2023 is an important year for The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools. It marks the beginning of an impressive expansion in what CRMSS is and does, now offering more than one course each year.

Launching another yearly event is a defining moment. While I have long marvelled at the willingness of Canadian singers and players to travel great distances to immerse themselves in Renaissance music for a week, it is now time for The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools to come to you and become the truly national organisation I know Greg envisages.

The success of past CRMSS events, CRMSS 2022 being the largest CRMSS course so far and a significant expansion in its own right, has laid the foundation for this ambitious, national project.

In fact, I know there is more to come. While CRMSS Pacific 2023 will last only one weekend, the plan in 2024 and beyond is to elevate CRMSS Pacific to be an equal partner with CRMSS Ontario. Looking further ahead, Greg and I both believe there is enough appetite in Canada to support more than two yearly events. You have shown it, over the last 5 years!

2023 is also an important year in the history of our music, marking two important anniversaries. A major figure in the establishment of a unique English musical style at the beginning of the Renaissance, William Cornish the Younger died in 1523. The style would grow in fame and influence, culminating in the work of the foremost English composer of his generation, William Byrd. Byrd’s death in 1623 will no doubt be remembered many times in 2023 all over the world (not least by The Tallis Scholars!) but CRMSS Ontario 2023 offers you a unique opportunity to focus completely on English polyphony for an entire week. Greg is keen to include it all, from the Eton Choirbook to the madrigals of John Wilbye and everything in between.

CRMSS Pacific 2023 will be the fifth course Greg and his team have run. That in itself is a milestone to be celebrated. I couldn’t be happier to be patron of The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools as it has established itself over the past few years and continues to thrive.

As I did all the way back in late 2017 when things were just beginning, I wish The Canadian Renaissance Music Summer Schools every success.

Yours sincerely, Peter

Peter Phillips
Director, The Tallis Scholars