Newbies Ciaran & Jakub

Libera360 has posted pictures of all the boys going on the Philippines tour! You can see the full roster here. First, can I just say Josh looks older and Kavana looks younger in these pictures than when they were here this summer. :D Now that I look closer, some of them have the same picture as from the US Tour program. The only ones with new pictures are Medium Ben, Cassius, JB, Josh, Kavana, Stefan and Tiarnan. And Luke is missing. ???

Anyway... we have pictures of the 2 newbies!

First is Ciaran Bradbury-Hickey. He is definitely the boy we saw at the Songs of Praise 50th Anniversary show standing behind Eoghan. :)

Second is Jakub Niedermaier-Reed. He is definitely "Mini-Jakub" to Jakob de Menezes-Wood. :)

So welcome to the new boys! It's so exciting to see you both! Hope you have a great time in the Philippines! :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.

Josh wins a scholarship!!!

Josh Madine has received a music scholarship to St. Paul's School in London! It's one of the top schools in the UK! A UK newspaper published the article which you can read here. Thanks to Dani for the link. The article calls him "an aspiring musician." :D Besides singing, he plays the piano and the clarinet. But we knew that. And I think he composes, too. :)

He apparently did extremely well on his GCSE's for which he said he studied almost every day for 3 months. This is such a great accomplishment! He seems very hardworking, determined and disciplined.

Congratulations, Josh! Hope you do well in your new school! Study hard and have fun! I guess not coming to Canada paid off, huh? lol. :)

P.S. I have a confession. I really wrote this so I could use the amazing picture of Josh from the article. ;)

And can anyone explain the exams and scores? I don't understand the A*. Is that like our A+? For my school, 94-95% is an A-, 96-99% is an A, and 100% is an A+. I can tell he is very pleased, so it's all good! :D


Here's the copy for the article in case the newspaper ever deletes it online:

An aspiring musician has won a place at a prestigious music school after getting top marks in his GCSEs.

Joshua Madine, 16, of ...Norbury, has been offered a scholarship to study music at St Paul’s School in Barnes. He scored nine A* grades, five A grades and one B grade as a pupil at the Bishop Thomas Grant School in Streatham Hill.

He said: "I am completely overwhelmed. I am glad that all my hard work has paid off. I studied almost every day for three months.

"I was a bit nervous but I think if you put the hard work in, you get the grades you deserve."

Joshua will receive free instrumental lessons when he enrols at St. Paul’s in September. Recent alumni include Winston Marshall from Mumford & Sons, and Charlie Fink from Noah and the Whale.

The talented schoolboy, who plays piano and clarinet, is a member of Norbury based choir Libera. The successful choral group have recorded film soundtracks, provided backing vocals for the likes of Cliff Richard and have performed all over the world, including singing for President George Bush. Despite his success, he said he will be sad to leave his current school.

He said: "I am going to miss it. It has been a great school. I have met loads of lovely people. The teachers have been great. But I am still going to be tied to the school because my sister goes here."

Headteacher Louis Desa congratulated Joshua on his success.

He said: "His achievements are richly deserved. He is involved in a lot of things outside of school as well, but he is quite a modest person.

"We are sad to lose him but he has obtained a scholarship to one of the top schools in the country and we have no doubt he will be highly successful as his new school."

In total, 69 per cent of students at Bishop Thomas Grant School achieved five A* to C GCSE grades including English and Maths, making the school the second most improved in Lambeth. Mr Desa thanked teachers, support staff, parents and the school governors for helping to achieve the results.

Josh's Hair

Some things in Libera never change. The great music, the amazing treble voices, and the boy's immensely differing PERSONALITIES. :) But there are also many things in Libera that do change. The boys that come and go as their voices change, who is singing the solos, the ever-changing heights of the boys, and the lost teeth. But few things in Libera have changed more than this one: Josh's hair. He has a different hair style every month! Of course, part of the reason is that his hair seems to grow so quickly. Most guys stick with one length and get a trim every now and then. Josh seems to like to...experiment. :) Watch the changes during 2010.

This picture was taken at the Korea concert on April 11th. He looks good, of course, but his hair is maybe a little too short, because you can't really see those curls. ;)

This picture was taken at the Arundel concert on May 15th. Look how long it's gotten in only one month! I'm starting to like it more here, but we still can't really see the curl. And personally, I like guys' hair a little longer. :) At my school, this is as long as the guys are allowed to have it.

Ah! Perfection! Or something very close to it! And it's not just because I took this picture myself. :) I think that it's a really good length here. I took this one in Atlanta on August 10th. His hair has had the whole summer to grow out and personally, I think it's perfect. lol. I like the length and the curl. Wow, I feel really weird saying this. lol. :)

OK, this is where my mom says it's perfect, and I don't entirely disagree. I like the length here as well. It's curly and long, but not TOO long and not in his eyes. I don't know, maybe just a little too long in the back for me. This was taken at the Bristol concert on October 27th.

