The Hilliard Ensemble gave its first concert in London in December 1973; the English a cappella quartet named itself after the Elizabethan miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard. Its focus was music written before 1600, but its repertoire extended to works by contemporary composers such as Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger and Arvo Pärt, some of whom wrote specifically for the ensemble. Its collaboration with ECM began in 1986 with Arvo Pärt’s “Arbos”; with the saxophonist Jan Garbarek it made “Officium”, “Mnemosyne” and “Officium Novum”. The ensemble ceased its activities at the end of 2014. On the album Rolf Riehm: aprikosenbäume gibt es, aprikosenbäume gibt es (2008) David James (countertenor), Rogers Covey-Crump and John Potter (tenor) as well as Gordon Jones (baritone) sing Riehm’s “Ahi bocca, ahi lingua” for four vocalists, recorded in 1994 in the Kleiner Sendesaal of the WDR in Cologne.
The Hilliard-Ensemble
Vocal ensemble
