Mark Venner, countertenor
Mark Dobell, tenor
Angus Smith, tenor
Donald Greig, baritone

Formed in 1988 by the Early Music Centre of Great Britain, The Orlando Consort has rapidly achieved a reputation as one of the most expert and consistently challenging groups performing repertoire from the years 1050 to 1600.  While all four singers in the group are established soloists, they also contribute enormous experience and expertise in the field of early music gained through working with groups such as the Tallis Scholars and the Gabrieli and Taverner Consorts.  Working with leading academics on music that has often never been performed in modern times, they have set new standards of performance, particularly with regard to the pronunciation and tuning of this fascinating repertoire.  For their work on the extraordinary techniques of 12th Century Aquitanian polyphony they were awarded the 1996 Noah Greenberg Award by the American Musicological Society.  The Consort has also attracted considerable attention for their imaginative programming of contemporary music.

Currently recording exclusively for Harmonia Mundi USA, the Consort’s debut release with that label was “Food, Wine & Song” (2001), a recording that has been described in the press as having attained the “standard by which other performances should be judged.”  “The Call of the Phoenix” (rare 15th Century English sacred music) and “Extempore 2: Michaelmas,” a crossover Jazz/Medieval collaboration with the British jazz quartet, Perfect Houseplants, followed in 2003; the former was named Gramophone Magazine Early Music CD of the Year.  “The Toledo Summit,” featuring Spanish and Flemish Music from the turn of the 16th Century, and a recording of works by Antoine Busnois were released in 2004.  “The Rose, the Lily, and the Whortleberry (Medieval and Renaissance Musical Representations of Gardens and Horticulture)” and “Medieval Christmas” were released in 2006.  “Scattered Rhymes,” comprising the Messe de Notre Dame of Machaut and a new eponymous work of Tarik O’Regan, performed in collaboration with Paul Hillier and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, was released in 2008.  Prior Consort releases include recordings from the Deutsche Grammophon “Archiv” label, Saydisc, and Metronome. “The Works of John Dunstaple” won the 1996 Gramophone Award for Early Music.  “The Mystery of Notre Dame” (works by Perotin and others) was nominated for an Edison award in the Netherlands, while “Loyset Compère,” “Popes and Antipopes” (papal music from the 14th and 15th Centuries), “Passiontide” (15th Century Flemish Easter music), the “Missa De plus en plus” by Ockeghem, “The Saracen and the Dove” (music for the courts of Padua and Pavia), and “Motets by Josquin Desprez” have all been short-listed for Gramophone Awards.

The Consort performs in every season throughout the U.K., North America, Holland, Italy, France, Spain, and Japan.  The Orlando Consort made its debut at the BBC Proms in the 1997 season, returning in 2001, and at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1998.  In April 2000 the Consort performed the inaugural concert at the National Centre for Early Music in York, and the Consort has made frequent appearances on the British and Dutch Early Music Networks. Regular performers at Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room in London, the Consort has also sung in festivals in Santander, Valencia, Las Palmas, and Madrid (Spain); Alden Biesen, Antwerp, and Bruges (Belgium); Regensburg, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Cologne, and Berlin (Germany); Vienna, Graz, Feldkirchen and Melk (Austria); Athens (Greece); Amiens and Le Thoronnet (France); Jaroslaw and Warsaw (Poland); Plzen and Prague (Czech Republic); St. Petersburg (Russia); Florence, Venice, Rome, and Padua (Italy); and Skara (Sweden), as well as the Spitalfields Festival, the Bury St. Edmunds, Aldeburgh, St. David’s, Stour, Deal, Brinkburn, Hexham, Cheltenham and Chester Festivals, the Manchester Early Music Series, the City of London Festival, the St. Magnus Festival in Orkney, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (a performance subsequently nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award), and both the Beverley and York Early Music Festivals.  They were Artists-in-Residence at Queen’s University, Belfast, from 1993-94 and are currently an Associate Ensemble at Southampton University.  The group has toured extensively in Japan and South America; Estonia is among the many new territories visited by the Consort recently.

Recent North American tours have included performances many early music series, such as the Boston Early Music Festival; the Seattle Early Music Guild; the Houston, San Francisco, San Diego, and Arizona Early Music Societies; Early Music in Columbus (Ohio); the Renaissance & Baroque Society (Pittsburgh); Early Music Now (Milwaukee); and Early Music Vancouver.  College and university performances have taken place for Stanford University’s “Lively Arts,” Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Vermont, Penn State University, Haverford College, Connecticut College, and the University of New Orleans.  They have also performed for such series as for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Concerts in the Cloisters” series in New York City, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles, Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Chamber Music Society of St. Cloud (Minnesota), St. Mary Catholic Church (Denver), the Dumbarton Concert Series (Washington), and the Morrison Artist Series in San Francisco.  The Consort first performed in North America in November 1992 at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA) at a conference held in honor of the 500th anniversary of the death of Antoine Busnoys.  In 1993 and 2000 they appeared at the Annual Meetings of the American Musicological Society held in Montreal and Toronto.

The work of the Orlando Consort extends well beyond conventional early music presentation.  They have frequently performed with local amateur choirs and with the actors Robert Hardy and Prunella Scales.  In addition to their collaborations with Perfect Houseplants, they have also performed with the brilliant Dutch ensemble, The Calefax Reed Quintet.

[April 2008]