Libera interviews collection

[john45]

Daniel's intellect and articulacy is indeed impressive. He reminds me of the young Kavana Crossley who always expressed himself so well and seemed so much wiser than his years. Of course, Oxford might have changed that!

[fan_de_LoK]

Not exactly an interview but this article from 2001 still has some interest and some answers from Robert Prizeman and Steven Geraghty.

https://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1228/p18s1-almp.html

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

These choirboys sing in sync, not 'N Sync
Libera is classical music's answer to kid pop groups.

December 28, 2001
By Benjamin Ivry Special to The Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK

With the sensational sales of pop boy bands like 'N Sync, it was only a matter of time before an enterprising conductor exploited the centuries-old tradition of British boy choirs.
Now Robert Prizeman, music director at a modest Anglican church, St. Philip's Church in Norbury - a southern London suburb - has done just that.

Assembling a group of 35 boys aged 7 to 14, he has dubbed them Libera. Their debut CD ("Libera," Warner Classics) spent several weeks on the Top 10 classical record charts, and their second disc, "Luminosa," is mirroring that success.
A Warner press release warns, "Don't call them choirboys. Libera prefer to be called a vocal group - a real boy band, if you like."
Mr. Prizeman explains the semantic difference: "They could be called choirboys - in that they have unbroken, treble voices, and they sing together in a choir.
But their name Libera also represents a freedom from the more accepted classical choral textures and repertoire...."
Indeed, "Luminosa" boasts choral numbers arranged by Prizeman from a surprising variety of sources, including Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals," Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Pachelbel's "Canon," and Debussy's "Clair de Lune."
Set to Latin words and recorded in an echoey acoustic style, the results have a churchy feel without being doctrinal.

The result has appealed to a broad cross-section of showbiz stars, who eagerly booked Libera for TV and recording studio work, including Dame Edna Everage (Australian comedian Barry Humphries), Elton John, Luciano Pavarotti, Neil Diamond, and Michael Crawford. They've also sung for film soundtracks, including "Hannibal."
Steven Geraghty, a soloist on "Luminosa," tells the Monitor: "With sessions for other people, we often don't know what it's for until we get to the studio.
We weren't allowed to see the pictures of 'Hannibal,' of course. But we didn't even know it was a film when we turned up."

Libera can give the kids a measure of prestige among their classmates, although 16-year-old Liam O'Kane notes that each singer "has to pretend they like all sorts of hip music with their schoolmates. Some of it we do like anyway - but I'm not into rap.... Ska punk is more my thing."
Steven adds that singing with celebrities has its advantages, but if Libera is just singing "some silly children's choir type of thing," then it doesn't give them street credibility. "I don't think Eminem would want a choirboy backing," he says.

The boys of Libera nevertheless understand the importance of music in their own educations. Prizeman explains that he works with schools where he meets potential new choristers by working with them in the course of their school music. The school then introduces the idea of the choir to the parents.
"At that stage, singing becomes their hobby," Prizeman says. "The boys don't have to attend - it's their choice. So, in a sense, my job as their director is made easier because they want to be there. It's not like a compulsory activity at school."

New recruiting is essential each year as boys' voices change: "Few would deny that there is a special quality to a boy's voice in the few years leading to its change.
Almost as if the flower has to bloom more gloriously because its petals will drop sooner."
But one authority on boy choirs, archivist Stephen Beet, says that the boys "do not produce the full rich head tone" that boy sopranos did in cathedral choirs in years gone by.
Other purists in the British media have complained about their commercial sound, often modified by the use of studio equipment.

Clearly, Libera is not attempting to rival the great classical boy choirs like the Kings College Choir, in Cambridge, England; Germany's Tolzer Boys Choir; or the Monserrat Cathedral Choir in Spain. But if taken on its own terms, Libera is enjoyable, particularly on TV, where the visual element of a seeing gang of kids perform is refreshingly unpretentious.

[Surpinto]

Cool! Thanks for sharing this.

