The King's Singers

10 / 01 / 2012

2012 - European Tour to Start the Year

2012 begins with a series of concerts around Europe, visiting cities in the Czech Republic, The United Arab Emirates, Italy, Germany and France.

Tonight we perform our first concert of the year in the beautiful Church of St. Simon and St. Jude in Prague. We will be performing the programme “A Lover’s Journey” which includes the four-song set of the same name by Libby Larsen, as well as tracks from our latest album, High Flight.

Having performed for The Dubai Concert Committee in April 2011, we return there on Thursday for their gala concert of 2012, “Dinner with The King’s Singers”. Following a first half of madrigals by Weelkes, Bennet, Byrd and Tomkins, we will then perform a selection of close-harmony favourites.

On Sunday 15 January we have our first performance of the “Royal Rhymes and Rounds” programme that we will be touring throughout 2012 in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. This is a programme of music influenced by Royal Courts throughout history. With music from King Henry VIII’s manuscript, madrigals from the time of Elizabeth I and part-songs from the age of Queen Victoria this really is a feast of music through the ages. The programme also includes a brand new piece by Paul Drayton, an amusing musical history that explores the sometimes precarious nature of the succession of England’s monarchs. We are delighted to be performing A Rough Guide to the Royal Succession and look forward to sharing it with audiences across the world during 2012. The concert takes place in the spectacular Saloncino del Teatro della Pergola in Florence.

Following a short visit to Udine for a performance of our much-loved programme “Friends” on Monday evening, we fly to Cologne for a concert at the Cologne Philharmonie. We are thrilled to be returning to our friends and fans in Cologne, and will perform “Tanzen und Springen”, a programme that explores choral compositions of many styles which are inspired by dance music.

Our final country to visit in January is France, where we perform six concerts, including at the Salle Gaveau in Paris and the Polydome in Clermont Ferrand.

We do hope that you are able to join us for one of our performances across Europe, further information about concert dates can be seen on our concerts page. We look forward to seeing you soon.

19 / 01 / 2012

Join us at a live recording

Tickets are now on sale for you to join us for a concert that is being recorded for a live album release on the Naxos label later this year. On Saturday 24 March 2012, we will be in Nashville, Tennessee, for a concert in the Cathedral of the Incarnation, and would be delighted if you are able to share the evening with us.

The programme, “Pater Noster”, is a meditative exploration of music inspired by or linked to The Lord’s Prayer. With works both ancient and modern, we will be performing pieces by Josquin, Palestrina and Byrd as well as Stravinsky, Bernstein, and Duruflé and many others.

Tickets for this Choral Refection are available online or by calling +1 800 838 3006

23 / 01 / 2012

Vocal Australia help promote King’s Singers tour

We are delighted that Vocal Australia, Australia’s Contemporary A Cappella Hub, have been promoting our upcoming tour to Australia and New Zealand to all of their fabulous members. At the heart of Australian a cappella music, Vocal Australia presents a variety of highly successful programs throughout Australia including their GET VOCAL Festivals, Showcases and Workshops. By providing events, education and resources for singers, Vocal Australia is on a "Multi-harmonic crusade" to grow and nurture the future of Aussie a cappella. As part of our visit to Australia, Vocal Australia ran competitions to win tickets to our concerts in Melbourne and Sydney, and we are very much looking forward to meeting the winners.

Tickets are selling fast for our concerts in Australia and New Zealand, so make sure you book up now before it is too late. Full details of all the concerts are available on our calendar, but as a quick run down of dates, we will be performing in the following places:

10 February – Adelaide Festival Centre with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

11 February – Adelaide Festival Centre with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra

14 February – Melbourne Recital Centre

15 February – Melbourne Recital Centre

16 February – Sydney Opera House

19 February – Queensland Performing Arts Centre with the Queensland Pops Orchestra

22 February – The Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, Hamilton, New Zealand

25 February – Auckland Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand

As our first visit to Australia in 27 years, we cannot wait to start the tour.

