Cebu Concert Seating Chart

The venue details for Cebu have been updated to show the Cebu seating chart here. There will be only 1,610 seats with no balcony seating shown. The front 3 rows are for sponsors and donors. This leaves only 1,400 seats available for the general public. Get your seats now! :)

The Christmas Album Comes to the Philippines!

Christmas in the Philippines starts in September! Polyeast Records announced on their Facebook page that Libera's new Christmas album will be released in the Philippines on September 30! Lucky, lucky fans there! You get to buy the CD 24 days before Japan and 32 days before the US and Canada! Oh, and did I mention you get to see Libera in person for 2 concerts, too! :D

The Christmas CD will probably be available at stores like Odyssey and Astrovision. If I could order online from there, I would. It's so hard to wait. Hopefully, we'll get a few previews of the songs soon.   

Libera at BBC 50th Anniversary Concert

Today is the BBC 50th Anniversary concert! I wrote details about it before here. Our friends Yuki, Momo, Fan de LoK, John, Yorkie and Michael went to the concert also!

Yuki wrote a great review of it here. She has excellent pictures, too! This is my favorite.

There were 27 boys + 4 former. It looks like - 
Back - Steven Geraghty, Sam Coates, Sam Abouelfaid, Jonathan, Sam, Liam, Sammy, Tiarnan and Simon Lewis.
Middle - Josh, Ben, Kavana, Isaac, Orlando, Jakob, Daniel, Nano Ben, ?, Matthew J., and Henry.
Front - Alex, Luke, Tom, Barney, Carlos, Michael, Ralph, Matt M., Eoghan, Cassius, Matthew R-A.

Fan de LoK said that it was a great and pleasant evening. Andrea Bocelli has a magnificent voice, as does Katherine Jenkins. Libera sang with the other choirs in one large Stage Choir. There were 25 boys in their white robes. Jonathan Barrington was there, but James Mordaunt was not. He thinks Libera will be on TV several times, because they had the cameras on them quite often. Libera was by far the choir having the youngest choristers. The show was not a "concert-like event" but a "recording event." The main purpose was to record the TV special that will be aired next week, so some songs were redone 2 or 3 times to correct technical issues or to motivate the public to sing with more energy. I sure hope we get to see it somehow here in America! :)

Yuki posted a picture of her program which shows that Libera was part of the Stage Choir as was Fuchsia (Sam Coates's a cappella group).

These are Fan de LoK's 2 pictures of his program. He said the rest of the program is the score of the songs.

Yuki took this picture of what Alexandra Palace looked like right before the concert started! Wow! There are 7,000 people there! :D

These are Fan de LoK's pictures of the stage when he first got there, the full audience and the stage before it started. There are choir lofts up and to the left and right. You can see some of the Libera boys in their white robes in the front of the right choir loft.

Fan de LoK's last picture is when Libera was ready to leave their seats at the end. The taller boys were more easy to recognize : Jonathan, Sam, Liam, Sammy, Tiarnan were the 5 seated on the third row with Steven Geraghty and Sam Coates to their left and Simon Lewis to their right. Below them were two rows of ten, starting on the left with Josh and Ben, and then the sizes were decreasing. I recognize Jakob and Daniel for sure!

Thank you Fan de LoK and Yuki for all the information! :D

Stefan's Opera Solo!

UPDATE Stefan's Premiere - September 19, 2011 - Yuki says that Stefan's parents were at the opera to see him perform. :) They are so nice. They had also gone to Canada to see him sing with Libera. Fan de LoK was at the opera also and said that Stefan did great and had many applause as did the other members of the cast. Congratulations, Stefan! :D

***Yuki has written a wonderful review of Stefan's opera debut! She got to meet him, his parents and the other 3 kids in the cast. Please obey her request to not copy the picture of the 4 kids. It sounds like it was an awesome night for the cast and the audience!

  

UPDATE September 17, 2011 - Yuki took pictures for us of her program. There are 2 pictures of Stefan.

Program cover

Program profile of Stefan in German. :)

Picture of Stefan in the program.

UPDATE September 15, 2011 - This is a picture from the Osterreichischer Rundfunk site (Austrian Public Radio & TV). It says this is a picture of Julia Storm as Flora and Stefan Leadbeater as Miles. It also says that the opera is 90 minutes long, but has 16 scenes! Thank you to Fan de LoK for the link.

UPDATE September 14, 2011 - Our friend, Yuki, is in Vienna and says that Stefan is not performing in tonight's opera. He is sitting in a box seat watching it. He told her that he will be singing on the 19th and 24th. And HE IS GOING TO THE PHILIPPINES! :D

June 11, 2011 - AHHH! Congrats to Stefan Leadbeater!!! He will be going to Vienna, Austria later this summer! He and another boy won the role of Miles in the opera "The Turn of the Screw" by Benjamin Britten. It will be performed at the Theater an der Wien. It's a huge solo part for him! He has to be in Vienna for 7 weeks. This is so awesome, Stefan! We all know you'll do a great job! Hope you'll still be able to travel on Libera's Summer Tour also.  :)

If anyone would like to go see the opera, the performances are September 14, 17, 19, 21, 24 and 27. I don't know how to tell which ones Stefan will be in. Tickets go on sale starting June 17 at 10 am. You can buy the tickets here. 

