Tonus Peregrinus

TONUS PEREGRINUS was founded by the composer Antony Pitts in 1990, during his studies with Dr Edward Higginbottom at New College, Oxford, to record Music for a Large Audience, and today is an established ensemble in Britain and abroad with a significant discography on Hyperion and Naxos. Acclaim in the BBC Music Magazine, Fanfare, Gramophone, and The Telegraph speaks for itself: “utterly spellbinding”, “heatedly recommended”, “utterly beguiling”, “gloriously sung by this superb choir”, as does the prestigious Cannes Classical Award for the ensemble’s debut release and No.1 album of Arvo Pärt’s Passio – Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, as was the Hyperion album Seven Letters and other sacred choral music. TONUS PEREGRINUS has a history of performing at extraordinary occasions such as the memorials for Alexander Litvinenko – a former audience member – and of putting on remarkable live productions such as a semi-staged version of the 14th-century Le Voir Dit by Guillaume de Machaut; other innovative projects include The Naxos Book of Carols – circulated to millions of homes in the UK and available as a printed carol-book from Faber Music – and the ensemble’s studio rendition of Tears for Fears’s Mad World. At the core of TONUS PEREGRINUS are a dozen singers – Joanna Forbes L’Estrange, Rebecca Hickey, Lisa Beckley, Kathryn Knight, Alexander L’Estrange, Richard Eteson, Benedict Hymas, Matthew Long, Alexander Hickey, Alex Knight, Francis Brett, Nick Flower – who combine their diverse expertise to interpret a repertoire ranging from the end of the Dark Ages to scores where the ink is still wet. This breadth of vision is reflected in the name of the ensemble which comes from an ancient plainsong psalm tone with Jewish origins, directly linked to the Passover and the Last Supper. The tonus peregrinus chant starts on a different note in each half, hence “wandering tone” and was nicknamed tonus novissimus, the “newest”.