The King’s Singers: Sensational Six-Part Harmony
Nov. 17 Concert to Include Sacred Music and Vocal “Postcards” From Around the World
Middlebury, VT—In the most highly anticipated arts concert of the year, the Middlebury College Performing Arts Series will present the renowned British a cappella sextet The King’s Singers on Tuesday, November 17 at Mead Memorial Chapel. The concert program will include sacred music from their album Pater Noster: A Choral Reflection on the Lord’s Prayer, as well as songs from their “Postcards Project,” a collection of folk and popular songs amassed on their worldwide travels.
About The King’s Singers
Founded in 1968 at King’s College in Cambridge, England, The King’s Singers have become synonymous with the very best in vocal ensemble performance. The sextet’s musical virtuosity and irresistible charm have earned the group a vast international audience, performing to hundreds of thousands of people each season all around the world. Instantly recognizable for their immaculate intonation, vocal blend, diction, and incisive timing, The King’s Singers are consummate entertainers.
Since the group’s founding, there have been 25 King’s Singers—the original six, and 19 replacements, each joining as somebody else leaves. The current members of The King’s Singers are countertenors David Hurley and Timothy Wayne-Wright, tenor Julian Gregory, baritones Christopher Bruerton and Christopher Gabbitas, and bass Jonathan Howard. The longest-tenured is Hurley, with 26 years to his credit as a King’s Singer; this is his final concert tour with the ensemble.
The group’s diverse repertoire includes more than 200 commissioned works, including landmark pieces from leading contemporary composers including Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, Sir James MacMillan, Krzysztof Penderecki, Toru Takemitsu, Sir John Tavener, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Eric Whitacre. The King’s Singers have also commissioned arrangements of everything from jazz standards to pop chart hits, explored medieval motets and Renaissance madrigals, and encouraged young composers to write new scores. They are two-time Grammy award-winning artists, and were recently voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
About the Program
The King’s Singers program for Middlebury includes two distinct halves, each with its own character and style. The first half, drawn the group’s recording Pater Noster: A Choral Reflection on the Lord’s Prayer, will include sacred music from English Renaissance composer William Byrd, 18th-century French composer Maurice Duruflé, and 20th-century musical icon Leonard Bernstein, among others. After intermission, The King’s Singers will take a musical tour around the globe with songs from their “Postcards Project,” a collection of folk and popular songs amassed on their travels. This half will include works from Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, Italy, France, and the United States. Performing Arts Series Director Allison Coyne Carroll arranged for this program in reflection of Middlebury College’s international strengths and outreach.
Jeffrey Buettner, Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Choral Activities, will offer a pre-concert lecture at 6:30 P.M. at Mead Chapel. Audience members are invited to come early to hear more about the ensemble, their musical tradition, and the works to be performed.
Please note: this concert was originally planned for the Mahaney Center for the Arts, but due to overwhelming demand for tickets, the concert has been moved to Mead Memorial Chapel.
The King’s Singers concert will take place on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 7:30 P.M. in Mead Memorial Chapel, on the campus of Middlebury College. The pre-concert lecture will begin at 6:30 P.M. in the same space. Mead Chapel is located at 75 Hepburn Road, just off Vermont Route 125 west. Free parking is available along Route 125, on Hillcrest Road, and on Old Chapel Road, with handicap-accessible parking available behind the Chapel on Hepburn Road. Tickets are $25 for the general public; $20 for Middlebury College faculty, staff, alumni, emeriti, and other ID card holders; and $6 for Middlebury College students. For tickets or information, call (802) 443-MIDD (6433) or go to http://www.middlebury.edu/arts.
Photo credits: The King’s Singers, photo Chris O’Donovan