Fan Video from St. John's, Norwood, London Concert

Libera performed a candlelit "Almost Christmas" concert in London a few weeks ago. You can read about it here. This video is a slide show of photos from the concert done by James Phillip. Thank you to him for so many excellent photos! There even appear to be 2 photographers who took these pictures. And I think it is some of the parents and family members sitting in front. Here are a few of my favorites.

I love how the boys always keep their eyes on Robert Prizeman

 

London "Almost Christmas" Concert 2014

UPDATED December 20 & 21, 2014

Happy last Saturday before Christmas! I'm very happy to be home! And I know there are a lot of people in London who are very happy, too, because they are at the "Libera by Candlelight" concert at St. John's Church in Norbury. It looks like a perfect night for it.

Cloudy but not too cold in London ~ photo by Patrick

St. John's Interior before the concert ~ photo by Patrick

Stage before concert ~ photo by Libera

Libera on stage at St. John's ~ photo by Luke Avery

There are 24 boys singing tonight. There are also 13 junior boys, or little newbies as I like to call them, who are singing in their very first Libera concert. They sing on some but not all of the songs. I wonder if Samuel Collins is Luke, Jude, and Gabe's little brother. There ARE 4 boys in the family, so... :) And maybe Finn Wood is Lucas' brother. There are so many newbies!!!!! Just imagine them all on the stage at the same time!

1.   Marc Alvares
2.   Shay Balsekar
3.   Ciaran Bradbury-Hickey
4.   Merlin Brouwer*
5.   Gabriel Collins
6.   Thomas Delgado-Little
7.   Alex Gula
8.   Matthew Jansen
9.   Timothy Lee
10. Isaac London
11. Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti
12. Matthew Madine
13. James Menezes
14. Michael Menezes
15. Alex Montoro
16. Jakub Niedermaier-Reed
17. Cassius O'Connell-White
18. Matthew Rangel-Alvares
19. Bertie Smart
20. Camden Stewart
21. Rocco Tesei
22. Mark Ustynovych-Repa
23. Sam Wiggin
24. Lucas Wood

*newbie

Juniors - all newbies

1.   Leo Barron
2.   Ben Bywater
3.   Samuel Collins
4.   Tom Cooper
5.   Tadhg Fitzgerald
6.   Adam Izghouti
7.   Neo Parson
8.   Taichi Shinokubo
9.   Cameron Taylor
10. Sejus Toussaint-O'Neill
11. Oliviero Veneri-Thomas
12. Joseph Walshe
13. Finn Wood 

I love that they added an oboe, and the staff listing always looks like a Libera reunion. :D Everyone is pretty much doing the same jobs as at Arundel in May, but Tiarnan is now working on stage management. Congratulations to him!

Musical Director - Robert Prizeman
Assistant Musical Directors - Sam Coates & Steven Geraghty
Keyboards - Joshua Madine
Percussion - Jonathan Ormston
Strings - The Silken Strings
Flute - Candice Hamel
Clarinet - Jessie Grimes
Horn - Raoul Neumann
Oboe - Jesse Bescoby

Stage Management - Jonathan Barrington, Kavana Crossley & Tiarnan Branson
Lighting - Luke Avery
Libera Management - Steven Philipp
Libera Tour Co-ordination & Chaperoning - Barbara Geraghty & Eleanor Lewis
Production Co-ordinator - Andrew Winter


The song list is amazing! Alex Gula had his first solo, and he has a great voice!

1.   Joyful Joyful - sung by all 37 boys
Speech - Cassius told that Cameron Taylor is the youngest at 7 years old, and Jakub (Kuba) is the oldest at 15.
2.   Joy to the World
3.  What Child Is This
4.  The Prayer - solo by Isaac with Ciaran
5.   Sanctus - middle harmony and last "Sanctus Sanctus" by Bertie, high notes by Lucas
Speech - Alessandro & Ciaran
6.   Voca Me - the crazy high note at the end sung by Lucas!
7.   Wexford Carol - solo and verse in Gaelic by Isaac
8.   Carol of the Bells - high notes by Isaac & Lucas, last "Ding dong" by Isaac
Speech - Alex & Gabe
9.   Ave Maria - listed but the did not sing it
10. How Great Thou Art - solo by Sam

