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The King's Singers
The King's Singers are a British a cappella vocal ensemble founded in 1968. They are named after King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars. In the United Kingdom, their popularity peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s. Thereafter they began to reach a wider American audience, appearing frequently on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' in the United States. In 1987, they were prominently featured as guests on the Emmy Award-winning ABC television special ''Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas''. Today the ensemble travels worldwide for its performances, appearing in around 125 concerts each year, mostly in Europe, the US and East Asia, having recently added the People's Republic of China to their list of touring territories. In recent years the group has had several UK appearances at the Royal Albert Hall Proms and concerts as part of the Three Choirs Festival and the City of London Festival. The King's Singers consist of two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became an important trading centre during the Roman and Viking ages, and there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although modern city status was not officially conferred until 1951. The city is most famous as the home of the University of Cambridge, which was founded in 1209 and consistently ranks among the best universities in the world. The buildings of the university include King's College Chapel, Cavendish Laboratory, and the Cambridge University Library, one of the largest legal deposit libraries in the world. The city's skyline is dominated by several college buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C (i.e. F2–F4) in choral music, and from the second A below middle C to the A above middle C (A2 to A4) in operatic music, but the range can extend at either end. Subtypes of baritone include the baryton-Martin baritone (light baritone), lyric baritone, ''Kavalierbariton'', Verdi baritone, dramatic baritone, ''baryton-noble'' baritone, and the bass-baritone. History The first use of the term "baritone" emerged as ''baritonans'', late in the 15th century, usually in French sacred polyphonic music. At this early stage it was frequently used as the lowest of the voices (including the bass), but in 17th-century Italy the term was all-encompassing and used to describe the averag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Gabbitas
Christopher Alan Gabbitas, is a choral conductor, lawyer and university professor. A former baritone with the King's Singers, he was born on 15 May 1979 in Plymouth, the son of Dr. Brian and Mrs Evelyn Gabbitas. The family moved to Kent after his father ended a career as a Royal Naval Officer and switched to the world of academia. Education and Career Gabbitas sang as a boy-chorister in the choir of Rochester Cathedral in Kent, south-east England, attending The King's School, Rochester, before winning a music scholarship to Uppingham School in Rutland. He went to St John's College, Cambridge, in 1997 as a choral scholar where he sang under Christopher Robinson and studied law; he was part of, and occasionally directed, "The Gentlemen of St John's." He also sang with "Collegium Regale," the modern-day equivalent of The King's Singers at King's College, and Cibus Amoris, and enjoyed a full part in university musical life, singing in and directing numerous performances of diverse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Hurley (singer)
David Hurley (born August 1962) is a British countertenor who sang with The King's Singers from 1990 to 2016. Hurley was a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, and a choral scholar at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He became a mainstay in the British countertenor scene shortly after becoming a King's Singer. Hurley sang countertenor with the likes of Alastair Hume, Nigel Short, Robin Tyson and Timothy Wayne-Wright. As well as with these countertenors, he sang with Bob Chilcott, Paul Phoenix, Julian Gregory, Bruce Russell, Philip Lawson, Chris Bruerton, Christopher Gabbitas, Gabriel Crouch, Stephen Connolly and Jonathan Howard. Hurley recorded, along with Tyson, Phoenix, Lawson, Gabbitas and Connolly, the 40-part piece Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis (2006), as well as the Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Lawson (baritone)
Philip Lawson (born 19 February 1957) is a Grammy award-winning British composer and arranger, mostly of a cappella and sacred music. For 18 years he was a baritone with the King's Singers and the group's principal arranger for the last fifteen years of that period. In 2009 the group's album "Simple Gifts", on which Lawson arranged 10 out of 15 tracks, won the Grammy award for "Best Classical Crossover Album". In February 2012, he left the King's Singers to concentrate on his writing career. Background Philip Lawson was born in Crawley, West Sussex, England, and attended Hazelwick School. He was not from a musical family but a chance meeting introduced him to the boys' choir of Worth Church which sparked his interest in music. He went on to study Music at the University of York under Wilfrid Mellers and to sing counter-tenor in the choir of York Minster, under Francis Jackson.Official website CV Singing career Lawson switched from counter-tenor to baritone in 1978 at the age of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robin Tyson
Robin Tyson is an English countertenor who has a well documented career in opera, solo, and a cappella. He now works in the music management industry. He sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge from 1989–1992. He is known for singing as a soloist with John Eliot Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000. Tyson performed and recorded Francesco Cavalli's opera ''La Calisto'' at La Monnaie in Brussels, conducted by René Jacobs. He was a member of The King's Singers from 2001 to 2009, with whom he won a Grammy Award for the album Simple Gifts. He started the music agency at Edition Peters in 2011. He is manager for Voces8, Apollo5 composers Ēriks Ešenvalds, Ola Gjeilo and others. Tyson joined the King's Singers as the second countertenor in 2001, in place of Nigel Short. He left in 2009 and was succeeded by Timothy Wayne-Wright. Tyson was part of the King's Singers production of Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis, a 40-part piece. Unlike his only countertenor counterpart, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gabriel Crouch
