Libera

Država: England
Grad: London
Žanr: classical choral boys choir new age choir
Tekstovi pjesama: Libera lyrics

Biografija

The story really starts with the appointment of a new 18-year-old choirmaster, Robert Prizeman, to Saint Philip's Church in Norbury, South London in 1970, where Prizeman had previously been a choirboy and later church organist. The choir was very good, but, like most small church choirs, received little public recognition. Their first appearance in the public eye came when, as the Saint Philip's Boys' Choir, they backed Sal Solo on his song San Damiano in 1984. This led in 1988 to the choir releasing their first album, Sing For Ever, as the Saint Philip's Boys' Choir. The title track for this album — a Robert Prizeman composition — was chosen by the BBC as the first Children in Need telethon anthem. Due to the work of the passage of time on the boys' voices, the principal soloist changed at various points during this period, as it has done since. The period when they were called the Saint Philip's Boys' Choir roughly equates to the 1980s. The change of name to Angel Voices came in 1990 to accompany the release of their second album, New Day. Both Sing For Ever and New Day are now out of print. The changes of name of the publicly performing section of Saint Philip's Church choir are to show the different styles of music for new audiences.

It was as Angel Voices, during most of the 1990s, that Libera came to real public prominence with three albums and regular appearances on two television shows. A major role as singers in the programmes Titchmarsh on Song, presented by Alan Titchmarsh in 1992 and Thora on the Straight and Narrow in 1993 introduced Angel Voices to a wider public. The third album, Angel Voices, was released in 1992 and re-released in 1993, containing much similar material to Sing For Ever. Further television appearances followed through the 1990s, with a second album as 'Angel Voices', Angel Voices 2, appearing in the shops in 1996. This was soon (in 1997) followed by an album for Christmas and, following the naming that characterised this period, the new album was called Angel Voices 3.

In 1998, along with a departure from fairly traditional church choir music, came the latest change of name to Libera. Since then, five albums have been released: Libera in 1998, Luminosa in 2001, Free in September 2004, Visions in November 2005 and Angel Voices in November 2006. Along with regular appearances on television, most often on Songs of Praise, they have released four videos that are often shown on Classic FM TV. Currently there are around 30 boys in the group, but this number changes as voices break and new members join. Although there may be up to 30 members in total, only about 15 have appeared in the videos made thusfar. Libera have also been used as session artists on various outside projects such as film soundtracks including Romeo & Juliet, Shadowlands and Hannibal and some of the members have even recorded music for the PlayStation 2 game ICO. They have also collaborated on three albums with Aled Jones.

In 2005 there were successful tours of Japan where they are treated as a boy band. In 2007 there was an increase in dedicated Libera live performances. A successful Easter tour of Japan and Korea was preceded by an atmospheric concert at St John's Norwood which was open to UK fans. This was then followed by post-tour public concerts at Arundel Cathedral and Harrogate.

Two dedicated live concerts in PietersKerk, Leiden, Holland were to record a programme for PBS TV in the USA and for a DVD to be released in late 2007.

In April 2008, Libera toured the New York area, and participated in the Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium.

Slični umjetnici: Joseph McManners Angelis All Angels Cantamus Hayley Westenra