Wow! This picture is from the theater's web site.

Article About Manila Concert

Cute picture!

Carlos, Kavana, Ralph

Jakob, MJ, Luke

Matthew, Henry, Freddie, Cassius

Dylan, Jude, Eoghan, Barney

The Philippine Entertainment Portal posted an article about the upcoming Manila concert. You can read the full article here. Thanks to Jimmy Riddle for the link. It says that Libera "will be singing songs from their new record titled The Christmas Album. Libera is set to astound Filipino audiences by singing yuletide carols like 'Joy To The World,' 'O, Holy Night,' 'White Christmas,' and 'The First Noel.' The album will be released worldwide this October."

I'm not sure about that "worldwide" in October part. It's not available in the UK and US until November. But I love the new picture they posted! :) It's super cute! We're missing half of the boys. It may be that this picture is inside the CD, and the other 14 boys are in a second picture. And we get confirmation that the concert will have Christmas carols. They may still sing songs that are not Christmas carols. We'll see.

It also says that the concert is for the benefit of the British Alumni Association's Foundation for Disadvantaged Children and the Children's Hour.

The Children's Hour website has the Libera concert poster on it! :D Their site says, "Children’s Hour is a non-profit, fundraising, fund-giving, and friends-raising organization that aims to provide marginalized Filipino children with a better life; giving them better access to quality education, quality health and nutrition and a quality way of life. We do this primarily by asking individuals, employees, organizations and corporations to donate the minimum one hour’s worth of salaries or earnings at least once a year." What a nice idea! And what a nice charity for Libera to be involved with! Not surprisingly, Roberto F. De Ocampo is a member of this organization. :)

Libera on Japanese TV April 2010

Back on April 8 & July 12, 2010 we had posted about Libera's appearance on a Japanese TV show called NTV Don. They were there while on their Japanese tour in April 2010. Someone named peanutsac133 has now posted a full 14 minutes of the show on YouTube! Thanks to Kazuyo (necooook) for the link!

First, I've never seen a show with so many hosts. I count 9 of them! Maybe all their reporters came in to the studio for the day to meet Libera. :)

Next is a part we've never seen before except a little on Libera's official tour video. It is a great introductory profile of Libera with highlights of past performances and songs. It shows them arriving at Narita Airport, on the tour bus in Japan playing with toys and Ponyos, at Toyko Tower and shopping. At 0:57 and 2:35 I see our friend, Yuki! :D And is that Mina talking to Ben at 1:04?! I can't tell for sure. 1:14 has a cute picture of Jonathan, Michael Vereycken, Callum, Josh and Michael Horncastle from their April 2007 Japan Tour. It even has great Japanese commercials! I don't understand a word, but they are so fun to watch!

Then Ben and Ralph sing "Far Away" along with Kavana, James T., Jakob, Josh, Stefan, Daniel and Mini James while feathers float down. Wow! They all look so young! Well, it WAS 1.5 years ago! lol. Back then I thought they sounded jet lagged or something, but now that I watch this video, I think that in person they probably sounded great. You can tell the sound quality is just not very good on the TV. And Kavana was hitting those high notes!

I don't understand much of the interview part. It looks like the boys don't either. The interviewers laugh and make jokes, and the boys just smile politely. Someone asks what do they do when their voice changes. Ralph answers, "Well, some of us will stay in the choir, but not all the time. There are some people who don't once their voice breaks. But they often visit, so they're not completely gone." Aw. That's such a nice answer.

Ben leads the boys in a little of the "Ponyo" song with awesome harmonies. Daniel gets the hosts to sing a little which makes the hosts laugh at themselves, and Ben speaks a little Japanese for them. :D Then we see the weather for that day! Ha! Great video! Thanks for bringing back great memories. Hopefully they'll be in Japan again in April 2012, and we'll get to see videos like this with lots of newbies there, too! :)

Libera Philippines Concert - Student Discount

Here's some great news for anyone wanting to go to Libera's concerts in the Philippines. TicketWorld has posted that if you are a student, you can get 10% off your Libera tickets by presenting your student ID at any TicketWorld Outlet. This is for over-the-counter purchases only, not online purchases. Bring your student ID and save! :D

"Winter Songs" CD from EMI Japan

UPDATED September 16, 2011
The Tower Records site shows that it IS the same as the Christmas Album with a bonus track of "I Vow To Thee My Country." This is the song Mao Asada ice skated to at her exhibition for tsunami victims.

The DVD will have "Song of Life" and "Eternal Light" videos!

September 13, 2011
Well, EMI Japan is doing it again! On November 9, 2011 they will be releasing a Libera CD called "Winter Songs." The CD will probably be the Christmas CD coming out, but this will also include a DVD!!! Japan is so lucky! :D

Here are the sites showing it available for pre-order. Thank you to Fan de LoK for the links!

