The King's Singers are a choir of six men who entertain in over 100 concert dates around the world each year. Named for King's College, Cambridge where they were formed in 1968, the group has had many changes in personnel over the years but has stuck to the same formula of mixing a cappella voices with backing from musicians and covering a wide variety of musical forms.
The chorale has performed many times at the Promenade Concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall, the Three Choirs Festival and the City of London Festival. Tours take them across Europe as well as to America and Asia including the People's Republic of China. Concerts vary from classical songs to American spirituals, folk standards and pop songs. They have performed numbers by the Beatles, Queen, George Gershwin and Irving Berlin often given arrangements specifically for them by composers including Richard Rodney Bennett, Philip Lawson, Bob Chilcott and John Rutter. They also commission original works from a wide range of contemporary composers. Their most popular albums include Grammy-winners 'Simple Gifts' (2008) and 'From the Heart' (2010), the live 'Rejoice and Be Merry!' with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in 2008, 'High Flight' with the Concordia Choir in 2011 and 'Great American Songbook' (2013).
Two original members, Alastair Hume and Simon Carrington, were hosts of a six-part BBC presentation called 'Madrigal History Tour' which featured the current King's Singers. All those who had performed with the ensemble over the years gathered for a 20th anniversary concert at London's Barbican in 1988 and the 40th anniversary in 2008 was celebrated with concerts in London, Berlin, New York, Paris, Rome and Tokyo. Members of the choir teach each year at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Lübeck, Germany, and in 2013 they created the King's Singers Summer School at the University of London.
