AN INTRODUCTION TO LIBERA 

Libera performing at World Youth Days in Krakow, Poland, where they also sang for Pope Francis and a live audience of 1.7 million.

Libera is a group of boy singers (around 40 of them, with three-quarters performing and touring, the rest in training) aged 6-16, based in a tiny Anglican church in an obscure suburban corner of South London. 

St Philip's Anglican Church, Norbury, UK.

They’re part of a choir tradition that goes back to the 19th century, and a showbiz career that began with their first TV appearance in 1984 as “The St. Philip’s Boys’ Choir.”

In 1987, they changed their name, recording their next three CDs as “Angel Voices.”  

In 1999, they became known as “Libera” (Latin for “free,” pronounced with a short “i,” as in “Liberty”).

 The average performing life of a Libera singer is 5-7 years, though older “graduates” often return for special performances or as staff members.  

 

Former Libera soloist Isaac London fits a headset microphone onto eight-year-old new soloist Joseph Hill.

Isaac as an eight-year-old singer in 2011.

 The group, Anglican in origin, but now open to boys of all backgrounds, is run essentially on a volunteer basis by parents, former singers, and (formerly) by a genius director/ composer/arranger (Robert Prizeman), who took charge of the St. Philip’s Choir in 1970, at the age of 18. 

Robert Prizeman takes a bow in 2020.

Prizeman passed away in 2021, but had established two former singers, Steven Geraghty and Sam Coates, as co-assistant directors/arrangers, and the group’s high standard has never wavered.

Libera Co-Directors Steven Geraghty and Sam Coates as choristers in 2000.

 

In spite of the group's curiously humble origins, Libera has  sung on numerous TV, video-game and movie, soundtracks, including Ico, Road, Halo, Card Shark, Foyle’s War, The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, The Snow Queen, The Greatest Miracle, Shadowlands, Hannibal, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Home Alone II, and well over a dozen Japanese features).

They've made more than 25 of their own CDs, and appeared nationwide on the US Public Broadcasting System in three TV-concert/CD/DVDs. (Angel Voices: Libera in Concert, 2007; Angels Sing: Christmas in Ireland, 2013; and Angels Sing: Libera in America, 2015). 

They’ve been featured in numerous music videos, have been included to date in well over 200 CD compilations, and have backed recording artists like Sir Elton John, José Carreras, Michael Crawford, Luciano Pavarotti, Hayley Westenraa, Andrea Bocelli, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Cliff Richard, Björk, Susan Boyle, the Berlin Philharmonik, and even Dame Edna Everage.  

In unaccustomed red robes, singing on TV in the 1990s with Sir Elton John and the late Luciano Pavarotti

Sharing the bill with Bill Clinton, Marlee Matlin, Reba McEntire, Miley Cyrus and others.

 

As an ever-evolving “boy band,” they sing Robert Prizeman’s shimmering original compositions and his freestyle arrangements of traditional plainsong, serious classics and pop/New Age/Celtic music, as well as new arrangements by current director Sam Coates.

Waiting to go onstage in Los Angeles

Libera has appeared before US presidents and numerous other heads of state, as well as on The Tonight Show and The Today Show In the US, and innumerable appearances on the BBC in Britain.

With Jay Leno and Judd Apatow on the Tonight Show

Rehearsing for a Christmas broadcast with Susan Boyle in the Royal Albert Hall, London

With one of Japan's most popular singers, Hiroko Yakushimaru

They’ve sung at the Kennedy Center Honors, and performed for Pope Benedict in Yankee Stadium in front of 65,000 people. 

Beachballs float in the Kennedy Center as Libera boys sing "Love and Mercy" to honoree Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

At Yankee Stadium

Autograph Session in Korea

In 2023, a YouTube video of Tomaso Albinoni's "Ave Verum" had surpassed 2.1 million views six months after its release:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CprYUY9RQ_0 (Ave Verum [Adagio in G Minor) by Tomaso Albinoni/ Solo by Freddie Mushrafi/3:55)

 Freddie Mushrafi

Their concerts are generally SRO. In 2017, they appeared before a live audience of 1.7 million, including Pope Francis, as part of World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland.

Concert/TV broadcast in Krakow

Typical autograph session in the Philippines

It was this mob scene in Korea that stressed the need for burly security guards at some venues.

Nine-year-old Freddie has his first experience with "Libera love" in Japan.

A young Japanese fan is overwhelmed at meeting Libera boys.

They’re mobbed like rock stars in Asia, feted in Europe, get to rub elbows with Hollywood/Nashville royalty in the US, perform in spectacular and historic venues, and yet are refreshingly normal kids who go to different schools, play soccer, and speak amusingly and politely when interviewed.

Treble soloists Camden, Leo, and Taichi.

 

Libera generations: four accomplished singers (Sam, Lucas. Rocco and Taichi) present their younger brothers (Victor, Theo, Romeo, and Koji) as "miniboys," the group's name for little singers on probation.

Pre-concert snack time. A long-standing tradition is for the boys to wear their hooded jackets backwards over their robes while eating; this prevents food and drink from staining those pristine whites. 

The Libera Historical Timeline is consulted by a growing number of interested parties in 95 countries (and counting), including such surprising places as China, Uganda, Vietnam, Brunei, Guam, Macau, Slovakia, Uzbekistan, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Arab Emirates.

Beijing

Moscow

Hollywood, CA

Full house in Japan

En route

Since 2011, Libera’s Christmas Album CD; the Angels Sing: Christmas in Ireland DVD (2013); the 2015 DVD release Angels Sing: Libera in America; and the 2019 CD Christmas Carols With Libera have hit #1 on the Billboard Classical charts in the US, Japan, and several other countries. Each holiday season, their rendition of “Carol of the Bells” becomes a #1 download on iPod.

By March of 2021, their YouTube site had collected over 200 million views and is now approaching 250 million. 

https://libera.org.uk

As mentioned, they’re a not-for-profit, mostly volunteer organization; neither the singers nor most of the support staff/techies/in-house musicians are paid, though the boys rehearse 2-3 times a week (more frequently before a big concert or tour). They also spend hours recording CDs and shooting music videos.

Hard at work at a recording session 

A scene from the video of "The Moon Represents My Heart, sung entirely in Mandarin.

Libera urchins in costume for "It's a Wonderful World."

Isaac London solos in "Santa Will Find You."

The majority of Libera concerts are done for charities, or to benefit the historic venues at which they frequently perform; they use income from CDs and DVDs to help finance foreign tours so they can go elsewhere and do more charity concerts. 

Libera performs in the vast Crystal Cathedral in Los Angeles.  

Their record company, as well as organizations in tour destinations (out of love for the group), often kick in additional $$, as do occasional corporate sponsors, but visas, air and ground transportation, and food/lodging for all those singers/chaperones/support crew/

musicians/techies cost a bundle ($275,000 for the 2023 US tour, for instance).

The official shot

Between takes

Nobody’s getting rich, but somehow everybody’s getting what they need. The boys call it their “hobby.”

 

Tinseled up for one of many holiday TV appearances.

Between songs at a tech rehearsal

For the really interested, here’s a great 30-minute BBC-TV special on Libera, with charming interviews and a lot of lovely music.

 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_pyvWZlzwk>  (Libera BBC-TV Special/ 2009)

And for the enthralled, the Libera Timeline begins at http://liberatimeline.blogspot.com/, with an overview of the group, then goes by year from 1981 through the present.

Enjoy,
 Amie