12/16/14 – Light & Gold: the Music of Eric Whitacre – 10 pm
With Eric Whitacre at Cadogan Hall. Photo by Giorgia Bertazzi.
Within two years of their formation, the Eric Whitacre Singers have established themselves as one of the finest ensembles of our day. This professional choir draws in audiences with a wide spectrum of age, interests and backgrounds, performing Monteverdi and Bach to Whitacre, Lauridsen and Britten. They received exceptional and unanimous praise from critics and won a GRAMMY® award for Best Choral Performance for their debut album, Light & Gold on Decca/Universal.
Their second album, Water Night went straight to no. 1 in the classical iTunes and Billboard charts and also features the London Symphony Orchestra, Hila Plitmann and Julian Lloyd Webber. In November 2014, they released their first EP on vinyl featuring Eric Whitacre’s choral arrangement of Depeche Mode’s ‘Enjoy the Silence’.
The Eric Whitacre Singers have performed on national TV and regularly record in Abbey Road and Angel Studios. They made their BBC Proms debut in 2012 in a programme which included a collaboration with singer/songwriter Imogen Heap. In May 2013, they performed at a ceremony honoring Archbishop Desmond Tutu at London’s Guildhall as he was presented with the 2013 Templeton Prize Laureate and came together with fellow performers, world-renowned vocal artist Annie Lennox and the vibrant London African Gospel Choir. The choir made its debut US tour in 2013, with concerts in Washington’s Strathmore Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and New York’s Lincoln Center. Their recent ReImagine programme, presented at London’s Union Chapel in March 2014, included collaborations with the British soul artist Laura Mvula, accordionist Ksenija Sidorova, percussionist Joby Burgess, and Norwegian singer-songwriter Marius Beck.