Now, this one was taken in London on November 19th. I can hardly look at Josh because of how cute Matthew is in this picture and the fact that we don't have many pictures of Matthew yet. But I'll try to yank my eyes off the little cutie to his big brother (who is also a cutie...lol). Here Josh's hair is starting to get too long. Definitely. It's in his eyes, and it just looks like it would be a pain to deal with in the morning (although I'm speaking from a girl's perspective). It's not terrible, but he looks like he's ready for a trim. My hair-stylist aunt always says that right when your hair looks the best, you'll need it cut a week later. I hate that. :p lol

And finally a picture from a TV appearance on December 20th. OK Josh, now it's hit the point of being too long here. Why? Because we can't see his beautiful eyes! He's still cute...it's just DEFINITELY time for a trim. So I'm hoping that if he hasn't already gotten a haircut, he'll get it trimmed or cut now so that it can be back to those middle two by the time they come to the US this Spring or Summer! lol And, oh yeah, please do come back to the US this Spring or Summer. No matter what your hair looks like. Just so long as we can see your eyes. :D

Jonathan Barrington

All the Libera boys seem really nice. They are so good at meeting and talking to new people. They do get a lot of practice, of course, but they are super nice compared to a lot of kids you meet. But one boy stands out to me as being especially nice. That boy is Jonathan Barrington. He's not the most talkative, but I think he must be nice, because you can see him being kind to the littler boys.

I first noticed this in one of my mom's St. Louis photos. It's really blurry, so we never posted it. It shows the boys standing around after the concert, and Henry, who is probably tired after a long day, is leaning up against his big brother Jonathan. How many big brothers would be that nice to their little brothers? Then I noticed it in an Atlanta photo taken by Jimmy from Japan that we already posted. Jonathan is playing with Cassius and letting him jump up on him. So cute!!!

Now we get the new Japan 2010 Tour video, and what do we see?

The boys on the Tokyo Tower elevator,

and Jonathan playing with Cassius!

Doesn't Cassius look like he just idolizes Jonathan?!

Like he's the BEST!

Then I looked back in their old videos and found this one from their Japan/So Cal 2009 video.

Mini James looks like he's hiding behind a bin, but...

...he's really on Jonathan's shoulders!  :D

In the same video it shows them in LA sitting on some strange sofa for a picture.

Jonathan is helping Freddie get up on the sofa. Awww!

And now he's up and sitting for the picture.

Here's a better picture of them all.

So anyway, any guy who helps the little kids or lets them climb all over him must be nice!

And funny!!!!  :)

Happy Birthday, Josh!

Dear Josh,

Happy sweet 16 birthday! We thank the Lord that you were born on this day! Thank you for your amazing voice! You really are the reason I fell in love with Libera, because you were the first Libera member I ever heard sing! Thank you for your charming personality and your beautiful smile that lights up the entire room. I hope you have a wonderful day today and many more wonderful years to come!

Edit: Apparently Josh spent part of his birthday rehearsing for tomorrow night's concert at the Clifton Cathedral in Bristol.

Awesome News from Josh and Liam!

There is a new video of the Atlanta M&G that I'd rather not post on here, but it does have one good part to it. In it the man videotaping says to Josh, "Will you come back next year?" And Josh replies, "I'll be here" and smiles.

When he gets to Liam, Liam says, "I'm not going anywhere....Now I'm doing high tenor, and it's still loads of fun, and I'm NOT going anywhere. I'm staying right here where I am."

Isn't that awesome?! They must know they're staying or they wouldn't say that. Sweet!

Mini Ben's a Star!

This is a video called "Ben's Day." It's hilarious! Apparently Ben was bored, so he and his friend made a funny video. lol  Love the cape, Ben! I also love how the girl in it just sits there and eats the whole time. :) Don't know if those two kids that he dragged into it are his brother and sister or just friends. Great camera angles, too! I love this video! Silly Mini Ben! :) I wonder who drew the picture...

Is That Josh and Mini James?!

This is a very nice video made by some members of the French Libera forum. It shows them traveling to England for the Arundel concert and to St. Philip's in Norbury for Sunday church. At the 6:00 mark it looks like Josh and Mini James walking out of the church! So cool that they got to go to a concert AND see them sing in a real church service!

This may be the last time Josh was filmed as a member of Libera. Some fan pages are saying that Josh won't be coming for the U.S. tour.  Bummer.  Is he out of Libera? Or will the Philippines get to see him again in October? So NOT fair. I still hope I can go see whoever comes for the U.S. tour. But still.....   :(

Is This Josh & Sam's Last Year?!

My mom was reading on the French Libera fan site, and one of the posts commented something about this being Josh and Sam's last year. She is "friends" with this person on YouTube, so she wrote to him for clarification. He wrote back saying that Josh and Sam made a speech at the Arundel concert saying that it might be the last year that they'll be singing with Libera! *sniff, sniff* I'm really hoping that Libera comes to the U.S. this summer and that Josh and Sam come, too! Just hang in there a little longer guys! Praying, praying...

Matthew Madine!

I was at school today, so my mom really found this one. On a French Libera fan site called Libera Passion, some French fans gave a review of the Arundel concert with pictures. It appears that Josh has a little brother! His name is Matthew Madine! He looks just like Josh, too! (top left behind Jakob) He is sooo cute! What a happy smile he has. Wonder if his voice sounds like Josh's.

200 Votes for James Mordaunts Coolness

If you're on Facebook, you can become a fan of a page called "200 votes for james mordaunts coolness."  The fan club was started by Alex Leggett, which I think is pretty cool of him to do!

Once you join, you can then write on Mini James's wall to tell him how cool you think he is. There are currently 117 members. Probably a lot of people don't even know about it, and he really deserves so much more support! I mean, come on, he has an amazing voice with a solo in "Touch the Sky," is great at speaking in public on behalf of Libera, is always smiling and polite to the fans, and has the cutest dimples ever (well, Mini Ben's are pretty great, too)! Look how adorable he is on the cover of the Peace CD. Just a mini-angel waiting for his next chance to fly down to earth and sing for us.

Mini-James, I think you are the coolest!!!!