, a recording devoted to compositions either written by the monarch or prepared for him by Taverner, Sampson, Fayrfax, and others.

In 2011 the consort embarked on an ambitious undertaking to produce thirty albums of English church music within a decade, inaugurating the series with Cantiones Sacrae 1575, containing motets by Tallis and Byrd. The Spy's Choirbook earned the ensemble the Gramophone Award for Early Music in 2015. Alamire transferred to the Inventa label in 2019, releasing a disc of motets by Hieronymus Praetorius; the following year it recorded John Sheppard's Media Vita in morte sumus. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic the group completed two further projects drawn from William Byrd's publications, issuing Byrd 1588: Psalmes, Sonets & Songs of sadnes and pietie in 2021 and Byrd 1589: Songs of sundrie natures in 2023.