The King's Consort is a British period music orchestra founded in 1980 by the English conductor and

harpsichordist A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord. Harpsichordists may play as soloists, as accompanists, as chamber musicians, or as members of an orchestra, or some combination of these roles. Solo harpsichordists may play unaccompanied son ...

Robert King (b. 1960,

Wombourne Wombourne is a major village and civil parish located in the district of South Staffordshire, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is 4 miles (6 km) south-west of Wolverhampton and on the border with the former West Midlands Co ...

). The ensemble has an associated choral group, Choir of The King's Consort. Together, they have made over 100 recordings, from 1987 to 2007 releasing 90 albums on the Hyperion label, and subsequently a further 13 recordings for their own Vivat label, selling over 1,500,000 discs. The orchestra performs concert seasons in the UK and tours internationally. Their repertoire is primarily from the

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

and early classical periods but has also included late 19th century repertoire as well as contemporary commissions by

Michael Finnissy Michael Peter Finnissy (born 17 March 1946) is an English composer, pianist, and pedagogue. An immensely prolific composer, his music is "notable for its dramatic urgency and expressive immediacy". Although he rejects the label, he is often reg ...

and, more recently,

Michael Berkeley Michael Fitzhardinge Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Knighton, (born 29 May 1948) is an English composer, broadcaster on music and non-party political member of the House of Lords, speaking as an advocate for the arts, contemporary music and music ...

and includes recordings and live performances of opera and instrumental music. The ensemble's main performing base has been in London's

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

from 1987, and the larger

Cadogan Hall Cadogan Hall is a 950-seat capacity concert hall in Sloane Terrace in Chelsea, London, Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England. The resident music ensemble at Cadogan Hall is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ( ...

for performances that required both the orchestra and the choir. The King's Consort have performed seven times at the

BBC Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

including their début in 1991 with Handel’s ''Music for the Royal Fireworks'', Handel’s ''Deborah'' in 1993, a programme celebrating the 300th anniversary of the death of Purcell (1995), the Venetian spectacular ''Lo Sposalizio'' (1998), ''The Coronation of King George II'', a special programme to celebrate the

Golden Jubilee A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations. Bangladesh In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali language, ...

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

(2002),

Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considere ...

's '' Vespers of 1610'' (2004), and

Michael Haydn Johann Michael Haydn (; 14 September 1737 – 10 August 1806) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn. Life Michael Haydn was born in 1737 in the Austrian village of Rohra ...

's ''Requiem Mass'' and

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

's ''Coronation Mass'' (2006). The King's Consort Choir appears on the sound tracks of several films, including '' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', '' Kingdom of Heaven'', '' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'' and ''

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is “the best-selling American novel of all time.” Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon—the first was his 2000 novel '' Angels & Demons''� ...

''. Amongst their awards was the 2006

BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, was the original owner and publisher together with ...

Choral Award for their recording of Michael Haydn's ''Requiem Mass''. On their Vivat label, their debut recording, ''I Was Glad'', reached number 1 in the UK Specialist Classical Albums Chart and was a finalist in the 2013 Gramophone Awards. A series of recordings of the music of Purcell were finalists in the Gramophone awards in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Discography

Collections

References

Footnotes Further references *Michael Church, 'We've found some real rarities', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 24 February 2006 *Stephen Pettit, 'Intimate moments amid the Jubilee jollity', ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'', 14 August 2002 *Neil Fisher
Review of Prom 33: The King's Consort
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 9 August 2006 (accessed 3 October 2007)

External links

* of The King's Consort (accessed 20 May 2025)
Audio Interview with Robert King
on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, 8 August 2002 (accessed 3 October 2007)
Discography
on Hyperion Records (accessed 20 May 2025)
Robert King website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kings Consort, The Early music consorts British orchestras Musical groups established in 1980