Chelys Consort of Viols has garnered a reputation for its faithful yet fresh inter preta tions of the consort repertoire. The members are among the UK’s leading exponents of the viol, particularly as a consort instrument, and their viols are strung entirely in gut (as would have been the case historically), lending them a particularly distinctive sound.
Chelys performs in the UK and internationally, has broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and in 2019 made its Wigmore Hall début alongside Dame Emma Kirkby, with whom the ensemble has also recorded an album of works by John Dowland and his contemporaries. This and its three other releases on the BIS label have received considerable critical acclaim, The Strad praising the ‘devoted skill and sensitivity’ of the playing, and Gramophone declaring this to be unquestionably ‘the most beautiful recording of the Lachrimae’, while the consort’s Purcell album received a 5-star review in BBC Music Magazine.
The consort frequently enjoys working with other artists, as in their collaboration with Fieri Consort for ‘Amavi’, a recording of works by Michael East concluding with a new work by composer Jill Jarman, whose long association with Chelys has continued with the ground-breaking new project ‘The Language of Bells’, featuring percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.
For more information, please visit the Chelys Consort of Viols
website.