-Interval_

11. Conditor Alme Siderum - sung a capella as plain song while walking back on stage
12. Angels We Have Heard On High
Speech - Alessandro & Ciaran with Moose
13. Away In A Manger - solo by Alex Gula
14. Wayfaring Stranger - solo by Sam
15. Amazing Grace - solo by Isaac
16. Gaudete - solo by Lucas?
Speech - Ciaran with boys speaking in their families' native language
      Alex G (Poland), Lucas (Mexico), Sam (France), Isaac (Ireland), Alex M (Italy), Taichi (Japan)
17. Song of Life - solo by Isaac
18. How Shall I Sing That Majesty - solo by Alessandro & Lucas
19. Silent Night - solo by Isaac
Speech - Taichi (he is so small and quite young!)
20. In Dulci Jubilo

Encore - What a Wonderful World - solo Isaac


Tom Delgado-Little did not sing any solos in the first half, and they skipped "Ave Maria," so he may be feeling ill.

Concert program ~ photo by Yuki

Choir members, instrumentalists, & staff ~ photo by Yuki

Song list ~ photo by Yuki

What a wonderful "Almost Christmas" concert! :D

Libera Christmas 2014 Concert in London, UK

Great news, Libera fans! Libera will be having their 5th annual concert in London, UK called "Libera by Candlelight." Tickets just went on sale today! Get your tickets now as they will sell quickly. There are many fans in the UK, and the boys' families can all attend as well. What a great way to celebrate Christmas!

Beautiful concert poster!!!

Saturday, December 20, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
   St. John's Church
   Auckland Road, Upper Norwood, London, UK
   Seating - 311
   
Tickets available at Ticketsource or by calling 0844 8700 887.

Prices -  
   £20.00 + booking fee - Main Seating adults
   £15.00 + booking fee - Main Seating children under 16 & POA's
   £15.00 + booking fee - Restricted View adults
   £12.50 + booking fee - Restricted View children under 16 & POA's

Church Exterior

Church Interior

Church Stage

Church Interior

Seating chart

What's exciting about this concert (other than that it's Libera and it's Christmas) is that Libera has performed at St. John's Church many times. The earliest concert poster I've seen was of a concert there in March 2002! It was a concert by candlelight also! The details of that concert are here.

Do you remember these old pictures from Norbury from a posting I wrote 2 years ago? Do you recognize any choir members? :D

This is the Songs of Praise video for "Sanctus" that goes with these old photos from 1999.

 

The church is quite distinctive with the statues on top of the arch wall. There are videos of songs performed at St. John's in 2002 - "Veritas"




"Salva Me" with solo by Steven Geraghty can't be embedded, but you can watch it here. 

"Mysterium" with solo by Ben Crawley.



Hope everyone enjoys the Libera concert! Merry Christmas! :D

Libera Performing for Kennedy Center Patrons in London

Hi, Libera fans! We all know that when Libera is really quiet, it's usually because they are busy, busy, busy behind the scenes. We now know what they've been up to!

Libera just posted pictures with the message,

"Preparing for an event with the Kennedy Patrons. Arts from Sea to Shining Sea."

If you remember, Libera was invited to perform way back in December 2007 at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington DC when they sang "Love and Mercy" to help honor Brian Wilson. Click here to see pictures. Click here to see the video.

Now the Kennedy Center patrons are in London, and Libera was asked to perform for them again! It looks like there are 23 boys there, and they are singing at a beautiful building called The Foreign Office near St. James's Park and 10 Downing Street. How awesome is that?!!! =)

Arriving with their robes ready to sing!

Rehearsing at The Foreign Office

Rehearsing at The Foreign Office

Picture during rehearsal by Katie @Sharpfiddle

 

During the performance

During the performance

 

During the performance

Stay tuned. Will post more as I find it...

London, UK Concert Video

This is a slide-show video of Libera's November 28, 2013 concert at St. George's in London done by a fan named James Phillip. It has a lot of nice pictures of the boys on stage.

