“I would happily sit in King’s College Chapel listening to this choir sing for the rest of my days." The Times
Founded in the fifteenth century, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is undoubtedly one of the world’s best known choral groups; every Christmas Eve millions of people worldwide tune into A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. This service has been broadcast each year by the BBC since 1928. While the choir exists primarily to sing the daily services in King’s College Chapel, its worldwide fame and reputation, enhanced by its many recordings, has led to invitations to perform throughout the world, and to an extensive international tour schedule.
In recent seasons the Choir has travelled throughout Europe as well as to the US, South America, Australia and Asia-Pacific. Performances have been given at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Settembre Musicale (Turin), Santa Cecilia (Rome), Stresa Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Gothenburg Church Music Festival, Stuttgart Barock Festival, Istanbul International Music Festival, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Centre (Taiwan), Seoul Arts Centre, and the Singapore Esplanade, to name just a few.
The Choir also performs extensively in the United Kingdom, has appeared regularly at all the major halls in London and in the regions, and enjoys performing in UK Festivals throughout the year. Recent Festival appearances have seen the Choir at the City of London Festival, St Albans International Organ Festival, Windsor Festival, Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, Newbury Spring Festival, York Early Music, Norfolk & Norwich, Aldeburgh, and there have been return invitations to Manchester (Bridgewater Hall), Birmingham (Symphony Hall) and Cardiff (St David’s Hall) amongst others. The Choir appears frequently with symphony orchestras: it sang with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms in 2005, closed its 2005/6 season performing with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican and gives an annual Christmas concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. In addition, the Choir has a close relationship with the Academy of Ancient Music and other early music ensembles including Florilegium and Fretwork. In 2009 the Choir was delighted to join other Cambridge artists, ensembles and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis in a BBC Prom to mark Cambridge University's 800th anniversary.
In the 2010/11 season and the future the Choir’s many international appearances take it to Musikfest Bremen, Hildesheim, Osnabrueck, Halberstadt and Merseberg in Germany, return visits to the Flanders Festival in Gent, Palace of Arts in Budapest and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The Choir made a return visit this year to the Far East to Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Future plans for the Choir involve a European summer festival tour, a return visit to the US and to Australia.
Palm Sunday 2009 saw King's College undertake a unique project in collaboration with Opus Arte and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Under the baton of Stephen Cleobury, and accompanied by the Academy of Ancient Music, the Choir's performance of Handel's Messiah in King's College Chapel was screened live by satellite to cinemas throughout the UK, mainland Europe and Northern America. This was the first ever live broadcast of a choral concert anywhere in the world and was undertaken as part of the King's Easter Festival as well as to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the death of Handel and the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University. The CD of this performance was released by EMI Classics shortly following the event, and a DVD will be available in the Autumn of 2009. "Stephen Cleobury's view of Handel's oratorio unfolds naturally according to the mood and spirit of its text ... Recommended" (Classic FM Magazine).
The Choir enjoys a prolific relationship with EMI Classics and its July 2009 release England, My England brings together many English choral favourites including Zadok the Priest and Spem in alium. Future plans with EMI include an Autumn 2009 CD release of the 80th anniversary broadcast of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. On Christmas Day, a recording of new carols commissioned annually by King’s College, has received tremendous critical acclaim, with BBC Music Magazine commenting “King’s College, Cambridge, is a byword for the very best in Christmas music”. In 2004/5 the Choir’s recording of Rachmaninov Liturgy of St John Chrysostom was nominated for a Grammy Award, the critic in Gramophone magazine greeting the recording as “without a shadow of doubt, a triumph”, adding that “there is no comparable rival to this disc”.
Recent additions to the discography include I Heard a Voice (music by Tudor composers Gibbons, Tomkins and Weelkes - "the programme begins & ends in splendour ... the famous choir sings with full-bodied tone and unfailing precision" (Gramophone)), a recording of Brahms Requiem in the composer’s arrangement for Choir, soloists and piano (four hands) (“… superbly sung and beautifully balanced … a triumph” – BBC Music Magazine), a Purcell disc Music for Queen Mary with the Academy of Ancient Music (“In the repertoire on this new disc... Cleobury, King’s College, and the AAM prove currently unbeatable” – BBC Music Magazine), John Rutter’s Gloria with the CBSO and Rachmaninov Vespers (which won the first ever Classical Brit Award). A DVD, Anthems from King’s, has been released following a DVD of Carols from King’s, which also contains historic footage of the Choir.
The Choir of King’s College owes its existence to King Henry VI who, in founding the College in 1441, envisaged the daily singing of services in his magnificent chapel, one of the jewels of Britain’s cultural and architectural heritage. As the pre-eminent representative of the great British church music tradition, the Choir regards the singing of the daily services as its raison d’être, and these are an important part of the lives of its sixteen choristers, fourteen choral scholars and two organ scholars who study in the College itself.
The choristers are educated at King’s College School in Cambridge and receive generous scholarships from King’s College to help pay for their education. The School has 340 boys and girls aged 4 to 13 and the choristers are selected at an annual audition when they are in Year 2 or 3 at school. A chorister joins the school as he enters Year 4. For full information about King’s College School and the life of a Chorister, please see www.kcs.cambs.sch.uk.