If you would like to know more information about Vocal Australia, please do follow one of the links below:

Website: http://www.vocalaustralia.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/VocalAustralia

Twitter: @VocalAustralia

03 / 02 / 2012

Sell-out at Salisbury Cathedral

We were delighted to see more than 1100 people at Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday 28th January, when we said farewell to Philip after 18 years with the group. It was a wonderful evening, and we were joined by the fabulous South Wilts A Cappella Choir, conducted by Libby Poppleton, who sang Duruflé's Requiem, as well as performing with us for Bob Chilcott's Even Such is Time. The programme for the evening also included a group of folk songs that had been arranged by both Philip himself, and also long time friend of the group, Gordon Langford, who was able to join us for the concert. As usual, at the end of the evening, we performed a selection of close harmony pieces, and these were all chosen by Philip, and included I'm a Train, Lullabye and It's a New World.

Philip had been a King's Singer for 18 years, and it was fitting that his final performance was in his home town of Salisbury , where he sang with the choir before leaving to join The King's Singers.

Below is a message from Philip to all King's Singer fans who have supported him over the years:

Dear friends,

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank fans and friends of the group worldwide for your tremendous support over the years and your many kind comments both after concerts and by email, not just about my singing, but also about my arrangements. It means an awful lot to have your work acknowledged and affirmed, but it means even more to know that occasionally your music can actually affect people's lives in a positive way. That's the biggest incentive there is to continue writing, which I of course intend to do! So many thanks, and see you/hear from you soon!

Philip

09 / 02 / 2012

First visit to Australia for 27 years

The first King's Singers tour to Australia and New Zealand in 27 years has begun.

Whilst Tuesday was spent acclimatizing to the time zone and the weather, Wednesday was an action packed day of media engagements in Sydney, as well as a masterclass in the wonderful Church of St. James. Below are some pictures of us relaxing at the ABC studio prior to our interview, and if you would like to hear our interview on ABC Brisbane, then click here.

Other events for the day included lunch with the composer Elena Kats-Chernin, who was commissioned to write the piece River's Lament for us two years ago, and we will be performing the piece throughout our tour. We were joined by a reporter from national newspaper The Australian, who has written an article about our collaborative work with the composer. 

The first performance of the tour takes place on Friday at the Adelaide Festival Centre, where we will be joining the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and conductor Olliver-Philippe Cuneo for a programme of our favourite works with orchestra, including Jubilee Sequence, Over the Rainbow, as well as some tracks from the CD Swimming Over London.

We look forward to meeting some of our Australian fans at the upcoming concerts.

13 / 02 / 2012

The King's Singers become double Grammy Award winning artists

We are delighted to announce that at the Grammy Awards last night, Light and Gold, won the Best Choral Performance Category. The album was released in October 2010 and became the number 1 Classical Album in the US and UK charts within a week, reaping unanimous 5 start reviews across the board.

The Stolen Child  was commissioned to celebrate our 40th anniversary, and we are thrilled to become a double Grammy award winning artist. In a 5 star review, BBC Music Magazine said of the work “‘The Stolen Child’, a joint commission for the King’s Singers and the National Youth Chorus of Great Britain, is the most immediately impressive. Here Whitacre deftly weaves the entreating faerie voices of Yeat’s poem with that of the ‘human child’ in closely interlocking textures whose shifting strands are expertly rendered by the artists in this performance.” 

The piece makes frequent appearances in our concert programmes around the world. and we are looking forward to performing it on our upcoming tour to the US in March. 

This is Eric Whitacre's debut album as a conductor on Decca/Universal, and we are delighted for him to receive his first Grammy Award for this disc. Congratulations also to the other performers: Christopher Glynn, Hila Plitmann, Laudibus, Pavao Quartet and the Eric Whitacre Singers.

14 / 02 / 2012

King's Singers on Australian Radio

The media coverage surrounding our current tour to Australia has been phenomenal, and we have been delighted with the support and enthusiasm with which we have been greeted at every destination so far.

Following the announcement of the Grammy Award on Sunday evening, we were interviewed as a group live on ABC Melbourne, performing I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, and also a short excerpt from Now is the Month of Maying. Our first performance in Melbourne was at the stunning Recital Centre, with a programme specially crafted for Valentine's Day. Click here to listen to us speaking with Richard Stubbs about the tour so far. 

Chris Bruerton, as the newest member of the group, and also the first non-British King's Singer, has been writing a blog for the wonderful online publication Limelight. His first blog has been posted, and he will be communicating with Limelight throughout the tour. Click here to read his first instalment, where Chris discusses his debut performance at the Adelaide Festival Centre with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. With this being the first tour for Chris, people have been very keen to speak to him about the audition process, and how he is finding life as a King's Singer. Click here to listen to him talking to Arts Breakfast about his journey so far. 

