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Concert Preview/ Interview
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Ann Arbor News, Concert Preview/ Interview >>
King's Singers to showcase unique sound
Group has special affection for Ann Arbor, University Musical Society
BY ROGER LELIEVRE
News Arts Writer English madrigals meet the Beatles when the a cappella group King's Singers bring their vocal skills to Hill Auditorium Saturday night.
Sponsored by the University Musical Society, this is the six-man a cappela group's first concert here since 1999.
"If the King's Singers can't put a smile on your face, you're a pretty hopeless grump,'' wrote a critic from the Dallas Morning News not long ago, and that about sums it up.
Founded in 1968, the group takes its name from King's College Cambridge. Using the variety in repertoire found in their student days - from a medieval "Magnificat'' in chapel to a madrigal or pop song arrangement away from chapel - the King's Singers ignored nothing that could be sung in six parts. The group's repertoire is reflected on more than 70 recordings, several of which have earned Grammy nominations.
At present, the ensemble includes David Hurley (countertenor), Robin Tyson (countertenor), Paul Phoenix (tenor), Philip Lawson (baritone), Christopher Gabbitas (baritone) and Stephen Connolly (bass).
Lawson, reached by phone in San Francisco at the midpoint of the group's tour, said he's looking forward to the Ann Arbor show, their last stop before the singers head home to the U.K.
"It's a great auditorium and audience, and we have a lot of friends there,'' he said. One of those friends is Kenneth Fischer, UMS president, who was "very instrumental in helping the group's career in the early days,'' Lawson added, recalling a 1983 show at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., that the then-neophyte impresario Fischer booked and promoted.
"Suddenly from being an unknown, this auditorium was full of people. It was a chance bringing together of events that literally began the career of the group in the United States. We are still enjoying the popularity of that now,'' Lawson said.
It was Fischer's first foray into concert promotion, but it wouldn't be his last. "Had I not had the concert with the King Singers, I probably wouldn't be doing this work,'' Fischer said.
The ensemble's success stems from a combination of repertoire musicality and skill, Fischer explained.
"These guys do the most esoteric, Renaissance, polyphonic music and then they've got Beatles albums. ... They have English folk songs and English madrigals. Then there's Japanese stuff, It's just enormously diverse.''
The voice makeup of the King's Singers is also distinctive, with its arrangement of a bass, two baritones, a tenor and two countertenors. Countertenor Hurley can sing up to a soprano F with ease, while bass singer Connolly can reach a low B flat. Everyone else falls somewhere in between.
"It is very common for eyebrows to be raised at concerts by first-timers when the two countertenors get going,'' Lawson said. "It is one of the reasons why the group has such a special sound, and allows us to explore repertoire meant originally for mixed voices.''
Although the group has been touring the U.S. with Middle Eastern group Sarabande, the Ann Arbor concert is not part of that series. Rather, the program will consist of music from the English Renaissance, the Spanish Renaissance, sacred music from Estonia, and contemporary music from the United States and Japan from a variety of composers including Thomas Morley, John Farmer and Cyrillus Kreek; Mateo Flecha, Jackson Hill and Toru Takemitsu.
"The Jackson Hill is the most interesting thing in the program,'' said Lawson. "We commissioned it from him, he's an American, we premiered it at the Kennedy Center earlier this year and this is its second U.S. performance. We've paired it with 'Handmade Proverbs,' another piece the group commissioned (from Japanese composer Takemitsu). It's very short pieces... Takemitsu calls them pop songs.
"The Jackson Hill is performed in Japanese, and the other is in English, oddly enough,'' he added. 10/27/05 >> go there
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