The Kirbye Consort takes its name from George Kirbye (c. 1565 – 1634), household musician to the Jermyn family at Rushbrooke Hall, near Bury St Edmunds, and neighbour of the composer John Wilbye, at Hengrave Hall.
Both composers contributed to Thomas Morley's Triumphs of Oriana (1601), having both recently published their first books of madrigals, Kirbye in 1597 and Wilbye in 1598.
The choir was formed in the 1970’s, is based in Bury St Edmunds, and is a chamber choir, rather than a consort , of two dozen or so singers, which specialises in unaccompanied vocal music, both sacred and secular, much of it from the Elizabethan period.
Since 1996 the repertoire of The Kirbye Consort has included music by Bach (including all six of his motets), Bairstow, Boyce, Britten, Bruckner, Buxtehude, Byrd, Carissimi (‘Jephtha’ & ‘Jonah’), Carter, Cavendish, Dering, Elgar, Fauré, Finzi (the Seven Part-songs to poems by Robert Bridges), Gibbons, Greene, Ireland, Holst, Jeffreys, Joubert, Kirbye, Leighton, Locke, Lotti, Mendelssohn, Messiaen, Palestrina (‘Stabat Mater’), Parsley (‘Lamentations’), Parry (including the ‘Songs of Farewell’), Parsons, Pårt, de Pearsall, Pergolesi (‘Stabat Mater’), Purcell, Rachmaninov, Roberton, Scarlatti (‘Stabat Mater’), Schubert, Schütz (‘St Matthew Passion’ & ‘St John Passion’), Stanford, Tallis (including the 40-part motet and the ‘Lamentations’), Tavener, Tippett, Victoria, Tomkins, Weelkes, Wesley, Wilbye and Vaughan Williams.
Since 1996 The Kirbye Consort has sung in Bury St Edmunds at the Cathedral, at St Mary’s Church (where Kirbye was a churchwarden and where he is buried), at St John’s Church, at St Edmund’s Church, at St George’s Church at the Friends’ Meeting House and at the Unitarian Meeting House, as well as for various groups within the town. In the surrounding area the Consort has sung at Ely Cathedral, at Hengrave Hall, and at churches in Bildeston, Brent Eleigh, Brettenham, Buxhall, Cavendish, Chelsworth, Cockfield, (Culford School Old Hall), Drinkstone, Edwardstone, Fornham All Saints, Framlingham, Great Barton, Great Saxham, Hawkedon, Hitcham, Horringer, Kettlebaston, Lavenham, Layham, Lindsey, Little Saxham, Little Waldingfield, Long Melford, Milden, (Milden Barn), Monks Eleigh, Newmarket, (Old Buckenham Hall), Preston St Mary, Risby, Rougham, Rushbrooke, Stansfield, Stanstead, Steeple Bumpstead, Stoke-by-Nayland, Stowmarket (in the Regal theatre for the Concerts Society), Thorpe Morieux, Tuddenham, Woolpit, (Wyken Hall) and Wyverstone, as well as at Kevelaer in West Germany.
During the course of those recitals it has raised several thousands of pounds for the various venues, charging only minimum expenses and often even dispensing with those.