Amazon Japan              2,535 Yen

Rakuten Japan              2,430 Yen

Tower Records Japan   3,000 Yen

My USA Tour 2011 Videos

Well, I finally made a video for the USA Tour 2011!!! Problem is, we had so many pictures and videos that I couldn't keep it down to 15 minutes long. lol. So this is Part 1. It shows Minneapolis, St. Paul, Chicago and St. Louis.



And here is part 2 with Frisco and Houston! Watch Jude in the Houston M&G video. He is so funny!  :D

"The Best of Angel Voices" CD Available Now

We got our CD in the mail! Thank you to Todd for sending it to us and for working at Varese Sarabande to make it happen! It's a great CD to have to appreciate the history of Libera and the work of Robert Prizeman.

As I wrote about before, this is a compilation CD of old St. Philip's Boys Choir/Angel Voices songs. There are 16 songs, all of which come from the 1992 Angel Voices and 1996 Angel Voices 2 albums back when Oliver Putland, Daren Geraghty, Anthony Maher and Liam O'Kane sang with the group. This is the back inlay of the CD -

For people who need to use a translator, this is the song list:

01. For The Beauty Of The Earth (AV)
02. O For The Wings Of A Dove (AV)
03. How Can I Keep From Singing (AV)
04. Pie Jesu (Faure Requiem) (AV)
05. Sailing (AV)
06. Amazing Grace (AV2)
07. Evening Falls (AV2)
08. All Things Bright And Beautiful (AV2)
09. Be Still My Soul (AV)
10. Nunc Dimittis (AV2)
11. Praise My Soul (The King Of Heaven) (AV2)
12. Close Every Door To Me (AV2)
13. Abide With Me (AV2)
14. Adoramus Te (AV)
15. Be Still For The Presence Of The Lord (AV)
16. Jerusalem (AV2)


It is available at the following sites:

Varese Sarabande      here   $11.98
Amazon.com               here    $11.69     You can listen to song samples here
Amazon.co.uk             here       9.84  BPS
Amazon.de                   here     15.98  Euros
Amazon.co.jp              here      1073  Yen


There are so many great songs on this CD. I love Oliver Putland's "O For the Wings of a Dove", the harmonies and high treble on "How Can I Keep From Singing", their version of "Pie Jesu", Daren Geraghty's "Evening Falls" and the men joining in on "Jerusalem." "Adoramus Te" is a fun and happy song, and I noticed that the music was written by Sal Solo! :D

Another cool thing is that the inside booklet has this picture of the inside of St. Philip's Church. :)

Philippines Tour Venue Details

UPDATED: September 4, 6, 14, 27 & October 10, 2011

August 22, 2011
Libera is going to the Philippines October 23-29, 2011! The concerts are called "Libera: A Christmas Concert" to coincide with the release of their new Christmas CD!


View Larger Map


1. Manila
       Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 8:00 p.m.
       Plenary Hall, PICC (Philippines International Convention Center)
       CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) Complex, Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City
       http://www.picc.gov.ph/
       Seating - 3813

       Tickets - available at Ticketworld.com.ph or call British Alumni Association hotline: 0927- 8780166

        There is a 10% student discount when you present your student ID at any TicketWorld Outlet (over-the-counter purchases only). 

                               Zone 1 - PhP 7000. ($164.)
                               Zone 2 - PhP 5000. ($117.)
                               Zone 3 - PhP 4000. ($93.)
                               Zone 4 - PhP 3000. ($70.)
                               Zone 5 - PhP 2500. ($59.)
                               Zone 6 - PhP 2000. ($47.)
                               Zone 7 - PhP 1500. ($35.)
                               Zone 8 - PhP 800. ($19.)
                               Zone 9 - PhP 500. ($12.)

2. Cebu
        Friday, October 28, 2011, 8:00 p.m.
        Pacific Grand Ballroom, Waterfront Cebu City
        Salinas Drive, Mandaue City, Cebu City
        http://www.waterfronthotels.com.ph/waterfront/waterfront-cebu-city-hotels-casino/
        Seating - 1610

        Tickets available from -
            Arts Council of Cebu at (032) 233-0452 or artscouncilcebu@ymail.com, 
            British Alumni Association hotline at 0927- 8780166,
            St. Theresa's College Main Office at 2536337 or
            SM Department Store.

       
        Prices levels -
            PhP 3500. ($83.) - Reserved premium seats
            PhP 2500. ($59.) - Front center seats
            PhP 1500. ($35.) - Front side seats
            PhP   900. ($21.) - Back center seats
            PhP   750. ($18.) - Back side seats

Keep watching for more details about a possible autograph signing. :)          

            

Another Pic of Matt

Aww, Libera put up another picture of Matthew Madine to add to the US Tour gallery. So cute! :)

Philippines Tour Poster & Video

The poster for the Philippines Tour is out! The 5 boys in the front is the same picture as on their upcoming Christmas CD. And I love the blue color! These are going to be great concerts!

Libera360 also posted a promotional video for the concerts.



This adds "O Holy Night", "White Christmas" and mini James's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" to the song list. :)