The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is undoubtedly one of the world’s best known choral groups; every Christmas Eve, millions of people worldwide tune into A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a service that has been broadcast by the BBC since 1928
Date/Time: Mar 26 2017, 2:00 pm to 3:45 pm
Vancouver, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts | Event calendarCost: $36.00
Find tickets: here
While the Choir exists primarily to sing the daily services in King’s College Chapel, its international fame and reputation, enhanced by an extensive recording catalogue, since 2012 on their own label, has led to invitations to perform around the world.
“Moments of iridescence… creating vividness in restraint through the unadorned splendour of this superbly polished vocal sound.” – Sydney Morning Herald
“I would happily sit in King’s College Chapel listening to this choir sing for the rest of my days.” – The London Times
Supported by the Alvin S. Nemetz Foundation, and Birgit Westergaard & Norman Gladstone
Pre-concert talk at 1:15pm.
King’s College Choir comprises 16 boy choristers, aged between nine and 13 years, and 14 male undergraduates, reading for degrees in a variety of subjects. There are also two organ scholars.
Singing at daily Chapel services is the Choir's primary duty, and has been since the foundation of King’s College in 1441, when King Henry VI envisaged that the Choir would provide music for the daily offices and celebrations of the Mass in his new Chapel.
Daily services are not the Choir’s sole commitment today though: its worldwide fame and reputation, enhanced by its many recordings, has led to invitations to perform around the globe, and to an extensive international tour schedule.
The Choir and College
King’s College Choir’s primary purpose is to sing the daily choral services in Chapel during term-time. This the Choir does on six days a week. The services on Mondays are sung by the College’s mixed voice choir, King’s Voices.
The boy choristers are educated just across the river at King’s College School. They have exactly the same education as the other 350 or so boys and girls at the School; their choral commitments come before and after school hours.
The men of the choir – the choral scholars – play a major role in the musical life of the College and University, not only through their daily singing in the Chapel, but through their involvement as singers and directors in concerts and shows in a wide variety of musical styles.
In addition to their singing of the daily services, the Choir participates in a number of King’s high-profile events in the Chapel. These include the live radio broadcast of the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which is heard by tens of millions of people around the world, television broadcasts of Carols from King’s and Easter from King’s and radio broadcasts from the festival, Easter at King’s.
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