Culture

WATCH HERE: The King’s Singers ‘Finding Harmony in Japan’ October 24 Concert

Published

4 years ago

October 23, 2020

The King’s Singers’ online virtual tour in Japan is finally here.

On Saturday October 24, the worldwide famous a cappella sextet is broadcasting “Finding Harmony in Japan: Heiwa,” their first online concert of the “Finding Harmony” tour.

The content provides a rare occasion for the presentation of commissioned pieces written by contemporary Japanese composers Makiko Kinoshita and Eisuke Tsuchida.

TICKETS INSIDE JAPAN: Order on here, on e+.

TICKETS OUTSIDE JAPAN: Order on here, on e+ international.

In the words of group leader and tenor Julian Gregory in an interview with JAPAN Forward:

We hope that these two works will be appreciated by our audiences around the world, but might perhaps strike a particular chord with our Japanese audience.

Songs will also include the Japanese national anthem, “Kimi ga yo,” and the nostalgic “Furusato.”

The online concert was born as an idea to honor the fans in Japan who were looking forward to the group’s tour, scheduled from October 9-18. It was to be the first stop of the group’s tour, “Finding Harmony.”

The tour, which would have started in Hiroshima and finished in Fukushima, included a charity concert from which all proceeds were intended to support the region’s recovery from the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The group’s countertenor Christopher Bruerton, in an interview with JAPAN Forward, had this message to Japanese fans:

I really hope that [the fans] enjoy this concert. Japan is so important to us, we wanted to make sure that one of the four concerts that we are giving online was dedicated to them and to the Japanese culture, which forms the cornerstones of the program. There are some other lovely songs in there which I hope they will enjoy…. We love Japan, and we can’t wait to come back!

Just under an hour, the performance was recorded at the Yamaha Piano Hall in London. The online concert was made through the collaboration of The Sankei Shimbun and JAPAN Forward, using the online platform e+. It is available both for the Japanese audience here and those living abroad here.

Online viewing of the concert is available to fans living in Japan and seven other countries: Taiwan, Thailand, Korea, Singapore, Australia, Canada, and the United States.

For those who would like to hear what The King’s Singers have been up to, make sure you also check our podcast interview with Julian Gregory and Jonathan Howard here.

Many things are different in this year of COVID-19, but The King’s Singers’ vision is that music has the power to bring us together. Join them — and us — for their online concert, and let’s find harmony together.