Other purists in the British media have complained about their commercial sound, often modified by the use of studio equipment.

This attitude used to really annoy me . The recording quality of choirs was extremely low until very recently. Even some contemporary recordings made in the last 5 or so years are overly reliant on a small handful of microphones and placing the choir in an acoustically resonant church or cathedral. Some sound pretty amateurish! If there is a multipart harmony or prominent solo section this requires a few choir members to physically stand at a different part of the cathedral so as to balance out the sound stage. This is no different than decades ago before modern equipment and computers - and we are still doing it! The correct way to do this is to record that part separately. Essentially many choirs use fewer microphones when recording a big album release than Libera does at a live concert.

Doing otherwise, unless you have a huge budget for editing and dozens of microphones planted, may cause the music to sound rather poorly captured given the relatively high quality of consumer audio equipment today compared to the days gone by.

Anyway, it just reminds me how professionally and meticulously Libera is recorded and yet another reason why I have been impressed with them time and time again.

[fan_de_LoK]

I just see that the csmonitor article was already reported here by filiarheni on page 2 of this topic, sorry for the confusion.

Another written interview, of Liam O'Kane, in 2012.
The interview is mainly about his current music with the group Jimmy The Squirrel, but his past as a choirboy is also discussed a bit.

https://www.leftlion.co.uk/read/2012/ju ... okane-4657

[...]
Please tell us about your choirboy days...
I joined the choir when I was eight, at the time they performed under the name Angel Voices. The first thing I did with them when I joined was to spend three months at Pinewood Studios recording a series with Thora Hird. I was on two out of three Angel Voices albums. The choir later went on to perform under the name Libera. I recorded a lot of the solos on the first album and then my voice broke. It was an amazing part of my life; I got to do so many things and meet some incredible people. 

You were in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet, right? 
Well, my voice is. The Choir recorded some of the sound track at Abbey Road. We sing the backing to the soloist in the church [Everybody’s Free]. They never flew us out for the filming, so the choir in the film mime over us.

And you still have fans keeping an eye on you around the world?
The Choir's now world famous as Libera. Robert Prizeman the director is a genius and has created his own modern style of choral music. Having sang a lot of the solos on the first album I get a lot of people searching for videos and things of me singing back in the day, but they also find what I do now. Some people really enjoy what I do now but I appreciate it's very different from the choir days.
[...]. 

[filiarheni]

I just see that the csmonitor article was already reported here by filiarheni on page 2 of this topic, sorry for the confusion.

No problem! Furthermore, your information on it is much more extended than mine was.

[filiarheni]

A heartwarming first interview with Sam Coates, who – what joyful, joyful news! – pleasantly without any big fuss was called Libera’s musical director following Robert Prizeman, was broadcast on Scala Radio Live this morning, announced by Libera yesterday on Twitter. The interviewer was Mark Forrest.

As I find this interview too essential due to being Sam's debut one as their new director to just place it here with a few remarks about the content, an app and me have transcribed it, while neither the app nor I were able to recognise everything. It won’t be all correct anyway and gaps have remained, but please, if anything is just too wrong or alters or even falsifies the sense, do let me know.

For the smiles coming through and the laughs, please address the audio, either the above or this one.

_______________________________________________________

Mark Forrest:
Let's move to this week's album of the week on scala radio
It's the latest from the all boys choir from South London Libera. The choir has been a regular on TV and shows like "Songs of Praise" for more than twenty-five years. Their albums regularly top the classical and mainstream charts. You'd have seen the boys packing in concert halls and cathedrals both here and all over the world in their instantly recognisable long white robes.Their latest release is called "if" and it's out now and I'm delighted to welcome Libera's musical director Sam Coates to the show.
Sam, for those who've been listening for the last four days, well, they'll know all about this album and what's on it, but for those just joining us today what can we expect?

