Hearty laughter filled the air in Wilson Concert Hall as the King’s Singers took center stage to present a wide-ranging array of a cappella songs.
The King’s Singers are a Grammy and Emmy award-winning choral music group, founded in 1968. While the troupe members have rotated throughout the years, they have retained their original composition of two countertenors, one tenor, two baritones and one bass.
The group kicked off their two-week United States tour at Washington and Lee’s Lenfest Center for the Arts.
“It’s a beautiful place to start things off,” second baritone Nick Ashby said.
During the concert, the King’s Singers presented a repertoire of folk, pop and jazz songs – with a healthy dose of humor – that took the audience through the decades, ranging from the 1960s to the present day.
“It was my first time seeing them, and they were absolutely incredible,” Trip Wright, ’25, said. “I was in awe of almost every song that they sang.”
From traditional English folk songs like “Blow Away the Morning Dew” to recognizable pop culture hits like Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes” and Disney’s “Bare Necessities,” the singers stayed true to their initial commitment to take their audience on an “emotional journey.”
“Their blend was just incredible,” Matt Flynn, ’25, said. “Their clear straight tone without vibrato was so pure and there was no tension in their sound. They make it look so effortless that it doesn’t come across how much hard work goes into it.”
Along with singing, the group incorporated humor and physical comedy throughout the performance – tenor Julian Gregory even pretended to faint midway through after sustaining a note for “too long.”
Meredith Harron, ’26, compared the group to Chanticleer, another famous vocal ensemble. She said that she enjoyed how the King’s Singers “were more animated,” in comparison, and that “they really brought the humor out.”
To members of W&L’s choral music community, the excitement of watching the troupe perform was quite personal. The University Singers had performed the King’s Singers arrangement of “M.L.K.” at the recent Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance concert on Jan. 26.
“They also performed [works of composer] Stacey Gibbs, which University Singers has sung a few times,” Harron said. “We worked with him, and I’ve actually sung an arrangement that they sung tonight, which was really cool.”
One of the most notable moments of the night was the encore when the group returned to rambunctious applause and a standing ovation to deliver a final Disney song.
“The last section of songs in our program tend to be chosen on the day, and it was my turn to choose,” Ashby said. “I felt like this audience [was] loving the Disney stuff, so we wanted to give them iconic Disney songs that were a bit silly to begin with but end sincerely.”
