April 24, 2018

New York, NY

This job is a real whirlwind. It’s one of extremes, and the tour which we’ve just completed exemplified these extremes as neatly as any tour I can remember!

Last week, we were in the middle of a gruelling patch: concerts every day, driving through snowstorms, getting late nights, having early morning commitments. At times like this — though it’s always a privilege — it’s a really exhausting existence. But at the highest points it can be just so very thrilling, and the last couple of days has been one of the real high points I can remember in the last 2 years.

Yesterday (Sunday), we had a jam-packed but totally exciting day. We had a wonderfully productive meeting in New York with some of our key North American team of management and supporters, working on setting up an exciting new project out here [more on that soon!]. Then we dashed over to Carnegie Hall to rehearse on the main stage with our illustrious former members Bob Chilcott and Simon Carrington, who were conducting a huge choir of singers from all over the world who’d come to share the stage with us, organised through DCINY (Distinguished Concerts International New York). Then after a hurried dinner and change, we stepped out on stage to an amazing reception from over 2300 people in Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), and gave what felt like a great concert. Afterwards, we dashed between 2 receptions in New York, having the chance to meet the singers from the concert and to say hello to dear friends and supporters, before having a couple of drinks with the 6 of us to finish the night!

I must confess, even after just a couple of years in The King’s Singers, performing can become almost a routine; with the pace of our diary, one can becomes used to the feeling of walking out on stage to large numbers of people, in different countries. But the 120 seconds starting at 8.29pm yesterday were some of the most memorable of my life. We were lined up in the hushed backstage of Carnegie Hall, taking final sips of water and wishing each other good luck, then the door opened and we walked out into the lights, to the sound of applause and cheers from thousands of people. This was the stage that so many of the world’s greatest musicians (of all types) had graced, and here we were walking out on to it to offer our music. I can’t speak for my colleagues, but I know that I had a real spine-tingle moment as we took our first bow.

I won’t bore you any longer. But in a job that has such variety every day, at times like yesterday one is reminded quite how lucky we are, and of the impact our music can have (and has had over these five decades) on people all over the world from so many backgrounds.