Sam Coates:
Well, Libera has always been built around the voices. So, all of the albums from the last 20 years have had a slightly different flavour and this one is no different really. There's bits on there that are based on ancient bits of chant, there's things that are based around more famous classical melodies, there's one of the songs, it's built on the second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony, there are lots of original compositions and of course all original arrangements as well. We try and always showcase the voices we have at any one particular time and show them at their best.

It’s that mix that’s really quite interesting and quite unique to your choir. When you are putting together the 10, 12, 15 tracks then, how much are you concentrating on showcasing the voices, how much are you concentrating on showcasing the style of pieces that you can perform?

Well, the pieces we perform have always been influenced by the singers. We sometimes have absolute superstar soloists come through and we try and find opportunities for them to show them at their best. One of the pieces from the new album, Cum Dederit, which is actually an arrangement from Vivaldi’s “Nisi Dominus”, we heard one of our singers just singing kind of offhand and then record it over lockdown and we were doing the sessions for the album and thought: Oh, that sounds really good, that would work really well as a Libera track and we asked him: “Would you mind if we turned this into a Libera arrangement?” And there is track 4 of the album or something. And other things are led by the particular mix of voices we have or parts where in the world we visited. One of the tracks later on the album, Home, was actually written for the Japanese tsunami 10 years ago. So we released it back then and it's been a 10th anniversary, so we rereleased with a kind of a new arrangement and a new soloist. And lots of the music we do sing reflect the places in the world where we have audiences that really enjoy our music. So, we feel really privileged to be able to kind of pick so widely from different styles and somehow make it into a whole.

It’s been a strange time for all performers, especially choirs and rather paradoxically did appear that the government only unlocked choirs after absolutely everybody else had unlocked. Certainly that’s what we’ve heard on the show from professional and amateur choirs. What about Libera, how did lockdown destruct the usual recording process?

Well, as well as the recording process, with any choir like this, there's the week-in-week-outs just kind of the singing as well as the Libera thing. They sing four times a week, singing music of the great English choral repertoire in order to get their reading up, to get them listening. So, when you don't have that, it's the boys particularly that are coming up from the bottom, that really miss out. We did some things that we were really proud of: Last May we did an online concert like most people, but actually it was on the same day we were supposed to be performing in Ely Cathedral and we sent microphones around to the boys houses in cabs and then stuck a green screen behind them and put it together in post and try and made the best of a bad situation. But we were very lucky that then September came last year and as a children's group there were some exceptions to us, because we work similarly like a school might. Although they all go to different schools. And so we were able to bring back some singing with social distancing and actually amazingly last year after November lockdown, there was a kind of three weeks in the beginning of December, where before things locked down again we managed to do a concert in St. John's Smith Square in that small amount of time. It was quite a feat actually, because I think we unlocked at the end of November, we had two days to rehearse and then we had the concert on the third. So seat of our pants kind of stuff, but it keeps us on our toes.

We can't talk, Sam, about Libera without talking about Robert Prizeman who sadly passed away in September of this year. How integral was Robert to the group?

Libera was Robert's creation. It was his brainchild and to a certain extent it was his life's work. I mean I grew up singing in the group. When I was seven, so when I joined the group, the boys singer. (sense alright?) And in fact most people who work with the group now have at one point sung. And so, I mean Robert’s legacy is this creation he’s left behind, this Libera that ... it brings boys and their families into the fold, for example as well as all the staff and the people who train up the singers. One of the mums of one of the boys does all our artwork for our albums and our online and that kind of stuff. But his legacy is monumental; he was a fantastic, inspirational leader, I mean that's why I'm still doing this, why I'm here now, you know? But also a really brilliant composer, wonderful arranger and that kind of person that can get the very best out of people. You put him in front of a group of singers and always looking for little jokes or things that can bring, that can galvanise support, and I feel really so thankful to him, but so lucky to be a part of continuing that legacy, quite frankly, and it's a huge loss for us, but I know that he’d be so proud that the group continues, go from strength to strength.