Performances continue in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, before we fly to New Zealand for concerts and masterclasses in Hamilton and Auckland. 

22 / 02 / 2012

The King's Singers on New Zealand TV

To start our tour to New Zealand, we were delighted to appear on the national TVNZ programme Good Morning. Following a performance of Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, we were then interviewed by the two hosts about many aspects of group life-style including rehearsal, decision making, and how Chris Bruerton became a member. Click here to watch us in action. 

Chris Bruerton and David also appeared together on Radio New Zealand for the programme Nine Till Noon. The full interview can be heard here, and you can listen to discussion on the history of the group, David's highlights so far from his life as a King's Singer, and information on the upcoming concerts in New Zealand. 

We had a wonderful time during our visit to Australia, and there have been some excellent reviews following our performances. After their article on our work with composer Elena Kats-Chernin, The Australian reviewed our concert with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra on 10 February. To read the full article, please click here. 

The start of our trip to New Zealand has us in Hamilton for three days, with a master class and concert at The Waikato University, followed by an opportunity to do some filming for The King's Singers Foundation. We end this spectacular trip with a concert in Auckland Town Hall on Saturday 25th February. 

24 / 02 / 2012

Melbourne Concert Broadcast on ABC Classic FM

If you have been following our recent tour to Australia and New Zealand but have not been able to join us for a concert in person, then there is an opportunity to listen to our performance from the Melbourne Recital Centre on 15th February 2012. Recorded live, the concert will be broadcast on Saturday 25th February at 13:05 AEST on ABC Classic FM and streamed live to their website. If you are unable to listen live to this, then the concert will be available through the "Listen Again" tab for a short time. 

With a programme that includes madrigals, Australian folk songs that were arranged especially for this tour, the wonderful River's Lament by Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin as well a collection of Close Harmony favourites, we hope that you enjoy the concert. 

07 / 03 / 2012

Spring 2012 US Tour

We touched down in Los Angeles last night for the start of our Spring tour to the United States and Canada. With 11 performances in 10 different cities as well as 3 master class sessions, this will be an action packed tour that takes us from Palm Desert to Princeton and Swift Current to Shepherdstown.

On Saturday 24 March we will be in Nashville, Tennessee, for a concert in the Cathedral of the Incarnation, that is being recorded for a live album release on the Naxos label later this year.  The programme, “Pater Noster”, is a meditative exploration of music inspired by or linked to The Lord’s Prayer. With works both ancient and modern, we will be performing pieces by Josquin, Palestrina and Byrd as well as Stravinsky, Bernstein, and Duruflé and many others. If you cannot join us for the live performance, be sure to get a copy of the album when it is released. 

It is also a great pleasure that we are able to celebrate with the New York Staff Band of The Salvation Army on the occasion of their 125th Anniversary. A trailer for the concert can be viewed here, and we hope that you are able to attend this special event on Thursday 22 March at the wonderful Carnegie Hall in New York. 

As always we are looking forward to meeting with our American and Canadian fans both old and new, please do come and see us at one of our upcoming concerts. 

12 / 03 / 2012

Number 1 in New Zealand Classical Chart

For the third week in a row High Flight has reached number one in the Radio New Zealand Classical Charts. It is also joined in the top 10 by Greatest Hits (40th Anniversary Edition) currently placed at number five, From the Heart following closely at number six, and Swimming Over London at number eight. 

After such a wonderful tour to Australia and New Zealand, we are delighted that our music is continuing to be enjoyed. For further information about our CDs, please visit our online store. 

16 / 03 / 2012

Live Recording Tickets on Sale

Tickets are selling fast for our live recording for Naxos on Saturday 24th March in Nashville, do do not miss your chance to join us for this special event. In advance of the concert, Tim had a phone interview with the reporter from Art Now Nashville, and you can read the full article here.

We would be delighted to see our friends and supporters at this concert, tickets are available for purchase online or by phone +1 800 838 3006. The live recording of the concert will be released on Naxos in Autumn 2012, and we are looking forward to sharing this beautiful programme. With choral reflections drawing on music from the 1500s until the present day, “Pater Noster”, is a meditative exploration of music inspired by or linked to The Lord’s Prayer.

