Biography

The Rose Consort of Viols is one of Britain's most durable and successful Renaissance music ensembles. In addition to Renaissance and Baroque music, the group also performs contemporary music. The Rose Consort of Viols was founded in 1990. The group takes its name from two John Roses, father and son, who were famed viol makers in the 16th century. The Rose Consort's membership has remained generally stable and, as of the mid-2020s, included Ibrahim Aziz, John Bryan, Alison Crim, Andrew Kerr, Roy Marks, and Peter Wendland. Its programming is devoted to well-researched explorations of specific composers and repertories, to which instruments from over the viol's long history are carefully matched. Renaissance composers such as John Taverner and William Byrd and those of the Baroque, including William Lawes, Matthew Locke, and Henry Purcell, often appear in the Consort's concerts. The Consort also performs contemporary works by the likes of Malcolm Bruno, Elizabeth Liddle, and Ivan Moody. The group recorded frequently beginning soon after its founding; it issued two albums on the Amon Ra label, John Dowland's Lachrimae or Seaven Teares and Elizabethan Christmas Anthems, in 1990. The latter album featured the vocal ensemble Red Byrd, with which the Rose Consort has often collaborated. The Rose Consort of Viols has performed in many countries, and its concerts have included prestigious guests, including sopranos Ellen Hargis and Emma Kirkby, mezzo-sopranos Clare Wilkinson and Catherine King, the BBC Singers, lutenists Christopher Wilson, Jakob Lindberg, and Jacob Heringman, other ensembles such as the Marian Consort, Gallicantus, and Stile Antico, and the keyboardist Timothy Roberts. The Rose Consort has held concertizing-educational residencies at the Dartington International Summer School and the Benslow Foundation. The group has made more than 20 recordings as of the mid-2020s, many of them for the Naxos and Delphian labels. The 2023 album Thomas Weelkes: What Joy So True, featuring the Choir of Chichester Cathedral, appeared on Regent. ~ James Manheim, Rovi