- Total Praise was played as today's song (somehow fitting the wonderful news!) -

A little insight this morning on how that amazing and unique sound actually gets to happen. Libera, the choir, Robert Prizeman, the late Robert Prizeman conducting that recording Total Praise by Richard Smallwood from their latest album “if”. It's just out, it's been our album of the week, and this is the 5th track we’ve heard from it. The musical director who’s taken over from Robert is Sam Coates. Sam’s our guest on the show today.
[...]
Sam, I was just doing the maths: You were born in 1988, got involved when you were seven with the choir in 95. You must have been there pretty well at the beginning. I wonder what are your memories of first getting involved with Libera?

Well, I suppose when Libera became a creation, they started recording and releasing probably about 1999/2000 or so, but my early memories were very much kind of as one of the youngest boys, a mini-boy we called them. Everyone just being kind of in awe of these older singers singing silly high notes or being a bit daft and they become your role models. And then Rob as well of course is a role model as a younger singer. So my early memories ... ah, gosh ... that’s a good question actually. I remember just being in awe of the kind of style of singing and thinking: Gosh, you didn’t know that people could sing like this. I went to a states school in South London like lots of the rest of our boys and I would never have been exposed to that kind of singing, if it hadn’t been for the group and for Robert.

Let's just pick up then on that point because boy choirs in the great churches and cathedrals of our land have been around for years, decades, centuries. Why was this choir, when it began in the mid-nineties, different?

I think because the choir had been singing in some shape or form for many years before that, doing these lots of the English choral repertoire. But it was different because of Robert’s experience in radio and broadcasting and kind of TV, and his ear for arrangements always were looking for the next thing. And so whereas perhaps other choirs would showcase them in their lovely cavernous acoustics, with Libera it was always "I wonder what happens if you combine this with some unusual instrumentation or some synthesizers" or "Let's close mike then and let's use parts in an interesting way". And it gives us really amazing creative control as producers, which is my role working alongside Robert for all these years has been. And it kind of allows us to do things with the voices, they are very hard to recreate live actually, that’s our biggest challenge in some ways, but it allows us to experiment with textures and timbres that I think would be very hard, if we didn't have that experience.
(This section was too demanding to understand ... help appreciated. Edit: has improved.)

And the other thing that is actually the sheer amount of TV. Just looking at your own blog, Sam, and the list of the TV show you have done over the years. Just “Songs of Praise” alone, there are dozens of them as well as special carol concerts. What’s that experience like? Because that’s very different from turning up and singing at a church service.

Yeah, it is exactly, and I think you just have to normalise it to a certain extent. But it is the singing week in week out that kind of deescalates the idea of performance, if you will, and I think that the younger ones, the younger singers are much more resilient than some of us older folk, who might get a bit nervous about that kind of thing. Sometimes we’re just sticking in front of 4,000 people in a concert hall in Manila or something and it's water off a duck's back. I think you just have to normalise it and whilst ... well have a certain amount of media training. Essentially, it's just the boys, it’s the role. What you see is what you get. That we try not to say you need to do this, you need to this. Their personality is what kind of hopefully shines through a little bit in their singing, in their performance.

And you have done concerts with this choir all over the world. There are hundreds of them, and this is gonna be tough: Can you pick out a couple, two or three, that absolutely stick in the memory?

Oh ... quite a few, so ... I think the first time we have performed in Japan, probably about 15 years ago now, we’d just come from Korea and there had been an ecstatic response there, it was our first big international tour to the Far East and kind of screaming girls that was over (???), like boy bands style, reception. We go to Japan and expecting the same thing and very reserved applause that ended very quickly, and we thought: Oh gosh, what are we doing wrong, what's going on? And then we thought: No, we screwed it up. But then at the end of the concert they just didn't stop clapping for twenty minutes, they just didn't stop clapping and then we were half changed in the dressing-room downstairs and we had to come back up quickly throwing robes and stuff back on just to take a final bow, because we thought the hadn’t really enjoyed it, but that is just the way in which they receive groups over there.
Another one, I suppose, when we go to different parts of the world we sing music that reflects their heritage to a certain extent. We sang Bayan Ko in the Philippines for a very big concert hall there and when the chorus came in, they realised what the song was. That reception was thunderous tumultuous, and you don't forget that very easily.

