The Rose Consort of Viols

The Rose Consort of Viols stands among Britain’s longest-running and most acclaimed ensembles devoted to Renaissance repertoire, while also presenting contemporary scores. Founded in 1990, the group takes its name from the celebrated sixteenth-century viol makers John Rose father and son. Its personnel has changed little over the decades, comprising Ibrahim Aziz, John Bryan, Alison Crim, Andrew Kerr, Roy Marks, and Peter Wendland as of the mid-2020s. Programs are built around painstakingly researched investigations of individual composers and repertories, with instruments drawn from across the viol’s historical span chosen to match each period. Renaissance masters such as John Taverner and William Byrd share programs with Baroque figures including William Lawes, Matthew Locke, and Henry Purcell, while contemporary works by Malcolm Bruno, Elizabeth Liddle, and Ivan Moody also receive regular hearings. Recording activity began soon after the ensemble’s formation, yielding two 1990 releases on the Amon Ra label—John Dowland’s Lachrimae or Seaven Teares and Elizabethan Christmas Anthems—the latter featuring the vocal ensemble Red Byrd, a frequent collaborator. Appearances have taken the Consort to many countries and have involved distinguished guests such as sopranos Ellen Hargis and Emma Kirkby, mezzo-sopranos Clare Wilkinson and Catherine King, the BBC Singers, lutenists Christopher Wilson, Jakob Lindberg, and Jacob Heringman, the ensembles Marian Consort, Gallicantus, and Stile Antico, and keyboardist Timothy Roberts. Concertizing-educational residencies have been held at the Dartington International Summer School and the Benslow Foundation. More than twenty recordings, many issued on Naxos and Delphian, had appeared by the mid-2020s; the 2023 album Thomas Weelkes: What Joy So True, made with the Choir of Chichester Cathedral, was released on Regent.