Libera Is Coming to North America!

There is an online UK magazine called Time & Leisure and in the interview section there is an article about Libera! It says "Libera comes to the Epsom Playhouse for the very first time on 18 March, before they embark on yet another tour to North America." Aaaahhh!!!!!!! :D So maybe 6-7 boys will go to Japan to promote the new song around April 12 then meet everyone in Canada or the US! I hope I can go see them! And I wonder which boy lives in Epsom. lol

You can read the article here. And here's the article by Chris Wood titled "Treble Tops" in case it ever gets deleted. Thank you again to Jimmy Riddle for finding this!  :D


"When 24 very ‘ordinary’ south London schoolboys get together to sing, something very extraordinary happens.

With ages ranging from as young as seven through to mid-teens, they are into all the things that boys of their age enjoy, but when they don their flowing white robes and become Libera they produce a pure, timeless, mystical music that transcends musical boundaries and confounds the sceptical. Their stunningly original sound freely moves between liturgical, classical and contemporary styles to produce a music that communicates directly with modern mainstream audiences.

Surprisingly, perhaps, given that they and their artistic director Robert Prizeman are all south London orientated (one boy even comes from Epsom), Libera comes to the Epsom Playhouse for the very first time on 18 March, before they embark on yet another tour to North America. Even more surprising is the fact that, despite their huge popularity here in the UK, they are greeted with an almost fanatical adulation overseas.

‘When we visit countries like Japan and the Philippines we regularly visit shopping centres and encounter 50,000 or more screaming fans,’ Robert explains. ‘When we visited Manila we sang a Philippine traditional song and got a fanatical reception. We also topped the album charts while we were there. In this country it’s a little harder to gain acceptance that young boys can sing.’

In east Asia the sounds of Libera are frequently heard on mainstream TV and radio programmes and the group’s CDs ride high in the classical and pop charts of Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. In North America they have performed in front of huge crowds in cities and stadia from New York and Buffalo, Hartford, Albany and Pittsburgh in the east to Los Angeles in California.

Libera – the name comes from the Libera me, a part of the Latin Requiem Mass – are ‘a team’ in Prizeman’s words. ‘There’s a great sense of camaraderie, with the older boys looking out for the younger ones. It’s their hobby, so they have to enjoy it. We make it fun – like the other things they choose to do around their school day.’

Like many things young people do, if they enjoy it the boys will learn quickly. ‘All the Libera repertoire has to be learnt, from the simplest of plainsong through to complex seven or eight part harmonies,’ Prizeman explains. We teach them to read music. The classical pieces we sing have to be reproduced accurately."