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Alfred Deller was the first renowned countertenor. As a child, Deller studied voice first with his father as a boy soprano, and when his voice changed he continued his singing as a countertenor. He joined the Canterbury Cathedral choir in 1940, where Michael Tippett heard him and invited him to London to make his debut. He came to the attention of the English public after a 1946 radio broadcast of Purcell's Come, ye sons of art, away. During the early years of his career, he concentrated on performing English Baroque and pre-Baroque composers such as Purcell and Dowland. In 1950 he formed the Deller Consort, a group that dedicated itself to performing early music using authentic performance practice. For many years, the group toured Europe and the Americas, bringing the music of this period to a new public. In 1964, Deller's son, Mark, joined the Deller Consort, also as a countertenor. Deller founded the Stour Music Festival in 1963 in order to have another venue for his Consort and to team with other early music specialists such as Franz Bruggen and Gustav Leonhardt. In 1960, he sang the role of Oberon in the premiere of Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This was the first important countertenor role in opera of the 20th century. He repeated the role at Covent Garden Opera House, London, the following year. Other composers who wrote works specifically for Deller include Fricker, Mellers, Ridout, and Rubbra. In 1970, he was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He died while on vacation in Italy.

Alfred Deller set the standard for countertenors for many years. His voice was very light with a wonderful lyric quality. He was most effective in the more contemplative pieces, but when necessary he was able to sing very florid pieces extremely well. Although he could sing the dramatic arias of Handel, he never allowed his voice to be pushed beyond its basically light sound. Deller's recordings cover the entire range of his repertoire from the lute songs of Dowland to Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with many stops along the way. Without Alfred Deller, the international recognition of countertenor voice might not have come as quickly as it did.

Desmond Dupré was a pioneer in the performance of lute and viola da gamba during the twentieth century early music revival. After studying chemistry at Oxford, he began his musical training at the Royal College of Music in 1946, where he studied cello with Ivor James and harmony with Herbert Howells. The following year, he taught himself the viol and started to perform professionally as a guitarist and also as a cellist with the Boyd Neel Orchestra. In 1950, he made his first of many recordings with Alfred Deller, accompanying him on the guitar. After teaching himself the lute, he used that instrument for further collaborations with Deller, including a 1951 Wigmore Hall debut recital, and became the first president of the Lute Society (1956-1973). Dupré performed regularly with other leading early music groups, including the Julian Bream Consort, the Jacobean Consort of Viols, and Musica Reservata. He recorded Bach's sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord with Thurston Dart, and Dart reconstructed a Handel concerto for lute and harp, which Dupré premiered.

Pleasant and smooth of voice, Gerald English became one of England's most important lyric tenors in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Although most often remembered as a concert and oratorio singer, he sang many opera performances in a wide-ranging repertory that covered several centuries. He was as comfortable and authentic in Monteverdi as he was in the music of his own time. During the latter part of his performing career, he became a respected professor of music. After spending much of his early years in Belgium and Northern France, English entered Oxford University as a student of science. Following a period of military service, he returned to school, this time as a student at the Royal College of Music undertaking voice studies with Jennifer Ryan. At age 25, he became a member of the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir and, shortly thereafter, the Deller Consort. With the latter, his continental upbringing proved of value in singing idiomatic French. During this time, he also began to build a reputation as a recitalist, eventually gaining particular authority as an interpreter of Fauré. English's debut in opera took place with the English Opera Group in 1955 when he sang the evil Peter Quint both in England and in Milan. In addition to works by Britten, English received good notices for his interpretations in works by contemporary composers such as Tippett, Richard Rodney Bennett (who had requested him for the title role in The Ledge), Berg, Stravinsky, Dallapiccola, and Henze. The venues in which he sang included Paris, Vienna, Barcelona, and Stockholm, as well as Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, and Sadler's Wells (predecessor to the English National Opera). Meanwhile, his concert work took him to various cities in America, Brussels, Rome, Cologne, Stockholm, Lisbon, Amsterdam, and Rio de Janeiro. Beginning in 1960, English served as a professor of music at his alma mater, the RCM, and in 1977, he assumed directorship of the Victoria College of the Arts in Melbourne while continuing his concert and recital work. Among the singer's many recordings are fine ones of French songs, Bach cantatas, Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Purcell's Te Deum and lute songs, and Vaughan William's The Pilgrim's Progress.

Maurice Bevan was best known as the lead baritone with the a cappella ensemble, the Deller Consort, a group whose main focus was early vocal works, particularly those of Baroque-era British composers like Henry Purcell and John Dowland. Bevan appeared in numerous concerts and on countless recordings with the ensemble. Among the more memorable achievements of the Deller Consort was its acclaimed 1955 recording of the Thomas Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah. Bevan's career was well-rounded and extended into many other areas: he appeared often on the BBC children's radio program Listen With Mother (1950-1982), where he usually sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"; he also sang with the choir at St. Paul's Cathedral as a vicar choral and made several recordings with them as well. In addition, he was a music editor and composer of several hymn tunes, among them "Corvedale." What is easily among Bevan's greatest assets, though, was his longevity: he sang with the Deller Consort for more than 40 years, and critics often remarked about the richness, resonance, and flexibility of his voice when he was well past 60.

Bevan was born in Shropshire, England, on March 10, 1921. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were Anglican clergymen, and his brother Roger was a choirmaster and founder of the renowned Bevan Family Choir.

Maurice Bevan studied at Magdalen College, Oxford. After serving in the military during World War II, he worked in Germany in broadcasting for a time. He returned to England in the late '40s to accept a post as vicar choral at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

A fellow vicar choral there was Alfred Deller, who established his choral group in 1950. Bevan joined as the ensemble's lead, and often only, baritone (or bass-baritone).

Bevan remained one of the key figures in the group following Deller's death in 1979. Deller was succeeded by his son Mark. Bevan often appeared on recordings with the Deller Consort around this time, but also with the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir. His 1980 recording of the Haydn Mass in D minor (Nelsonmesse), with the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir and London Bach Orchestra (reissued on Guild Records in 1995) was among his more notable later achievements. Bevan gradually retired from the Deller Consort in the late '80s. He then served as a mentor to young singers at the Deller Academy until its 1996 closing. Bevan died on June 20, 2006.