Salutations! I figured it is past time to introduce myself, so I don't look like I'm trolling the boards - I've just been reading, up 'til now. Still reading, in fact. Still reading the thread where people are getting acquainted personally - I'm only up to 2008, where TCliffy dodged a hurrricane - Ike - down South, and then people started discussing the education system.
Still reading the thread where people posted other young artists and choirs they like - it's practically a Sampler of good music! So far I have added over a dozen new entries to my YouTube list of Favourites - for which I thank those of you who posted on that thread.
Since my Mac suffered catastrophic failure, my link to the outside World is my iPhone. Reading on an iPhone is a slow affair, and writing on one is even slower, so this post will probably be the longest one you will see for quite some time.
My name is Christopher Cox, and I hail from Alexandria, Virginia, U.S.A.
I have just recently opened pages on both MySpace and Facebook, for those of you on those networks - I opened them to get back in touch with old friends, but I welcome new friends as well. From what I have read so far, the people here are an interesting and/or educated lot with undisputable good taste in music.
I discovered Libera quite by accident.
Watching the movie Coraline, I was blown away by the music (composed by Bruno Coulaise), so I tried to look into it online. I found it had been performed by The Childrens Chorus of Nice. I tried to find out more about them, but couldn't. Instead I kept getting two referrals: One to the BCSD - a great resource on choirs and boy soloists - and the other a link to YouTube.
I had NEVER checked out YouTube. I remember when it was launched - It had been touted as a place to post homemade videos; basically a dumbed-down Funniest Videos site. I had no idea people were posting MUSIC there, until I clicked the Coraline Closing Credits link to YouTube and got the music instead of actual credits! Under the related-videos-you-might-like was: Libera.
I checked out the BCSD site, still looking for more info on the Childrens Choir of Nice and found nothing on them, but plenty of writeups about Libera.
Hmmmmm....
Next I used BCSD to find things of potential interest and look them up on YouTube, including old favourites like The Vienna Boys Choir and newer happy discoveries.
One frequent poster with good taste - a French woman, I believe - had me researching where she got the music for her vids: From this I found groups like the Boys Air Choir and soloists like Joseph McManners - and in each case the related recommended videos showed material from Libera.
Hmmmmm... again. There was SO MUCH Libera material popping up as Recommended that I was reluctant at first, so first I sought out (and saved to Favourites) everything I could located on the new discoveries I had already made. Libera would need a suitable amount of time to explore properly. Clearly! So I held off, gradually learning that Libera also included Angel Voices and The St. Philips Boy Choir as well as the full St. Philips Choir (as on their stirring rendition of Onward Christian Soldiers). Clearly it would need a LARGE block of time to explore! I may be no longer working, but I still have things to do and only 24 hours in a day. So I waited, curious.
Then I sampled, some from each period.
Then I splurged, following every link for more.
When links no longer worked, I used Search to find more songs.
Then I systematically went through Search to find all of the different versions of songs.
Then I wrote down all of the titles of tracks from all of their albums and used YouTube's Search some more, just to make sure I had heard every title that has been posted.
Somewhere in all of this I went from exploring to being a fan, to the point where finding a new song or version makes my day!
This seems like a good place to stop. I could go into more personal details, but that seems more appropriate for the getting- to-know-each other thread, so I will simply bid you all a good day and a good New Year.
