The London Boy Singers were an English boys' choir which formed in 1961. It initially drew its members from the Finchley Children's Music Group. The choir was started at the suggestion of

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

, who was its first president. In the beginning the choir was run by a group of three adults: John Andrewes, who also led the Finchley Children's Music Group,

Rosamund Strode Rosamund Strode (18 May 1927 – 25 March 2010) was a British musician, editor, and administrator. She was Benjamin Britten's assistant and amanuensis from 1964 until his death in 1976, and keeper of manuscripts at the Britten Pears Arts, Britten- ...

, a musician, singer and later assistant to Britten, and Jonathan Steele, deputy to George Malcolm at Westminster Cathedral. Steele became the conductor and leader of the London Boy Singers. The choir sang at the

Aldeburgh Festival The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the town of Aldeburgh, Suffolk and is centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. History of the Aldeburgh Festi ...

on a number of occasions. It sang in Westminster Abbey in the first London performance of Britten's ''

War Requiem The ''War Requiem'', Op. 66, is a choral and orchestral composition by Benjamin Britten, composed mostly in 1961 and completed in January 1962. The ''War Requiem'' was performed for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, in the Englis ...

'' in 1962. The group performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1964 and 1974. In an attempt to widen the social and geographical mix of the choir, a subsidiary choir was established in Bethnal Green in 1964 but this was eventually merged with the Finchley choir. Many of its singers took part in other events, including performing at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and on tour with them to Manchester and to Lisbon in Portugal, including Britten's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and the premiere of Aston's ballet 'The Dream', both in 1964), Covent Garden, the

English Opera Group The English Opera Group was a small company of British musicians formed in 1947 by the composer Benjamin Britten (along with John Piper, Eric Crozier and Anne Wood) for the purpose of presenting his and other, primarily British, composers' operat ...

(including a tour of the USSR in 1964) and many individual operas and other engagements. The choir also sang at the Aldeburgh Festival, gave a concert to the choristers at King's College Cambridge and broadcast ''A Ceremony of Carols'' on BBC television (1965). Members of the choir also performed as street urchins in a BBC television production of "La Boheme" (1966). The choir recorded a collection of Christmas Music ('Christmas Music for Boys Voices')for HMV in the Abbey Road Studios, released in 1965. It also recorded 'The happy wanderer' for RCA Victor, and two Christmas songs with the Music Academy (London Jazz Quartet) for CBS which featured on ''Juke Box Jury''. In 1969, the choir toured in Germany and the Netherlands and, in 1971, returned to Germany and also Denmark. Britten wrote ''12 Apostles: Choral Octavo'' and ''The Bitter Withy'' for the choir and his arrangement of ''King Herod and the Cock'' was dedicated to it. In 1966, Britten severed his relationship with the group. Jonathan Steele remained its director until the choir folded in the mid 1970s. Its last known performance was the theme song from the foreign television series ''

Barbapapa ''Barbapapa'' is a 1970 children's picture book by the French-American couple Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, who lived in Paris, France. Barbapapa is both the title character and the name of his "species". The book was the first of a series o ...

'' in 1974 alongside

Ed Stewart Edward Stewart Mainwaring (23 April 1941 – 9 January 2016), known as Ed "Stewpot" Stewart, was an English radio broadcaster and TV presenter. He was principally known for his work as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 (particularly the Saturday morning ' ...

, the theme song was heard in the English-dubbed version of the series that was produced for

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

in January 1975 until its run ended in 1978.

References

{{Authority control British classical music groups London choirs Musical groups established in 1961 1961 establishments in England

See also

References