Tallis Festival Tallis Festival The Tallis Festival, hosted by Exmoor Singers of London, forms the Tallis Festival Choir for just one weekend every 12 to 18 months. The Festival always includes Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium for 40-part choir, but in addition has commissioned new 40-part works by modern composers, as companion pieces to Spem in Alium. In 2007 the Festival was recognised by the BBC for its contribution to new music and highlights from the Festival were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on 28 October 2007. The Festival originated from "Tallis Performance Weekends", held periodically over a number of years. The
Canon Tallis do." The book in which Tallis first appears, "The Arm of the Starfish", is dedicated to Edward Nason West. The name is a reference to composer Thomas Tallis, who composed the Tallis Canon. Because of his namesake, Canon Tallis is nicknamed Tom or Father Tom. Canon Tallis Canon John Tallis is a major character in the young adult novels of Madeleine L'Engle, appearing in four books. The character is based on L'Engle's real-life spiritual advisor, Canon Edward Nason West of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. An Episcopal Canon, Tallis defies conventional expectations about how