Amazing. And you mentioned that you could be seven years old when you join this, you probably got to leave by the time you 16. If that's gotta be tough when finally someone touch you on the shoulder and says: “Sorry, it's over.”

That doesn't happen. So the boys that have changing voices, they stay on with us, it's kind of like big kind of uncle's, they help train the younger ones and they sing lower parts in our concerts. And across the album as well there's all lower parts just performed (???) by boys whose voices have had recently changed and they stay with us generally through to their 18th. Some of them then go off to university and that kind of thing, most of whom do music and we’re so proud of that. And then some of them come back and help with the group again and we feel that once you're in the folds, you're in for life. There is no point at which you are asked to leave. We very much foster kind of familiesque tradition.

Great to talk to you today, Sam, it’s been wonderful to talk a little more and learn a little more about our album of the week. It's called “if” from Libera, the musical director is Sam Coates. Sam, many thanks for your time.

Thank you, Mark.

_______________________________________________________

An announcement of the December concerts with tracks from the new album “as well as a whole host of Christmas carols” tat St. John’s Smith Square finished this lovely interview.

[Editing is for corrections of transcript. Many thanks to Bamboo !]

[Luckdragon]

Thanks for the transcript, @filiarheni.

For those who'd like to learn a little more about Sam's background, the Libera Boys Choir Database has a very good summary. Libera will be in very good hands.

https://liberaboyschoir.home.blog/2019/ ... am-coates/

I assume Steven will stay on as Assistant Musical Director and conduct the performances while Sam works the sound booth.

https://liberaboyschoir.home.blog/2019/ ... -geraghty/

Both former choristers are in their mid-thirties and will hopefully have a long future with Libera.

[bamboo]

if anything is just too wrong or alters or even falsifies the sense, do let me know.

I've struck out some of your question marks and edited some in green! Sorry can't quite help with a few bits. Thanks for the initiative!

Mark Forrest:
Let's move to this week's album of the week on scala radio
It's the latest from the all boys choir from South London Libera. The choir has been a regular on TV and shows like "Songs of Praise" for more than twenty-five years. Their albums regularly top the classical and mainstream charts. You'd have seen the boys packing in concert halls and cathedrals both here and all over the world in their instantly recognisable long white robes.Their latest release is called "if" and it's out now and I'm delighted to welcome Libera's musical director Sam Coates to the show.
Sam, for those who've been listening for the last four days, well, they'll know all about this album and what's on it, but for those just joining us today what can we expect?

Sam Coates:
Well, Libera has always been built around the voices. So, all of the albums from the last 20 years have had a slightly different flavour and this one is no different really. There's bits on there that are based on ancient bits of chant, there's things that are based around more famous classical melodies, there's one of the songs, it's built on the second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony, there are lots of original compositions and of course all original arrangements as well. We try ?? and always showcase the voices we have at any one particular time and show them at their best.

It’s that mix that’s really quite interesting and quite unique to your choir. When you are putting together the 10, 12, 15 tracks then, how much are you concentrating on showcasing the voices, how much are you concentrating on showcasing the style of pieces that you can perform?

Well, the pieces we perform have always been influenced by the singers. We sometimes have absolute superstar soloists come through and we try and find opportunities for them to show them at their best. One of the pieces from the new album, Cum Dederit, which is actually an arrangement from Vivaldi’s “Nisi Dominus”, we heard one of our singers just singing kind of offhand and then record it over lockdown and we were doing the sessions for the album and thought: Oh, that sounds really good, that would work really well as a Libera track and we asked him: “Would you mind if we turned this into a Libera arrangement?” And there is track 4 of the album or something. And other things are led by the particular mix of voices we have or parts where in the world we visited. One of the tracks later on the album, Home, was actually written for the Japanese tsunami 10 years ago. So we released it back then and it's been a 10th anniversary, so we rereleased with a kind of a new arrangement and a new soloist. And lots of the music we do sing reflect the places in the world where we have audiences that really enjoy our music. So, we feel really privileged to be able to kind of pick so widely from different styles and somehow make it into a whole.

