Judy Tarling, a baroque music specialist, has died of cancer at age 78. Her career spanned several decades and encompassed multiple roles within the early music field, including performance, orchestral leadership, and education.
Tarling began her professional musical career in 1970 as a violinist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She subsequently spent two years in Canada, where she developed her interest in early music performance. Upon returning to Britain, she transitioned to baroque violin and helped establish Brighton Baroque, while also performing as a viola player with period-instrument ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, the Hanover Band, and the London Handel Orchestra.
From 1981 onward, Tarling served as both a viola player and later as leader of The Parley of Instruments, recording extensively with the ensemble on the Hyperion label. She contributed significantly to the development of the ensemble’s Renaissance violin consort, designed for 16th- and early 17th-century repertoire. Tarling also co-developed baroque orchestral courses, initially at Little Benslow Hills in Hitchin and subsequently with Cambridge Early Music, which was established in 1993. She led orchestras for the Suffolk Villages festival and Leeds Baroque while conducting teaching engagements across Europe and the Americas.
Tarling authored five books on baroque music and performance practice, beginning with “Baroque String Playing for Ingenious Learners” (2000) and “The Weapons of Rhetoric: A Guide for Musicians and Performers” (2004), the latter becoming standard reference material for musicians worldwide. Her later work “Landscapes of Eloquence: Finding Rhetoric in the English Landscape Garden” (2020) reflected her long-standing interest in garden history and design.
Tarling is survived by her husband Peter Lay, whom she married in 1985, her children Kathy and Thomas, her grandson Griffin, and her siblings Christine and John.
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