What to expect from Libera in 2025

[fugalharmony]

Well, I hope they don't only do a tour in Japan, and hopefully can do more than seven concerts. Even if they do record another album sometime next year, I don't see why they can't do more. I'm not expecting a lot more, but at least 10-12 concerts. I don't know what the funding situation is for the next U.S. tour, but I'm guessing we may have to wait until 2026? I would love to see them go to places they have never been before, like Italy for example. I wish the producers who have ruined "Songs of Praise" would consider bringing Libera on board again. It would certainly improve the program, but they would probably force Libera to sing a bunch of crappy music. Maybe they will get another organizer like they did in 2013/2014 to help fund live concert recordings, but preferably someone who doesn't want to take control of Libera and change their identity like the last one tried to do.

[Surpinto]

I think there’s a good chance we’ll get maybe another album and some accompanying music videos . I’m still loving Dream, but I’m confident we’ll see new music in 2025 probably an album, though perhaps just a few new songs if not. The current artistic team seems highly motivated to continue writing and recording new material.

Looking ahead to 2025, it’s fair to be optimistic about new music.

However, where optimism fades is around the likelihood of tours and concerts. I doubt they’ll do more than seven concerts, give or take, unless they surprise us with travel plans in March or April. I don't think this is a problem actually as it gives them more time for recording or other activities – though I'm sure that they would love to return to Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, or some of the other countries they haven't been to in a number of years but where they are always well received.

The only way they’d exceed the number of concerts they performed in 2024 is if they launch an extensive summer tour. If they skip a spring tour (which is nearly certain at this point), it could leave them more time to focus on recording or other special projects. Of course, this is all just speculation on my part.

As for a US summer tour, I’m even less optimistic. With Nick retired, the main driver behind fundraising and organization for Libera of the US (LOTUS) has stepped away, and it seems that the organization has gone quiet in his absence. For example, there hasn’t been any year-end push for donations, which is common for US charities looking to attract last-minute gifts with tax incentives.

I don’t see much evidence of active leadership within LOTUS right now. It’s possible they’re waiting to announce a concrete tour – perhaps for 2026 – before soliciting donations, or that they are strategizing behind the scenes for a big push in 2025 or beyond. That’s an understandable approach, but honestly? I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Instead, it seems like there’s little to no activity within the organization.

Because without ongoing engagement with fans and donors, even sporadically, it’s hard to imagine how they’d raise enough money to fund a US tour. They can't just appear on the scene under new management mere months before a tour, and just ask for money. Yes people like you and me would donate but what so many in the fundraising world don't understand is the rule of 80/20. I explained it in more detail a while back. But basically, 80% of the money comes from the top 20% of donors, and this also means that the top 4% of the donors give 64% of the money. So most of the money is not coming from small or medium donors but from a tiny handful of wealthy philanthropists. This is the case in every charity and business, and has been formally studied as a financial phenomenon for years.

Trouble is you’re not going to have someone willing to throw huge sums of money at an organization or charity unless there is a sense of trust and familiarity. So I'm also hopeful that in 2025 we will see LOTUS as an active organization so that in 2026 (though likely after) we can see a return of Libera to the United States.

[fugalharmony]

I think there’s a good chance we’ll get maybe another album and some accompanying music videos . I’m still loving Dream, but I’m confident we’ll see new music in 2025 probably an album, though perhaps just a few new songs if not. The current artistic team seems highly motivated to continue writing and recording new material.

Looking ahead to 2025, it’s fair to be optimistic about new music.

However, where optimism fades is around the likelihood of tours and concerts. I doubt they’ll do more than seven concerts, give or take, unless they surprise us with travel plans in March or April. I don't think this is a problem actually as it gives them more time for recording or other activities – though I'm sure that they would love to return to Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, or some of the other countries they haven't been to in a number of years but where they are always well received.

The only way they’d exceed the number of concerts they performed in 2024 is if they launch an extensive summer tour. If they skip a spring tour (which is nearly certain at this point), it could leave them more time to focus on recording or other special projects. Of course, this is all just speculation on my part.

