Tenebrae

The Tenebrae chamber choir’s qualities of passion and precision are rooted in the best of the Oxbridge and Anglican Cathedral choral tradition. The ensemble came to life at the start of the 21st century to perform The Dream of Herod, a work by its cofounder and conductor Nigel Short. Short, a former member of The King’s Singers, was encouraged by his neighbor, the ex-race car driver Jacques Villeneuve, to find 20 leading London-based professional choristers for the task, and the group gained further momentum via collaborations with the London Symphony Orchestra and composers including Joby Talbot, John Tavener, and Karl Jenkins. The Tenebrae’s versatility, which is as open to the tuneful work of Paul Mealor and Bob Chilcott as it is to chamber choir test pieces by Schoenberg and Stravinsky, mirrors Short’s refusal to become stuck in a repertory rut. Its class is most evident on exquisite recordings like Medieval Chant and Tallis Lamentations (2014).