Live at Heritage Center presents The King’s Singers: The Great American Songbook
Dec 19, 2013 | Kristi Lynch
Heritage Center, the University of Dubuque’s new performing arts, worship, and campus center, continues its inaugural Live at Heritage Center Performing Arts Series with The King’s Singers: The Great American Songbook on Monday, February 3, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. One of the world’s most celebrated a cappella vocal ensembles, this special program from The King’s Singers will include the music of Harold Arlen, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin, as well as feature some of America’s best known spirituals.
WHAT: Live at Heritage Center Performing Arts Series –
The King’s Singers: The Great American Songbook
WHEN: Monday, February 3, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. (Free 6:30 p.m. pre-show lecture)
WHERE: John and Alice Butler Hall at Heritage Center
TICKETS: $40-$44 for adults, $22 for children/students
The King's Singers are instantly recognizable for their spot-on intonation, impeccable vocal blend, flawless articulation of text, and incisive timing and attentiveness to their art. They consistently have a packed schedule of concerts, recordings, media and education work that spans the globe. While creating beautiful music and being leaders in the choral world, they are also consummate entertainers: a class act with a delightfully British wit.
Launched in the fall of 2013 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, their new studio recording and live performance project “The Great American Songbook” includes seventeen brand new arrangements of American classics from the 1920s through the 1960s written specifically for the group by British jazz composer and bassist Alexander L’Estrange. Titles include favorites from the era like “Cheek to Cheek,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “Beyond the Sea.”
In conjunction with this performance, the University of Dubuque will be hosting the first annual Adrian Choral Festival. The festival will include choral rehearsals, sectional rehearsals, optional voice lessons, and a master class with the King’s Singers. Festival participants will be drawn from among the best high school singers in Dubuque and surrounding area high schools. Participants will also be afforded the opportunity, along with the UD Concert Choir, to share the stage with the King’s Singers for a portion of the evening concert.
With a discography of over 150 recordings, The King’s Singers have garnered both awards and significant critical acclaim, including a Grammy® for their studio album “Simple Gifts.” In June 2013, the group’s contribution to classical recording was recognized when they were selected as one of only two vocal ensembles to join the Gramophone Hall of Fame. Deeply committed to new choral music, they have commissioned over 200 works from prominent contemporary composers and choral luminaries, including Eric Whitacre, György Ligeti, John Rutter, Tōru Takemitsu, and John Tavener.
The King’s Singers have an extraordinary history of television appearances. A favorite of The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, they performed with them for the Winter Olympics and appeared in their recent Christmas concert, which was broadcast on PBS across the US to a combined live audience of 80,000. Their televised performance at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, London was awarded a Midem International Classical Award.
In addition to their sell-out concerts worldwide, The King’s Singers share their artistry through numerous workshops and master classes, and by publishing prodigious quantities of sheet music; at present, they have over two million items in circulation. Their arrangements are sung the world over by school and college choirs, and by ensembles both amateur and professional.
The performance will be preceded by a free pre-show lecture in Babka Theatre from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. during which a member of the King’s Singers will share background information on the group and the evening’s program. The pre-show session will close with a question-and-answer period.
Tickets for The King’s Singers: The Great American Songbook can be purchased now at Heritage Center’s Farber Box Office Monday through Friday from 12:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.; by phone at 563-585-SHOW; or online at www.dbq.edu/heritagecenter.