As for a US summer tour, I’m even less optimistic. With Nick retired, the main driver behind fundraising and organization for Libera of the US (LOTUS) has stepped away, and it seems that the organization has gone quiet in his absence. For example, there hasn’t been any year-end push for donations, which is common for US charities looking to attract last-minute gifts with tax incentives.

I don’t see much evidence of active leadership within LOTUS right now. It’s possible they’re waiting to announce a concrete tour – perhaps for 2026 – before soliciting donations, or that they are strategizing behind the scenes for a big push in 2025 or beyond. That’s an understandable approach, but honestly? I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Instead, it seems like there’s little to no activity within the organization.

Because without ongoing engagement with fans and donors, even sporadically, it’s hard to imagine how they’d raise enough money to fund a US tour. They can't just appear on the scene under new management mere months before a tour, and just ask for money. Yes people like you and me would donate but what so many in the fundraising world don't understand is the rule of 80/20. I explained it in more detail a while back. But basically, 80% of the money comes from the top 20% of donors, and this also means that the top 4% of the donors give 64% of the money. So most of the money is not coming from small or medium donors but from a tiny handful of wealthy philanthropists. This is the case in every charity and business, and has been formally studied as a financial phenomenon for years.

Trouble is you’re not going to have someone willing to throw huge sums of money at an organization or charity unless there is a sense of trust and familiarity. So I'm also hopeful that in 2025 we will see LOTUS as an active organization so that in 2026 (though likely after) we can see a return of Libera to the United States.

Personally, I don't mind if they do fewer concerts. However, if they go that route then I think they should record a little extra music in between the main albums to draw extra publicity to the group. I've had to accept the fact that they don't have the money to consistently record live performances. I also wonder if they attract as many singers when they find out that Libera doesn't tour as much as they used to. I think they got lucky with the Hill family getting involved, but what if that hadn't happened? By the way, I don't want to smear the guy who helped organize the concert recordings. He put a lot of hard work into making that happen, although I heard there were some last-minute funding issues. The problems I saw were outside of that. I remember him commenting that Libera needed to stop performing at churches and stick to secular venues with large seating capacities, even if the acoustics were subpar. That told me that he didn't appreciate the roots of Libera's music and didn't appreciate the wonderful acoustics that many of the churches offered.

[Luckdragon]

99.99% of Libera's worldwide fanbase will never have the opportunity attend a live concert. I'm sure they'd rather see Libera concentrate on audio and video recordings, anyway. Five to seven concerts per year, home and abroad, sounds about right to me.

Most big churches in the US and UK have excellent streaming capabilities these days. They would actually be perfect locations for recording concerts if Libera so desired. They don't even have to record entire concerts. Perhaps just songs that aren't already on an album. For instance, the Georgia Boy Choir has posted songs recorded at Truro, Theatine (Munich), Lorenzkirche (Nuremberg), Regensburg, St. Jakobus (Gersthofen), Troldhaugen (Bergen), Vestre Aker (Oslo), and Nidaros (Trondheim). Beautiful videos with great audio -- all in the past year and while on tour! (See https://www.youtube.com/@GeorgiaBoyChoir/videos)

Fortunately, the new leadership seems pretty focused on pumping out more albums, EPs, and videos. Tapping into the talents of the extended Libera family was a stroke of genius that will hopefully allow them to release more high-quality music at a faster pace. I think that's really what the vast majority of fans want.

[dani]

I hope we get a summer tour in the UK or Europe. If they do a UK tour, hopefully they will visit new places and new cathedrals. I would love to get the May concert back in Arundal as that was always a lovely weekend away.


If we don't get an album this year, I wouldn't be shocked as they have barely performed the new songs live yet. So there is definitely a lot more mileage in Dream and concerts going into 2025.

I don't invision any U.S. tours for the next few years. They are too expensive, and it will take a Herculean effort to get a tour in the next few years.

[seraphita]

A Europe tour would be a good plan!

I hope we get a summer tour in the UK or Europe. If they do a UK tour, hopefully they will visit new places and new cathedrals. I would love to get the May concert back in Arundal as that was always a lovely weekend away.