Gabriel Crouch is a British baritone, choral conductor, and record producer. Early life Gabriel Crouch was born on 19 September 1973. Musically inclined since the age of eight, he joined the choir of Westminster Abbey. He became the Head Chorister of that choir and even had a solo at the wedding of Prince Andrew and Miss Sarah Ferguson. He attended the University of Cambridge where he studied Geography. Career He held the second baritone position in the King's Singers for eight years, from 1996 to 2004, including a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2001. He has also performed and recorded with Polyphony, Tenebrae, and The Cambridge Singers among others. Formerly the director of the DePauw University Choral Ensembles, he currently is a professor at Princeton University and directs the Princeton Glee Club The Princeton University Glee Club is the oldest and most prestigious choir at Princeton University, composed of approximately 100 mixed voices. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grayston Ives
Grayston ‘Bill’ Ives (born 1948) is a British composer, singer and choral director. Until March 2009, Ives was Organist, ''Informator Choristarum'' and Fellow and Tutor in Music at Magdalen College, Oxford. In this role he was responsible for the daily musical life of the college chapel. He also directed the choir in recordings on the Harmonia Mundi label: ''With a Merrie Noyse'', made with the viol consort Fretwork and featuring the works of the English composer Orlando Gibbons, was nominated for a Grammy in 2004. Paul McCartney's ''Ecce Cor Meum'' was written especially for Magdalen College Choir and the subsequent EMI recording won the Classical BRIT Award for Album of the Year in 2007. Other recordings with Magdalen College Choir include ''Listen Sweet Dove'', a selection of Grayston Ives' liturgical works, and Duruflé's ''Requiem''. The choir developed a fruitful relationship with film composer, George Fenton, notably in ''Shadowlands'' (1993), directed by Richard Attenb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Short (singer And Choir Director)
Nigel Short is a British singer who is the founder and artistic director of the choir Tenebrae and Tenebrae Consort. He was previously a member of The King's Singers. Short was a chorister at Solihull Parish Church. He then studied singing and piano at the Royal College of Music before singing as a countertenor with a number of ensembles including The Tallis Scholars, Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral choirs and The King's Consort. He then pursued a solo career in opera and oratorio, singing several roles in opera productions in Europe and for the English National Opera and Opera North. In 1993 Short, then aged 27, joined The King's Singers. It was while performing with this ensemble that Short conceived of creating a larger group of singers capable of more "passionate sounds" combined with "the precision of ensembles like The King's Singers", and a more "theatrical" style of performing within religious buildings, involving movement around the performance venue as well ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Chilcott
Robert "Bob" Chilcott (born 9 April 1955) is a British choral composer, conductor, and singer, based in Oxfordshire, England. He was a member of the King's Singers from 1985 to 1997, singing tenor. He has been a composer since 1997. Early life and early career Chilcott was born in Plymouth. He sang in the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, both as a boy and as a university student, when he conducted the voluntary Choral Society, which included many singers from other colleges. He performed the ''Pie Jesu'' of Fauré's '' Requiem'' on the 1967 King's College recording. Composer Chilcott is well known for his compositions for children’s choirs, including ''Can You Hear Me?'', which he has conducted in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, and the Czech Republic. He is associated with the New Orleans Children’s Chorus and the Crescent City Festival in New Orleans, for which he wrote ''A Little Jazz Mass'', ''Happy Land'', ''This Day'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Jackman
Jeremy Jackman (born 22 April 1952) is a British choral director, composer and arranger, and a former counter-tenor of the King's Singers. Biography Jackman was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral. He trained at the Royal College of Music and Hull University. In 1973 he began a short-lived teaching career at Morley Grammar School in Leeds. He joined The King's Singers in 1980, later returning to work as a choral conductor and director. He was chorus master to the Belfast Philharmonic Choir (1991–97), the London Philharmonic Choir (1992–94), and is currently the musical director of the English Baroque Choir and the Cecilian Singers, and the chorusmaster of OSJ Voices. He also conducts on a freelance basis as well as providing masterclasses for choral groups. Family His brother is Andrew Pryce Jackman (keyboardist and arranger with The Syn and Chris Squire Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4March 1948 – 27June 2015) was an English musician, singer and songwriter best kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass (vocal Range)
A bass is a type of classical male singing voice and has the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', a bass is typically classified as having a vocal range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C (i.e., E2–E4).; ''The Oxford Dictionary of Music'' gives E2–E4/F4 Its tessitura, or comfortable range, is normally defined by the outermost lines of the bass clef. Categories of bass voices vary according to national style and classification system. Italians favour subdividing basses into the ''basso cantante'' (singing bass), ''basso buffo'' ("funny" bass), or the dramatic ''basso profondo'' (low bass). The American system identifies the bass-baritone, comic bass, lyric bass, and dramatic bass. The German ''Fach'' system offers further distinctions: Spielbass (Bassbuffo), Schwerer Spielbass (Schwerer Bassbuffo), Charakterbass (Bassbariton), and Seriöser Bass. These classification systems can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