Stephen Cleobury, CBE is always pleased to hear from potential members of the Choir, choristers, choral scholars and organ scholars. Those interested are invited to contact him on telephone 01223 331224 or e-mail: choir@kings.cam.ac.uk.
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is represented by Intermusica.
Please contact Elizabeth Hayllar at ehayllar@intermusica.co.uk for further information.
February 2010 / 1017 words
This biography is not to be altered without permission, if you need a shorter version please contact Intermusica.
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STEPHEN CLEOBURY CBE
Director of Music, Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Stephen Cleobury CBE is a highly versatile musician who relishes the opportunities he has to operate in a variety of roles and across a broad range of repertoire. At the centre of his musical life, for over a quarter of a century, has been his work as Organist and Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge. This has been complemented and refreshed by the many other activities in and beyond Cambridge in which he engages.
At King’s, he has sought to maintain and enhance the reputation of the world-famous Choir, widening the daily service repertoire, commissioning new music from leading composers, principally for A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and developing its activities in broadcasting, recording and touring. He has conceived and introduced the highly successful annual festival, Easter at King’s, from which the BBC regularly broadcasts, and, in its wake, a series of performances throughout the year, Concerts at King’s. Last year’s Easter at King’s featured the first ever live simultaneous transmission of a concert (Handel Messiah) direct to cinemas across Europe and North America.
Between 1995 and 2007 he was Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers and since then has been Conductor Laureate. This ensemble, the only full-time professional choir in the UK, is especially renowned for its performances of contemporary music and, amongst the premières that Stephen has given with the group are Giles Swayne Havoc, Ed Cowie Gaia, and Francis Grier Passion, all these with the distinguished ensemble, Endymion. His recordings with the BBC Singers include albums of Tippett, Richard Strauss and Bach.
From 1983 to 2009 he was Conductor of the on the 50th anniversary Cambridge University Musical Society, one of the UK’s oldest music societies, a role in which he has not only conducted many orchestral works, but most of the major works for chorus and orchestra. Highlights have included Mahler Symphony No.8 in the Royal Albert Hall, and Britten War Requiem in Coventry Cathedral of its bombing. His recordings with CUMS include Verdi Quattro Pezzi Sacri and Goehr The Death of Moses. As part of the 800th anniversary celebrations of Cambridge University last year, he gave the première of The Sorcerer’s Mirror by Peter Maxwell Davies, commissioned by CUMS.
Performances as an organ recitalist also find him travelling the world. Lately he has played in locations as diverse as Houston and Dallas, Leeds and Birmingham Town Halls, Westminster, Lincoln and St David’s Cathedrals, the Performing Arts Centre in Hong Kong, Haderslev Cathedral in Denmark, and Salt Lake’s huge LDS Conference Center, where he played to an audience of several thousand people. At the American Guild of Organists’ Convention in Minneapolis-St Paul in 2008, he gave the première of Judith Bingham’s organ concerto, Jacob’s Ladder; in the Messiaen centenary year he performed La Nativité du Seigneur in King’s Chapel, inaugurating a complete Messiaen cycle he had designed, which was carried forward by recent and present organ scholars at King’s. He has recorded Bach Clavierübung Pt.3 and the Leipzig Chorale Preludes for BBC Radio 3; discs of on the organ of King’s include albums of music by Howells and Elgar and a DVD of mixed repertoire was released earlier this year by Priory Records.
Stephen has played his part in serving a number of organisations in his field. From his teenage years until 2008 he was a member of the Royal College of Organists, serving this organisation as a Council member, Honorary Secretary, President and Vice-President. He has been Warden of the Solo Performers’ section of the Incorporated Society of Musicians and President of the Incorporated Association of Organists; he is currently Chairman of the IAO Benevolent Fund. He was appointed CBE in last year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours.
The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is represented by Intermusica.
Please contact Elizabeth Hayllar at ehayllar@intermusica.co.uk for further information.
February 2010 / 616 words
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Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols / EMI Classics
“This is a live recording of King’s 2008 Christmas Eve service (readings included), the 80th since the BBC began broadcasting it. King’s College Chapel is a sizeable acoustic, but what’s specially striking is the intimacy of these performances, the choir under Stephen Cleobury excelling in the difficult art of dynamic restraint and truly gentle singing. Vaughan Williams’s Wither Rocking Hymn is a fine example, and includes some lovely solos. The purity of treble tone in Taverner’s The Lamb and the flexibility of the phrasing are also special.”
5 Stars, BBC Music Magazine, December 2009
St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York
“The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue on Friday, confirmed what many listeners think they know about the British choral tradition, but then gave listeners other things to think about too. The 30 men and boys led by Stephen Cleobury were scrupulously prepared, well tuned and musically alert.