It’s been a strange time for all performers, especially choirs and rather paradoxically did appear that the government only unlocked choirs after absolutely everybody else had unlocked. Certainly that’s what we’ve heard on the show from professional and amateur choirs. What about Libera, how did lockdown destruct the usual recording process?

Well, as well as the recording process, with any choir like this, there's the week-in-week-outs just kind of the singing as well as the Libera thing. They sing four times a week, singing music of the great English choral repertoire in order to get their reading up, to get them listening. So, when you don't have that, it's the boys particularly that are coming up from the bottom, that really miss out (?). We did some things that we were really proud of: Last May we did an online concert like most people, but actually it was on the same day we were supposed to be performing in Ely Cathedral and we sent microphones around to the boys houses in cabs and then stuck a green screen behind them and put it together in post and try and made the best of a bad situation. But we were very lucky that then September came last year and as a children's group there were some exceptions to us, because we work similarly like a school might. Although they all go to different schools. And so we were able to bring back some singing with social distancing and actually amazingly last year after November lockdown, there was a kind of three weeks in the beginning of December, where before things locked down again we managed to do a concert in St. John's Smith Square in that small amount of time. It was quite a feat actually, because I think we unlocked at the end of November, we had two days to rehearse and then we had the concert on the third. So seat of our pants kind of stuff, but it keeps us on our toes.

We can't talk, Sam, about Libera without talking about Robert Prizeman who sadly passed away in September of this year. How integral was Robert to the group?

Libera was Robert creation. It was his brainchild and to a certain extent it was his life's work. I mean I grew up singing in the group. When I was seven, so when I joined the group, the boys singer.(???) And in fact most people who work with the group now have at one point sung. And so, I mean Robert’s legacy is this creation he’s left behind, this Libera that ... it brings boys and their families into the fold, for example as well as all the staff and the people who train up the singers. One of the mums of one of the boys does all our artwork for our albums and our online and that kind of stuff. But his legacy is monumental; he was a fantastic, inspirational leader, I mean that's why I'm still doing this, why I'm here now, you know? But also a really brilliant composer, wonderful arranger and that kind of person that can get the very best out of people. You put him in front of a group of singers and always looking for little jokes or things that can bring, that can galvanise support, and I feel really so thankful to him, but so lucky to be a part of continuing that legacy, quite frankly, and it's a huge loss for us, but I know that he’d be so proud that the group continues, go from strength to strength.

- Total Praise was played as today's song (somehow fitting the wonderful news!) -

A little insight this morning on how that amazing and unique sound actually gets to happen. Libera, the choir, Robert Prizeman, the late Robert Prizeman conducting that recording Total Praise by Richard Smallwood from their latest album “if”. It's just out, it's been our album of the week, and this is the 5th track we’ve heard from it. The musical director who’s taken over from Robert is Sam Coates. Sam’s our guest on the show today.
[...]
Sam, I was just doing the maths: You were born in 1988, got involved when you were seven with the choir in 95. You must have been there pretty well at the beginning. I wonder what are your memories of first getting involved with Libera?

Well, I suppose when Libera became a creation, they started recording and releasing probably about 1999/2000 or so, but my early memories were very much kind of as one of the youngest boys, a mini-boy we called them. Everyone just being kind of in awe of these older singers singing silly high notes or being a bit daft and they become your role models. And then Rob as well of course is a role model as a younger singer. So my early memories ... ah, gosh ... that’s a good question actually. I remember just being in awe of the kind of style of singing and thinking: Gosh, you didn’t know that people could sing like this. I went to a state school in South London like lots of the rest of our boys and I would never have been exposed to that kind of singing, if it hadn’t been for the group and for Robert.