If we don't get an album this year, I wouldn't be shocked as they have barely performed the new songs live yet. So there is definitely a lot more mileage in Dream and concerts going into 2025.

I don't invision any U.S. tours for the next few years. They are too expensive, and it will take a Herculean effort to get a tour in the next few years.

[LordG]

I wouldn't set my hopes so high for concerts in continental Europe. Certainly in the past, there have been concerts outside of England in:

2007
Leiden, Netherlands (Pieterskerk, Leiden) 30 and 31 May,

2009
Dublin, Ireland (National Concert Hall) July 31
Belfast, Northern Ireland (St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast) August 3

2012
Channel Islands 2012 Tour - Saint Helier, Jersey (Jersey Opera House) August 1 and 2 and Saint Peter Port, Guernsey (St James, Guernsey),
Armagh, Northern Ireland (St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh) November 1.
Belfast, Northern Ireland (St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast) November 2

2015
Moscow, Russia (Moscow International Performing Arts Center Svetlanov Hall) 18 January

2016
Libera Live - Kraków, Poland (St. Kazimierz Królewicz Church) 26 July and (Main Square, Kraków) 27 July and
Koncert Credo in Misericordiam Dei Brzegi, Wieliczka County, Poland (Campus Misericordiae) 30 July as part of World Youth Day 2016.
Vallendar, Germany (Schoenstatt Pilgrims' Church) 2 August.

2018
Moscow, Russia (Zaryadye Hall) 28 December

Since 2018, most of the concerts have been performed either in the USA, Korea, Japan or the Philippines.
Apart from the few concerts in England.
We can count ourselves lucky that concerts have taken place on home turf at all.

If you look at the boys, you can see that quite a few of them also sing in other boys' choirs and therefore
compete with these choirs. Libera has to offer something special to keep the boys interested and, as you
can see, this usually involves faraway trips abroad.

[Mercurial909]

I wouldn't set my hopes so high for concerts in continental Europe. Certainly in the past, there have been concerts outside of England in:

2007
Leiden, Netherlands (Pieterskerk, Leiden) 30 and 31 May,

2009
Dublin, Ireland (National Concert Hall) July 31
Belfast, Northern Ireland (St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast) August 3

2012
Channel Islands 2012 Tour - Saint Helier, Jersey (Jersey Opera House) August 1 and 2 and Saint Peter Port, Guernsey (St James, Guernsey),
Armagh, Northern Ireland (St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh) November 1.
Belfast, Northern Ireland (St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast) November 2

2015
Moscow, Russia (Moscow International Performing Arts Center Svetlanov Hall) 18 January

2016
Libera Live - Kraków, Poland (St. Kazimierz Królewicz Church) 26 July and (Main Square, Kraków) 27 July and
Koncert Credo in Misericordiam Dei Brzegi, Wieliczka County, Poland (Campus Misericordiae) 30 July as part of World Youth Day 2016.
Vallendar, Germany (Schoenstatt Pilgrims' Church) 2 August.

2018
Moscow, Russia (Zaryadye Hall) 28 December

Since 2018, most of the concerts have been performed either in the USA, Korea, Japan or the Philippines.
Apart from the few concerts in England.
We can count ourselves lucky that concerts have taken place on home turf at all.

If you look at the boys, you can see that quite a few of them also sing in other boys' choirs and therefore
compete with these choirs. Libera has to offer something special to keep the boys interested and, as you
can see, this usually involves faraway trips abroad.

Christmas in Ireland live concert recorded in the summer of 2013 too.

But sadly, no trips to Europe (outside England) for nearly 7 years.

No trips to the Philippines - where they had a huge fan base - in nearly 6 years.

No prospect of any trips to the USA any time soon.

Not invited back to Korea last year and nothing on the official site that suggests they’ll be going this year.

Appears as though Japan might be the only trip abroad Libera get to have.

Have to wonder if this would be the case if Rob were still around. Not that I’m blaming Sam, just that maybe Rob had that reach and clout that he would possibly receive more invites to places Libera used to go to, but haven’t been to for so long that many of the current boys were either babies or not even born the last time Libera went to such places (e.g. Taiwan, China, Singapore, Canada, Russia, Poland).

