Libera Dream France has a report from Yahoo Group Voices_of_Angels
http://libera-dream.exprimetoi.net/disc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... e-t255.htm
Twenty-three trebles from ten miles south of Big Ben, the clock (thus defined for us by "Mini-Ben" - so-called to distinguish himself from "Little Ben" Crawley and Big Ben) crash-landed in Los Angeles as a result of cancelations of a concert tour in Korea following a successful series of events in Japan. Korea's loss is LA's gain. And with a mere three weeks to organize, not to mention the most urgent need: to get the word out to the public of the choir's appearance at Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, an obligation that fell heavily on the shoulders of GGCC's minister of music, Sean Groombridge, who fortunately knew what had fallen so gratuitously into his lap. Classical radio station KUSC-FM did a piece on the concert, some press print was forthcoming, and perhaps most beneficial, the notices posted on Libera's own website and the appearance of the choir for the church's early services on the day of the concert, were key, resulting in an "instant audience" of an estimated 1600-1700 persons, among them people from every age group, a most unusual element in any treble boychoir performance.
For Libera fans, there was a keen disappointment: Tom was no longer with the choir, having entered into pubescent voice change during the Japan segment of the tour. There are a few other key soloists who are nearing that point in their vocal careers, a sort of death to childhood, while surrounded by adult males whose voices attest to the resurrection of the instrument (although the metaphor of caterpillar-to-butterfly seems to be exactly opposite in this case). An annual one-third turnover due to voice change is typical, so one turns to the eager, hopeful and utterly charming new faces featured on the front row, to identify who the "next Tom" will be. My bet is on Freddy.
Most community-based boychoirs are not eager to feature star performers. Libera is the unabashed exception. Fan adulation is encouraged, and post-concert "meet and greet" encounters with the public are essential elements of the group's success, as millions of photographs are snapped and autographs collected and cherished by those lucky enough to participate.
As this is written, Libera are homeward bound aloft, and my guess is, fast asleep. Their relatively casual ten days in LA ended with a full day of performing, a whiplash of circumstances that had them rusting vocally, and then being dropped quite suddenly (apart from the concert in the desert on Thursday evening) into the performance cauldron of the church's Hour of Power worldwide television exposure starting at 9:30 AM, a task singers of any age find daunting.
Dressed, as always, in their white-for-purity monk's robes with excessively large hoods that were employed and deployed without obvious context throughout the performance, and white slippers, surrounded as always by a light show that sometimes worked in the Crystal Cathedral's large spaces and displayed for the most part against the large pipe organ casements above the stage, and working less well, the sometimes on and sometimes off fog machine that raised the humidity inside the space from around a tolerable 10% to a hothouse 50% in the course of the evening after a day of sizzling outdoor temperatures that neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit. With the cathedral's large floor-to-ceiling doors open wide before the concert began, the heat inside caused a lot of programs-made-into-makeshift-fans to be waved futilely about, but the boys, situated twenty feet higher in elevation to the audience, had to endure an evening of very hot, very humid performance conditions, and did so without fainting, although one or two boys wobbled a bit precariously before a programmed stage move rescued them from the indignity of insensibility. At least one allergy sneeze rang out thanks to the abundance of microphones, although further outbursts were well stifled through pure will power. Well done!
Accompanying Libera was the genius who formulated the concept around 1984, Robert Prizeman, who conducted alternatively from an electric keyboard and grand piano, and fellow synth player and former boy singer, Steven Geraghty. Other former boys helped in the tech area: Stephen Ellerington on lighting, Ian Tilly on sound mixing and production, Sam Coates on sound mixing, Ben Rentoul on sound engineering, Ben Crawley and Andrew Winter on stage management, and on the violin by non former boy singer, Fiona Pears, a Celtic woman.
So what did Libera sing? A generous supply of items taken from the years-ago album "Luminosa" and of course, several hits that have made the choir an icon in the UK pop music charts, and doubtlessly elsewhere, too, with a bow to Japan:
Adoramus
Gloria in excelsis (based on the Organ Symphony by Saint-Saens)
Far Away
Love & Mercy (Brian Wilson - Beach Boys)
Sancte
Secret
Salve me
Sanctus (based on Pachelbel's canon)
Always With You
I Am The Day
[Offering and Intermission]
Sakura
May the Road Rise Up
Hymn to Beauty
Prayer from Humperdinck's opera Hansel & Gretel"
You Were There
Orinoco Flow
Mysterium
Sacris Solemnis (based on Beethoven's 7th Symphony theme)
Stay With Me
Going Home (based on Dvorak's New World Symphony theme)
Libera
Josh, who carried the bulk of the ballad solos, is now one of the tallest boys, and up close, startles with his deep blue eyes. When asked post-concert if he missed Tom, replied, "Ummmmm ... no!" When asked where he thought he might be in ten years' time, he answered, "I don't know, I hadn't thought about it." When further prodded with "Maybe in music?" he smiled and nodded eagerly. Smiles were not his badge in trade this evening, perhaps due to fatigue, but perhaps also the worry about voice change sometime in the near future. But maybe just the heat and fatigue.
Mini-Ben's dimples were well documented by millions of cameras at the meet and greet. Ben knows very well how to attract the cameras. And in the course of the concert, he was the OTT showman in introducing "the next soloist" - all eaten alive by the eager fans, which included the Crystal Cathedral's retired founding pastor, Robert Schuller and his wife, Arvella.
This is one of the reasons I like to visit St. Philips when I'm in London - that way I can tell people I sang with Libera. 