Treble voices gave off a deep, full color a little at odds with the cliché of thin, white-light British choirboy tone. Noticeable to the ear as well as the eye was how young all these choristers seemed, even the tenors and basses. Singers just past or at the end of their teenage years had the tough sound of bodies not quite filled out; the tone, if a little raw, was also appealingly fresh.”
New York Times, April 2008
I Heard A Voice/EMI Classics
The Choir of King's College, Cambridge has been an EMI mainstay for many years, and Stephen Cleobury has admirably kept the torches held very, very high.
Audiophile Audition, December 2007
"The programme begins and ends in splendour. Weelkes's anthem Alleluia, I heard a voice is a dramatic setting of a visionary text from Revelation; the final item, Tomkins's O sing unto the Lord culminates in a sequence of "Alleluias" so that the recital comes round full circle...The famous choir sings with full-bodied tone and unfailing precision."
Gramophone, December 2007
York Early Music Festival
"For half a century or more, "King's" has meant only one thing in musical circles: the choir of King's College, Cambridge. But when it ventures out of Cambridge, it is more likely to be found overseas than at home. So its visit on Thursday promised something rich and rare. It delivered on both counts."
The Press, Yorkshire, July 2007
Lufthansa Festival
"For a festival that boasts Rolls-Royce as its principal sponsor there could be no more appropriate opening act than the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.
King's has always been the sleekest, most flawless of the Anglican collegiate choirs and under Stephen Cleobury they brought immaculate voicing and seamless phrasing to this programme of Spanish and English Renaissance music."
Evening Standard, May 2007
Brahms's Requiem / EMI Classics
"The choral component is superbly sung and beautifully balanced, Stephen Cleobury directing the King's College voices with an unerring sense of long line and the sustained building of paragraphs.... a triumph"
BBC Music Magazine, November 2006
LSO / Paavo Jarvi / Mahler Symphony No.3
"…the boys of King's College Choir, Cambridge ... sounded bright and fresh."
Financial Times, June 2006
Music for Queen Mary / EMI Classics
“the music he wrote for Queen Mary’s funeral in 1695 transcends everything else. Has there ever been such music for drums? It strikes into the soul, as do the Sentences and the anthem ‘Though knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts.’ And Kings know the secrets of this music.”
The Daily Telegraph, April 2006
“In the repertoire on this new disc... Cleobury, King’s College, and the AAM prove currently unbeatable.”
BBC Music Magazine, May 2006
On Christmas Day Recording / EMI Classics
“When it comes to Christmas commissions…, the palm goes to Stephen Cleobury, who had the excellent idea, on his appointment as the Organist of King’s College, Cambridge, of commissioning a carol each year for the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols…The Iist reads like a Who’s Who of English composers,,”
Gramophone, January 2006
“This is the one unmissable seasonal issue this Christmas.”
BBC Magazine, December 2005
“The diversity of texts and musical language in the carols is stimulating, the choir’s performance of them exceptional.”
The Daily Telegraph, December 2005
King’s at Christmas Concert / St. John’s Smith Square
“ If ever there is such thing as a collective choral tear in the voice, King’s produced one for Howell’s carols…The Bruckner miniature was exquisitely shaped and resoundlingly fervent.”
“Tavener’s much-loved..Little Lamb, emerged from a magical aural haze, and it was followed up by equally ardent renditions of The Annunciation and Hymn for the Dormition of the Mother of God. “
The Times, December 2005
Christmas Tour of The USA / Church Of St. Ignatius Loyola, New York
“In Poulenc’s Four Christmas Motets..the unaccompanied choir sang with its trademark impeccable
pitch, luminous sound and unmannered directness…It was affecting to hear the sweet voices of these
angelic little choristers as they grappled so gamely with the complex canons and stark imagery of
spiritual battles in one agitated hymn from Britten’s work ‘The Little Babe’.
New York Times, December 2004
Frank, Poulenc And Alain Recording / EMI Classics
“...a day of three very different choral offerings, and the eloquence with which each is delivered is a
fine testimony to the musicianship of Cleobury and his boys.”
Gramophone, October 2004
Rachmaninov’s Liturgy Of St John Chrysostom Recording On EMI Classics
“The men sound much deeper and richer than one would expect, but then under Stephen Cleobury’s masterful direction the entire choir manages to shake off its Anglican constraints without losing its famous precision to give a limpid performance full of peaceful introspection.”
BBC Music Magazine, June 2004
“Anyone at King’s College choir’s recent performance of this work in St John’s, Smith Square will have heard the spine-tingling effect of handing the soprano line to boy’s voices – especially trebles as well-drilled as Stephen Cleobury’s Cambridge protégés…A mighty contribution to the catalogue, benefiting hugely from the lofty acoustic of King’s College Chapel.”
The Observer, March 2004
Robin Holloway, Brahms, Cornelius & Wolf / Cambridge Music Festival
“I would happily sit in King’s College Chapel listening to this choir sing for the rest of my days.”
The Times, November 2003
Stabat Mater Recording/ Domenico Scarlatti, EMI Classics
“Austere but elevating, this is church music at its most resplendent, a spring reminder that King’s isn’t just for Christmas.”
The Observer, May 2003