23 / 03 / 2012

Carnegie Hall Performance

On the evening of Thursday 22 March, we performed live at Carnegie Hall New York, sharing the stage with The New York Staff Band of the Salvation Army on the occasion of their 125th Anniversary. Given our long association with the Salvation Army, we were delighted to join them for this special event.

Two new pieces were arranged for us to perform with The New York Staff Band by composers Len Ballantine and Stephen Bulla. In addition to these we also performed one set of music from our Choral Essays recordings, including the title tracks from all three CDs: The Quiet Heart, In This Quiet Moment, and Reflections, as well as some of our close-harmony favourites. 

The final concert of the current US Tour takes place on Saturday 24 March in Nashville, TN. Our performance of the programme "Pater Noster" is being recorded live for release on the Naxos label in Autumn 2012, we are delighted to be recording this beautiful music for them. 

10 / 04 / 2012

April Tour 2012

Limited tickets are still available for our upcoming performances in April, so do not miss out on your chance to see us performing throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Do check out the concerts listing to see where you can purchase tickets. 

We will be performing a number of different programmes throughout the tour, including "Will you, won't you join the dance?" in Würzburg, "Myths" in the Berlin Philharmonie and in Salzburg, and "Zeitreise" in both Heidelberg and Fribourg. 

Our final concert of the tour, a performance in Boswil of our recently recorded Pater Noster programme has already sold out. If you have missed out on the chance to hear us in the beautiful Alte Kirche, you will be able to hear the programme when our Naxos disc is released in Autumn this year. 

We would be delighted to see friends and supporters both old and new, so please do join us if you can. 

17 / 04 / 2012

Berlin Philharmonie

We will be performing at the Berlin Philharmonie on Sunday 22 April as part of our upcoming tour. We are delighted to be performing the programme Myths, which includes Renaissance madrigals by Morley, Weelkes and Croce, as well as the beautiful trio of pieces by Gabriela Lena Frank, Tres Mitos de Mi Tierra (Three Myths of My Land - 2009). This piece was commissioned by the Minnesota Commissioning Club, and while the work is completely original, it draws direct inspiration from the mountain cultures of Perú, Bolivia,and Ecuador. Frequently referred to as “singing mountaineers,” the people of the Andes enjoy a contemporary artistic expression that still carries the overtones of their Inca and pre-Inca past. The concert will close with a selection of our Close Harmony favourites, drawing on pieces from our recent albums Simple Gifts and Swimming Over London.

This tour will include eight concerts and two masterclasses, with performances taking place in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Full details of the concerts can be found on our online calendar. 

20 / 04 / 2012

Return to Ireland

It has been over 10 years since The King's Singers last performed in Ireland, and so we are delighted to be heading there at the start of May for two concerts and one education workshop. 

On Thursday 3 May we will be visiting Cork for a performance at Cork Opera House as part of the Cork International Choral Festival. We are delighted to be part of this fantastic Festival, which features over 80 events in the course of five days, including a range of world class Gala Concerts, the prestigious Fleischmann International Trophy competition, a Festival Fringe as well as a Choral Trail leading people around the city. We will be performing the programme "An Evening with The King's Singers", a wonderful mixed selection of both classics and modern pieces, including Renaissance madrigals by Morley and Wilbye, works by Parry and Stanford, the fabulous Nonsense Madrigals by Ligeti and the famous Masterpiece by Paul Drayton. The evening will of course end with a selection of Close Harmony favourites. 

On Saturday 5th May, we perform at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, and here the programme will be "Will you, won't you, join the dance?", taking audience members on a journey of dance music throughout history. In addition to our evening performance, we are delighted that experienced animateur Richard Frostick will be leading an education workshop during the day at the National Concert Hall, and we will join him for the afternoon session, exploring Royal Rhymes and Rounds through the ages. 

26 / 04 / 2012

Johnny writes for Sounds New Festival

Prior to our performance at the Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival on 15 May 2012, Johnny was asked to write a blog introducing the group to the Festival audience and explaining a little about the programme we will be performing. To read the full article, please click here.