London Concert

 

Libera arriving for the concert

Happy Thanksgiving from the US! Libera's London concert was tonight. It sounds like it was amazing! But when are they ever NOT amazing?! There were some special surprises in store for the audience, though. More about that in a bit...

It was very cold in London, but the fans lined up early. There were at least 3 fans going to their very first Libera concert - Annette from Australia, Meme from Argentina, and Danny from Bulgaria! I think you can be called a "Super Fan" when you travel all that way! =D Fans reported that Michael Ustynovych-Repa and Freddie Ingles were in the audience with their families!

 

Video screens for obstructed view seats

 

Pretty lights

The same 24 boys who went on the Philippines tour were singing tonight, but 7 junior boys also sang with them on some of the songs.

Choristers - 

1.   Marc Alvares
2.   Henry Barrington
3.   Anthony Blake
4.   Ciaran Bradbury-Hickey
5.   Gabriel Collins
6.   Jude Collins
7.   Kavana Crossley
8.   Thomas Delgado-Little
9.   Dylan Duffy
10. Ben Fairman
11. Alex Gula
12. Matthew Jansen
13. Isaac London
14. Matthew Madine
15. Eoghan McCarthy
16. Alessandro MacKinnon-Botti
17. Michael Menezes
18. Alex Montoro
19. Kuba Niedermaier-Reed
20. Cassius O'Connell-White
21. Matthew Rangel-Alvares
22. Carlos Rodriguez
23. Sam Wiggin
24. Lucas Wood

Junior Choristers - 

1.  Shay Balsekar
2.  Timothy Lee
3.  James Menezes
4.  Camden Stewart
5.  Rocco Tesei
6.  Jamie Trinder
7.  Mark Ustynovych-Repa

There were extra instrumentalists just like in Armagh for the DVD recording. 

Keyboards - Steven Geraghty, Josh Madine
Strings - The Silken String Quintet
Clarinet - Steven Geraghty
Flute - Candice Hamel
Bassoon - Vicky Crowell
Guitar - Alex Roth
Percussion - Simon Roth

The song list was the same as in the Philippines including Isaac singing "Hymn to Mary" by himself. The only difference was that "The Moon Represents My Heart" was replaced with "Corpus Christi Carol" which was soloed completely by Tom! Double solos!! Double wow!! =D

The encore was still "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and then Ben gave a speech dedicating the second encore "Bayan Ko" to their friends in the Philippines. Sooo nice!  There were even representatives from the Philippines Embassy and Filipino community at the concert. They held raffles and sold gifts, food, and drinks with all the money going towards Philippines disaster recovery.

Song List -

1.   Dies Irae
2.   Gloria
Speech - Ben & Cassius 
3.   Angel from on High
4.   Wexford Carol
5.   Sanctus
Speech - Cassius & Ciaran
6.   I'm Dreaming of Home
7.   Voca Me
8.   Away in a Manger
Speech - Alex G. & Gabe
9.   Hymn to Mary - full solo by Isaac
10. In Dulci Jubilo
 
Interval
 
11. God Rest You Merry Gentlemen
12. Orinoco Flow
Speech - Alessandro & Ciaran about Moose, but Moose was missing!
13. Joy to the World
14. What Child is This
15. Carol of the Bells
Speech - Ciaran & Alessandro?
16. Corpus Christi Carol - full solo by Tom
17. Gaudete
18. Silent Night
Speech - Ben
19. Exultate

Encore: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Speech - Ben about the Philippines typhoon, spoke in Tagalog
Encore: Bayan Ko

Signed program

 

 

Concert flyers

Congratulations to Libera on a great Christmas concert! Thank you to Patrick, Jimmy, Yorkie, Peer, & Yuki for the pictures.

Snow In London!

If you've been watching the mini-angels spinning weather map, you know it's been snowing in London! I love snow! Wonder if the schools are closed? Our's never close. We had NO snow days off school last year. We did have one "cold day" though. lol The snow plows and salt trucks just come out and keep everything going - even the airports.

I found this AP picture taken 2 days ago in a Croyden park. It's soooo pretty!