Let's just pick up then on that point because boy choirs in the great churches and cathedrals of our land have been around for years, decades, centuries. Why was this choir, when it began in the mid-nineties, different?

I think because the choir had been singing in some shape or form for many years before that, doing these lots of the English choral repertoire. But it was different because of Robert’s experience in radio and broadcasting and kind of TV, and his ear for arrangements always were looking for the next (?) thing. And so whereas perhaps other choirs would showcase them in their lovely cavernous acoustics, with Libera it was always "I wonder what happens if you combine this with some unusual instrumentation or some synthesizers" or "let's close mike then and let's ??? use parts in an interesting way". And it gives us really amazing creative control as producers, which is my role working alongside of Robert for all these years has been. And it kind of allows us to do things with the voices, they are very hard to recreate live actually, that’s our biggest challenge in some ways, but it allows us to experiment with textures and timbres that I think would be very hard, if we didn't have that experience.

And the other thing that is actually the sheer amount of TV. Just looking at your own blog, Sam, and the list of the TV show you have done over the years. Just “Songs of Praise” alone, there are dozens of them as well as special carol concerts. What’s that experience like? Because that’s very different from turning up and singing at a church service.

Yeah, it is exactly, and I think you just have to normalise it to a certain extent. But it is the singing week in week out that kind of deescalates the idea of performance, if you will, and I think that the younger ones, the younger singers are much more resilient than some of us older folk, who might get a bit nervous about that kind of thing. Sometimes we’re just sticking in front of 4,000 people in a concert hall in Manila or something and it's water off a duck's back. I think you just have to normalise it and whilst ... well have a certain amount of media training. Essentially, it's just the boys, it’s the role. What you see is what you get. That we try not to say (you need to do this, you need to do this). Their personality is what kind of hopefully shines through a little bit in their singing, in their performance.

And you have done concerts with this choir all over the world. There are hundreds of them, and this is gonna be tough: Can you pick out a couple, two or three, that absolutely stick in the memory?

Oh ... quite a few, so ... I think the first time we have performed in Japan, probably about 15 years ago now, we’d just come from Korea and there had been an ecstatic response there, it was our first big international tour to the Far East and kind of screaming girls that was over(?), like boy bands style, reception. We go to Japan and expecting the same thing and very reserved applause that ended very quickly, and we thought: Oh gosh, what are we doing wrong, what's going on? And then we thought: No, we screwed it up. But then at the end of the concert they just didn't stop clapping for twenty minutes, they just didn't stop clapping and then we were half changed in the dressing-room downstairs and we had to come back up quickly throwing (?) robes and stuff back on just to take a final bow, because we thought the hadn’t really enjoyed it, but that is just the way in which they receive groups over there.
Another one, I suppose, when we go to different parts of the world we sing music that reflects their heritage to a certain extent. We sang Bayan Ko in the Philippines for a very big concert hall there and when the chorus came in, they realised what the song was. That reception was thunderous, tumultuous, and you don't forget that very easily.

Amazing. And you mentioned that you could be seven years old when you join this, you probably got to leave by the time you 16. If that's gotta be tough when finally someone touch you on the shoulder and says: “Sorry, it's over.”

That doesn't happen. So the boys that have changing voices, they stay on with us, it's kind of like big kind of uncles, they help train the younger ones and they sing lower parts in our concerts. And across the album as well there's all lower parts just performed(?) by boys whose voices have had recently changed and they stay with us generally through to their 18th. Some of them then go off to university and that kind of thing, most of whom do music and we’re so proud of that. And then some of them come back and help with the group again and we feel that once you're in the folds, you're in for life. There is no point at which you are asked to leave. We very much foster kind of familiesque tradition.

[filiarheni]

I've struck out some of your question marks and edited some in green! Sorry can't quite help with a few bits. Thanks for the initiative!

Thank you so much, bamboo! Such corrections are actually a stack of work as well, and it's highly appreciated!