We are delighted to be appearing at the Festival, and will be performing a number of pieces that have been commissioned for the group over time, as well as sharing our latest work from Paul Drayton, A Rough Guide to the Royal Succession. Contemporary music and new commissions are an important part of our repertoire and we look forward to sharing this especially crafted programme with the Sounds New Festival in May, 

30 / 04 / 2012

Chris G on RTÉ Radio

Tune in to RTÉ Lyric FM at 19:00 on Monday 30 April to hear Chris Gabbitas join presenter Aedín Gormley for a special edition of "My Tunes". Chris has chosen a selection of musical works including those that inspired him at a young age, pieces connected to his time as a King's Singer, as well as works that he uses to unwind whilst on tour, and he will be sharing these pieces and some of their connections during the programme. The programme will be streamed live on the internet and available for 'listen again' for a short while afterwards. 

This interview is broadcast prior to our appearances in Ireland, at the Cork International Opera Festival on Thursday 3 May and at the National Concert Hall in Dublin on Saturday 5 May. 

04 / 05 / 2012

Classic FM exclusive - Sunday

Listen to the Chart Show on Classic FM between 5 and 7pm on Sunday (6 May) to hear an exclusive preview of our Royal Rhymes and Rounds CD. Marking the Diamond Jubilee of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, we have created a lively programme of secular music from the reigns of some of the Queen’s more colourful forebears, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Victoria. Also on the disc is a true masterpiece from Paul Drayton – ‘A Rough Guide to the Royal Succession’.

The disc (on the Signum label) will be released in June to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

11 / 05 / 2012

Diamond Jubilee Performance at Lichfield Cathedral

We are delighted that we will be performing Royal Rhymes and Rounds, our programme created to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, at Lichfield Cathedral on the evening of Friday 1 June as part of their Jubilee celebrations. Music from the time of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria as well as our brand new commission by Paul Drayton, will be performed in the stunning setting of Lichfield Cathedral. Tickets for this event are available from the Lichfield Festival website.

Our brand new CD of the same name is available for purchase from Monday 4 June, so if you would like the opportunity to continue listening to this beautiful programme, do make sure to get your copy. 

14 / 05 / 2012

Successful Workshops at Worcester

The second installment of the Foundation workshops took place at King's School Worcester on Monday 30 April following up from the first session that took place in March. Once again, College Hall was filled with approximately 70 young people, and they worked with Richard Frostick, animateur for The King's Singers Foundation, on a number of pieces inspired by the Royal Courts through the ages. 

We were thrilled that a number of students submitted Rounds following these sessions, and are glad that they were able to explore this wonderful musical form with Richard.

After the session with Richard, The King's Singers worked with the senior chamber choir at the school in preparation for their concert later in the week. The group covered expression, clarity of communication, variety in colour and some general vocal techniques with the choir, and were extremely impressed with the high standard of the students. 

14 / 05 / 2012

Contemporary Music Festival Appearance

We are delighted to be appearing at Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival 2012 on Tuesday 15th May, as part of their "Theme GB" year. As well as performing our brand new commission by Paul Drayton, "A Rough Guide to the Royal Succession", we will also be performing a number of works that have been specifically commissioned for The King's Singers. 

First performed at the St. Magnus Festival in 1986, Sea Runes by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is is a haunting and evocative setting of a group of six poems by Brown and was written as a companion piece to House of Winter. The six contrasting poems are “Five Crags,’’ “Elder,” “Crofter/Fisherman,” “Shopkeeper,” “New Boat,” and “Fishmonger.

Scenes in America Deserta by John McCabe was commissioned by The King's Singers, to whom it is dedicated and the text is from Reyner Banham's classic book of the same title.

We look forward to sharing these wonderful commissions among many other pieces with the audience at Canterbury tomorrow, we would be delighted if you were able to join us.

17 / 05 / 2012

Royal Rhymes and Rounds at Bridgewater Hall

Tickets are now on sale for our performance of "Royal Rhymes and Rounds" at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on 25 September 2012. We will be performing music from our latest CD release of the same name, including Tudor songs, some of which are attributed to Henry VIII himself, madrigals from the time of Queen Elizabeth I, part songs from the time of Queen Victoria, and our new commission by British composer Paul Dratyon. 

We have been thrilled with the reception that this programme has received so far, and would be delighted if you could join us in Manchester in September. For further information about the concert and to book tickets, please visit The Bridgewater Hall website.