Tallis Scholars mourn soprano, 72
RIPMessage from Peter Phillips and the Tallis Scholars:
‘It is with great sadness that we share the news that soprano Deborah Roberts has died. Deborah performed over 1200 concerts with us between 1977 and 2012. She sang the high soprano part of Allegri’s , on at least 285 occasions, including famously on a recording from Santa Maria Maggiore in 1994 and on our live Sistine Chapel recording of the same year. In 2005, The Tallis Scholars recorded the Allegri for Gimell Records, and it is that recording and Deborah’s soprano voice that you can hear in this excerpt. Deborah also had great success with her own ensemble Musica Secreta and co-founded the Brighton Early Music Festival, combining all of this with her academic research and choral conducting. She will be very missed by so many people in the music world and beyond.’
Peter Phillips writes: ‘Deborah had a voice which perfectly suited The Tallis Scholars’ sound, not least in the demands of Allegri’s . She was a supreme artist.’
Brighton EMF says: ‘It was an enormous privilege to work alongside Deborah over many years, and her exceptional creativity and professionalism have shaped the Festival into what it is today.’
Also: Cappella Artemisia mourns the passing of Deborah Roberts, co-founder of Musica Secreta, a wonderful musician and a true champion of music of cloistered women. She will be greatly missed.
Deborah retired from the Tallis Scholars in 2012 and from the Brighton EMF a month ago, due to ill-health.
I was hoping that some of Deborah’s colleagues would post some memories of her more recent than mine. I sang with her often in the late 70s and early 80s. She was an extraordinary performer, and her personality was inspiriational.
I was lucky enough to work with Deborah in more recent years through involvement with the Brighton Early Music Festival.Her vision and passion for the festival and for the music she loved, burned bright to the end. I feel privileged to have known her.
I only met her once and spoke briefly; I knew her from concerts and recordings (many of them). She had an extraordinary voice: completely focused and accurate, and sometimes with the brilliant, penetrating quality of a narrow laser beam — perfect for projecting into an acoustic.