Celt wrote: ↑<span title="Fri May 20, 2022 8:34 am">2 years ago</span>
Luckdragon wrote: ↑<span title="Fri May 20, 2022 1:39 am">2 years ago</span>
Strangely, in his recent interview, Sam seemed a little bit down on performing in the UK where the abundance of boy choirs makes Libera far less appreciated than they are abroad. It appears there is some financial uncertainty even when the performance is just a bus ride away.
There is a lot of competition over here, Cathedral Choirs, Choirs of the Chapel Royal, Schola Cantorums, Abbey Choirs, university college chapel choirs... Pretty much anywhere in the country you have a good quality choir, with a treble top line, within easy reach.
Take Ely for example, they have the Cathedral Boys choir and Cathedral Girls choir, both of which have a good sound but both are a stone's throw from probably the most famous UK choir, King's College Cambridge.
As an alternative to Libera tomorrow, Guildford Cathedral Choir give a concert conducted by John Rutter (which I would definitely have gone to if not for Libera), Peterborough Cathedral Choir have a Spring Concert, and Derby Cathedral Choir have a Platinum Jubilee service... and those are just the three I know about.
Yeah, it's not quite like that over here in the good old USA
. We have some decent choirs but they are mostly community-based choirs which rehearse far less than their UK equivalents. Further, the backrow is usually older boys whose voices have broken but whose singing quality - in part resulting from the voice settling after it changes - is not yet up to producing the sounds necessary for singing beautifully. Many such choirs resort to kitschy songs or dance moves to sort of make up for the lack of time and talent. To be sure that is not an attack as many such choirs rather explicitly have as their core mission character building and other non-musical values which singing in a choir offers to its members; and I certainly find no fault in them for that!
Anyone who follows my Instagram or Twitter (links in my signature
) can see that I was recently in Boston, Massachusetts for a small vacation and was able to hear the St Paul's Harvard Square choir of men and boys both in concert and for a service. They sang very well; although the trebles lacked power at certain key times. Not to mention my second favorite choir after Libera: The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys in New York City. I have heard them sing countless services now and they are excellent.
Being that choral singing in US does not come with the prestige and admission to elite schools as it does in many cases in the UK, I think that choir directors here, even of so-called elite choirs like Saint Thomas, are unable to be as selective as their colleagues on the other side of the pond. So while the two choirs I mention sound really good much of the time, exceptional soloists are going to emerge far less frequently in that sort of environment. But even more importantly, these schools are not part of larger institutions (larger schools, cathedrals, etc) which can in effect subsidize additional music staff.
When Daniel Hyde, the current director of King’s College, was music director at Saint Thomas he would often have a duo or a trio of boys do a solo part. It actually worked really well especially in that large church where the quieter voice of a young treble may not be distinctly heard. The current director seems to really want to develop individual soloists, but very few of them seem to have the vocal power so as to be particularly audible at times.
You can forget using extensive trouble soloists during a concert as well, as both choirs will bring in an outside female soprano for most of the demanding solo parts. Nothing wrong with that in itself, and I have seen Saint Thomas try and use the trebles for solos during concerts, but they just haven't been at the same level as what I have heard from CVMS or other UK choirs that have released concert footage where treble solos are featured. I'm not really sure why that is as a boarding school type institution like Saint Thomas ought to be able to produce a few good soloists. Any thoughts you guys?