One suggestion to not lose clarity in the thread: What if future corrections would be made by just quoting the relevant bits and delete the rest, if it's not too much work?

[andmar]

I posted the link in another thread already, but I think it also belongs here.
So, enjoy the radio interview with Big Daniel and Joseph, which was broadcast on Scala Radio on 22nd December 2021.

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code ... CVX4hMRFIX

Now, I'm thinking about a transcription. Previously, it was really helpful to have one, especially for non-native English speakers (like me ).

[Surpinto]

With Andmar's permission to use his audio capture, this interview is now uploaded to YouTube! I used to upload these to Soundcloud but stopped doing so as a result of limitations on free accounts; and an unlimited account isn't justified in terms of costs just to upload these sorts of things. Fortunately YouTube is free

[Surpinto]

I've put the Sam Coates one up as well.

[filiarheni]

I posted the link in another thread already, but I think it also belongs here.
So, enjoy the radio interview with Big Daniel and Joseph, which was broadcast on Scala Radio on 22nd December 2021.
[...]
Now, I'm thinking about a transcription. Previously, it was really helpful to have one, especially for non-native English speakers (like me ).

You don't mean me, do you? Well, I didn’t plan to transcribe the interviews as a rule; it’s just that I considered the interview with Sam to have a particular weight as his first one as Libera’s new musical director. But of course I’m not alone here, so anyone can freely go ahead.

So here’s a short indication of the content (the interview itself was very short):

• How Daniel came to Libera and his way from miniboy to the main choir
• His favourite memory in Libera
• Daniel’s ideas for his closer Libera future after the voice change and his more distant professional future, which he sees in the arts like acting or backstage working
• Joseph’s age and time so far in the main choir
• How performing in concert felt to him
• Joseph’s musical family

The funniest thing was Daniel’s revelation about Libera’s habit to group its members into four teams for games and tournaments named after composers, that is Attwood, Tallis, Britten and Purcell. While I wasn’t sure what “you get whisked into a team” means. Is this like drawing lots? Anyway, due to the pandemic this tradition got lost and Daniel campaigned for getting back to it. Some interesting ideas by Surpinto about this can be found here.

We also heard spectalular news by Joseph revealing that his mother sings with The Sixteen and that his grandfather is “quite a well-known conductor”. And now I’m wondering, if that's David Hill? Their surnames evidently don't have to be the same, but David Hill is indeed well-known and his age fits as well.

This is certainly amazing. On the other hand I hope that Joseph will not be reduced to “the son of”, the grandson of” nor that these facts will constantly resonate in the back of our minds, when he’ll be singing a solo, but that he gets the chance to "win his own spurs", just like the other Libera members.

As a personal surprise and off-topic, this is the first time that I heard the name Purcell with “cell” being the emphasised syllable. We normally pronounce it Púrcell instead of Purcéll over here, so now I feel strange.


[Edit 29.12.2021 for correction of Attwood, whom I at first denied his right to own a 2nd t. ]

[Celt]

The funniest thing was Daniel’s revelation about Libera’s habit to group its members into four teams for games and tournaments named after composers, that is Atwood, Tallis, Britten and Purcell. While I wasn’t sure what “you get whisked into a team” means. Is this like drawing lots?

► Show Spoiler

danwhisk.jpg (149.13 KiB) Viewed 4571 times

danwhisk.jpg (149.13 KiB) Viewed 4571 times

Edit: I was being frivolous, but I guess Daniel was using the word in the context of being placed or moved somewhere quickly e.g. "she was whisked to Paris" but his usage of the word was slightly unusual.

[bachmahlerfan]

We also heard spectalular news by Joseph revealing that his mother sings with The Sixteen and that his grandfather is “quite a well-known conductor”. And now I’m wondering, if that's David Hill? Their surnames evidently don't have to be the same, but David Hill is indeed well-known and his age fits as well.

This might provide some details regarding your question. It gives some musical background of Joseph's mother.

https://www.hertfordchoral.org.uk/52-su ... ember-2017