The Hilliard Ensemble is considered to be one of the world's finest vocal chamber groups, and is probably unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music. Its distinctive style and highly developed musicianship engage the listener as much in medieval and renaissance repertoire as in works specially written for the group by living composers.
The ensemble's performing schedule is busy and varied, amounting to some hundred concerts a year. Its substantial following in Europe, particularly in Mediterranean and central European countries, is augmented by regular visits to Japan, the USA and Canada.
The group’s reputation as an early music ensemble dates from the 1980s and its series of highly successful records for EMI (many of which are now re-released on Virgin), but from the start the group has paid equal attention to new music. Their 1988 recording of Arvo Pärt’s Passio began a fruitful relationship with both Pärt and the Munich-based record company ECM. This continued with their recording of Pärt’s Litany, which was released in August ‘96. The group has recently commissioned other composers from the Baltic States, including Veljo Tormis and Erkki-Sven Tüür, adding to a rich repertoire of new music written for the Ensemble by Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger, John Casken, James MacMillan, Elena Firsova and others. The group’s 1994 composition competition produced over one hundred pieces, many of which have found their way into Hilliard programmes. At its regular summer schools the group provides for a composer-in-residence; past holders of this post have included Ivan Moody, Piers Hellawell, Barry Guy and Gavin Bryars. Many of these composers are represented on the ECM double album A Hilliard Songbook.
In 1994, Officium was released, “one of the biggest crossover hits of the ‘90s”. This was the first of the group’s collaborations with the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek. 1997 saw the release of the Canadian film Lilies, for which the group provided the soundtrack, and a renewal of their collaboration with Garbarek with the release of Mnemosyne which they have toured throughout the world. The Hilliard Ensemble also commemorated the 500th anniversary of the death of Ockeghem (ca.1410-1497) with special tribute programmes and through the launch of their own mail-order record label, hilliard LIVE. The first issue of hilliard LIVE, Perotin and the Ars Antiqua, was released in ‘96, No 2, For Ockeghem, in 1997, and No 3 Antoine Brumel, and No 4 Dufay were released during 1998. These CDs are now available in the Coro label.
Concerts with major orchestras have included a performance of Pärt’s Litany with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and a series with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1999, they premiered Miroirs des Temps by Unsuk Chin, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kent Nagano. In the same year, James MacMillan’s Quickening, commissioned jointly by the BBC and the Philadelphia Orchestra, was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis at the BBC Proms.
Autumn 2001 saw the successful release of another ECM collaboration, Morimur with the German Baroque violinist Christoph Poppen and soprano Monika Mauch. Based on the research of Prof. Helga Thoene, it is a unique interweaving of Bach’s Partita in D minor for solo violin with a selection of his Chorale verses crowned by the epic Ciaconna, in which instrumentalist and vocalists are united.
The group continues in its quest to forge relationships with living composers. 2002 opened with the world première of Piers Hellawell’s The Pear Tree of Nicostratus in Finland, with the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra; also in this year they gave the US première of MacMillan’s Quickening with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In September 2003 they performed the world premiere performance of the 3rd Symphony of Stephen Hartke with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel.
In 04 they celebrated their 30th year with a series of concerts at the Wigmore Hall, appearances at the Holland Festival in a new opera, Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer by Luca Francesconi; performances of Quickening in Liverpool and at the Edinburgh Festival. Recent recordings for ECM New Series include a disc of motets by Machaut, a disc of Nicolas Gombert and the complete Bach Motets sung with one voice to a part.
In 2007 the group collaborated with the Munich Chamber Orchestra with a new work by Erkki-Sven Tüür,. Also in this year the group joined forces with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra to premiere Nunc Dimittis by the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov and later recorded it for ECM.
Work began back in May 2007 on a project with the German composer Heiner Goebbels in a production by the Théâtre Vidy, Lausanne: it will premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in 08 and go on to tour Europe and the US in 2008/09. In 2009/10 they will work with the Arditti Quartet and the Chilingirian String Quartet amongst others.
In addition to their many collaborations, the group continues to give a cappella concerts of old and new music throughout the world.
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