Renowned British a cappella ensemble The King’s Singers will bring their vocal talents to Ithaca College on Sunday, March 1, for a 4 p.m. concert in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. Free and open to the public, the performance is part of the Shirley and Chas Hockett Chamber Music Concert Series in the School of Music.
Titled “Finding Harmony” — which is also the title of their latest recording on Signum Records — the program will feature songs that have helped unite nations, cultures and causes throughout history. A unique collection of pieces that span the globe, including music that is too often forgotten, each song is the key to a powerful true story about who we are and how we’ve gotten here.
Since their founding in 1968 by recent choral graduates of King’s College, Cambridge, The King’s Singers have been consistently welcomed on the world’s great stages as ambassadors for musical excellence.
They were a weekly fixture on prime-time television, celebrating popular music not usually touched by choral ensembles, and their unique British charm, combined with their precise musical craft, has captured audiences’ hearts the world over. The group has regularly performed at venues ranging from London’s Royal Albert Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
The King’s Singers have accumulated numerous honors over the past half century, including two Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award and a place in Gramophone magazine’s inaugural hall of fame.
The current members of the group are countertenors Patrick Dunachie and Edward Button, tenor Julian Gregory, baritones Christopher Bruerton and Nick Ashby, and bass Jonathan Howard.
In addition to their public performance, while on campus the ensemble will hold a workshop with members the Ithaca College Choir and Madrigal Singers.
Established as a permanent endowment in 2000, the Shirley and Chas Hockett Chamber Music Concert Series honors two longtime educators and musicians. Shirley was a Professor Emerita of Mathematics at Ithaca College and Chas was the Goldwin Smith Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Linguistics at Cornell University. Together, they were longtime, generous supporters of the Ithaca College School of Music.