I hope things pick up soon because Libera has some amazing talent that deserves to be seen around the world.

[Mercurial909]

If Libera are not gonna be doing much touring or UK concerts (which, besides the Christmas concert, weren’t a sell out) this calendar year, then I hope Sam is getting them into the studio to record songs for future albums. That’s especially important for some of the trebles, since we don’t know how much longer they’ll be trebles for.

That is very much the case with those aged 12+ and Joseph falls firmly into that group. You can already hear his voice maturing. Then there’s Edward whose voice could possibly be considered for a lead treble on a track.

Then there’s the 13 year olds: Hal and Pietro. I’d wanted to hear more from them on the current album.
Then there’s Morgan who’s 14, Cameron who’s a similar age and whose voice is already transitioning, and of course Thomas M whose voice started noticeably maturing last year.

The voice breaks can be rapid. Nathan was still singing treble between Easter and summer last year but by the summer concerts his voice had broken.



Come Christmas we don’t know which of the 14 year olds will be fully fledged tenors but it’s possible they all could be.

[Jake4263]

On February 12th 2024, Libera announced the dates of their tour in England. Perhaps we can expect news in the next ten days for 2025? Looking forward to hearing from them!

[Surpinto]

On February 12th 2024, Libera announced the dates of their tour in England. Perhaps we can expect news in the next ten days for 2025? Looking forward to hearing from them!

While I don't think they have such a strict system as to afford us an announcement at the exact same time of year (though I certainly wish it were so ), you may be onto something in terms of the approximate timing of the next announcement. If we're going to get an "early" announcement it would probably happen sometime in February.

I would be very interested in traveling to the UK again to see them and making it part of a larger vacation.

While an early announcement from them is always welcome, a late one is not. So I'm really hopeful that they continue with the courtesy of giving us plenty of notice as they have done recently. I also hope that gone are the days when we get like only one to two months notice, which makes it practically a no go for anyone not in the immediate area.

[fan_de_LoK]

If Libera are not gonna be doing much touring or UK concerts (which, besides the Christmas concert, weren’t a sell out) this calendar year, then I hope Sam is getting them into the studio to record songs for future albums.

I share your hope.

We're currently in a seasonal period of low public visibility.
Maybe in the meantime, interesting things are in the works, indeed perhaps recordings of new songs or videos? The longer we wait for an announcement, the more likely it is to happen the very next day
Not to mention the much-anticipated announcements of the usual spring concert in the UK and a summer tour (hopefully in Europe).

As for a new album, it still seems a bit early given the recent release of Dream.
However, with a likely Japan tour in October, it would make sense to have a new physical release available for the thousands of fans there.
Maybe Libera Records could put together a compilation with two or three new tracks? Or perhaps an EP with five or six songs?

[fan_de_LoK]

you may be onto something in terms of the approximate timing of the next announcement

While last year's timeline might seem like a good reference, a review of the past 10 years shows a wide range of announcement dates as well as significant variation in the lead times between announcements and concerts.
It goes from as short as 4 weeks to as long as 38 weeks
Given this, it seems quite difficult to establish any reliable prediction for 2025.

The average lead time based on the tab is 18 weeks.
However, if we exclude the announcement dates that are already past and therefore outdated, the average drops to 11 weeks.
For a concert scheduled for a Saturday around mid-May, this would correspond to an approximate announcement date around 1st March 2025.

(Sorry, American friends, the dates below are in a readable format, meaning day/month/year. You know, the way the rest of the world does it )
 
 

UK Spring concert lead time.png (23.89 KiB) Viewed 288816 times

UK Spring concert lead time.png (23.89 KiB) Viewed 288816 times

[Surpinto]

Agreed! The longer their silence lasts the greater the chance of new songs, videos, etc. Thanks for the detailed announcement data, it puts the situation into perspective.

Hopefully we hear something from them soon regarding the summer and spring.

[fan_de_LoK]

The Spring 2025 concert is then in London, announced today 06/02/2025, for a concert held on 10/05/2025, in 13 weeks of time