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03 / 02 / 2012 - Sell-out at Salisbury Cathedral

We were delighted to see more than 1100 people at Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday 28th January, when we said farewell to Philip after 18 years with the group. It was a wonderful evening, and we were joined by the fabulous South Wilts A Cappella Choir, conducted by Libby Poppleton, who sang Duruflé's Requiem, as well as performing with us for Bob Chilcott's Even Such is Time. The programme for the evening also included a group of folk songs that had been arranged by both Philip himself, and also long time friend of the group, Gordon Langford, who was able to join us for the concert. As usual, at the end of the evening, we performed a selection of close harmony pieces, and these were all chosen by Philip, and included I'm a Train, Lullabye and It's a New World.

Philip had been a King's Singer for 18 years, and it was fitting that his final performance was in his home town of Salisbury , where he sang with the choir before leaving to join The King's Singers.

Below is a message from Philip to all King's Singer fans who have supported him over the years:

Dear friends,

I'm sitting in the penultimate of the very many hotel rooms I've occupied worldwide during my 18 years with The King's Singers, at Besancon in France, waiting to leave for rehearsal and my third last concert. A newspaper interviewer the other day asked me how many concerts I'd performed with the group and I thought rather than the usual somewhat wild guess I would sit down and work it out from my diaries. It's hard to find an exact figure - do you count singing one song at a memorial evening in the Albert Hall for Kosovo victims as a concert or is that just a "guest appearance", for instance? But I was satisfied to discover that the final number is certainly over 2,000. It has been for me, as it is for everyone who joins this extraordinary group, a life-changing experience. Were it not for my good fortune to be chosen on that June day back in 1993, I might very well be still living in Salisbury's magnificent Close, turning up every day to teach in a local school, and then hurrying off back to The Close to sing Evensong in the cathedral. It's funny how life can change in a single moment, sometimes for the worse of course....

The downside for me has been the time away from my family, having been absent for about half of every single year of my three daughters' existence, not to mention my marriage, since I was appointed a mere 8 months after our wedding day! It sounds rough, and it has been at times, but the signs are that looking back the girls will think that what Daddy did was actually rather cool, especially for someone so inherently "uncool"! And I'm going to do my best to rectify that absence, starting this Sunday, the day after my final concert in Salisbury Cathedral; it's never too late, I tell myself.

So it remains for me to sign off from the KS website by thanking all of you King's Singers fans for your tremendous support over the years - without you none of us would have had the opportunity to live this unusual and in many ways highly fulfilling life. As you probably know, I'm not retiring, but taking the chance to develop my composing and arranging career, the path of which you can follow if you so wish, via my website , or my official Facebook page "Philip Lawson: Composer, Arranger" (don't forget to "Like" it!!) , and if I appear at a workshop or premiere near you, don't hesitate to come and say hello!

Thanks again, and "fare thee well" !

Philip