Alamire is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 consort

Consort of instruments

A consort of instruments was a phrase used in England during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to indicate an instrumental ensemble. These could be of the same or a variety of instruments. Consort music enjoyed considerable popularity at court and in households of the wealthy in the...

 specialising in medieval

Early music

Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

 and Renaissance music, both secular and religious

Religious music

Religious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion. Many forms of traditional music have been adapted to fit religions'...

. It was founded by David Skinner

David Skinner (musicologist)

Dr David Skinner is Director of Music at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He co-founded the Cardinall's Musick and Magdala....

 in 2005, and very swiftly has won praise for the quality and imagination of its recordings. "The performances fairly glow, and so does one's spirit after traversing this glorious programme." (Gramophone Magazine)

Alamire have recently won the contract to record the music accompanying the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

 exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the accession of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 to the throne in 1509.

Discography

Josquin Desprez: Missa D'ung aultre amer, Motets & Chansons (with Andrew Lawrence-King, harp)

Thomas Tomkins

Thomas Tomkins

Thomas Tomkins was an English composer of the late Tudor and early Stuart period. In addition to being one of the prominent members of the English madrigal school, he was a skilled composer of keyboard and consort music, and the last member of the English virginalist school.-Life:Tomkins was born...

: These Distracted Times (with Fretwork

Fretwork (music group)

Fretwork is a consort of viols based in England, United Kingdom. Formed in 1986, the group consisted of six players, while it is currently five viols...

 and the Choir of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Philippe Verdelot

Philippe Verdelot

Philippe Verdelot was a French composer of the Renaissance, who spent most of his life in Italy. He is commonly considered to be the father of the Italian madrigal, and certainly was one of its earliest and most prolific composers; in addition he was prominent in the musical life of Florence...

: Madrigals for a Tudor King (with Lynda Sayce, lute)