Monday, December 12, 2022 at 7:30pm
Celebrate the season with joyous holiday music from The Swingles! For more than half a century, The Swingles have pushed the boundaries of vocal music. The seven young singers that make up today’s London-based group are driven by the same innovative spirit that has defined the five-time Grammy winners since they first made waves in the 1960s. At a time when a cappella music is more popular than ever, The Swingles are recognized as masters of their craft.
In 1963, American-born Ward Swingle first assembled a group of Parisian session singers to sing Bach’s keyboard music. The resulting album, Jazz Sebastian Bach, launched the Swingle Singers to fame. Since then, they have won five Grammy awards and made more than 50 recordings, with a repertoire that has grown to include a huge variety of music, including new original songs.
The Swingles have appeared on numerous film and TV soundtracks, including “The Two Popes,” “Sex and the City,” “Wedding Crashers” and “Glee,” as well as singing the theme for Italy’s beloved TV series “Superquark.” In 2017, they co-wrote and performed a song for the end credits of Alexander Payne’s film “Downsizing.” Their prolific output of music videos has earned them millions of views and new audiences around the world.
The group’s versatility has led to collaborations with artists as diverse as the Modern Jazz Quartet, Jamie Cullum and Labrinth. Luciano Berio was one of the first composers to explore the sound of the Swingles’ amplified voices in an orchestral setting with his groundbreaking Sinfonia, first performed in 1968. The group continue to perform the piece around the world, with recent acclaimed performances in San Francisco (with Michael Tilson Thomas), Vienna (with Marin Alsop), London (with Vladimir Jurowski), and at Milan’s La Scala (with John Axelrod).
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, The Swingles have maintained a busy schedule of virtual performances, workshops and releases, including their 2021 album Snapshots, Vol. II, which was made almost entirely in isolation. With an accompanying music video released every month, Snapshots is the second collection of tracks made with support from The Swingles’ fans on Patreon and is a testament to the group’s innovative approach. An EP of all-new original songs was released in 2021.
The Swingles are:
Federica Basile
Joanna Goldsmith-Eteson Imogen Parry
Oliver Griffiths
Jon Smith
Jamie Wright
Tom Hartley
“Whether performing with the National Symphony Orchestra or in a cappella settings, The Swingle Singers were never less than dazzling” – THE WASHINGTON POST
“The vocal and choral world has changed considerably in the last 50 years… But The Swingles have managed to hold onto to their distinctive niche and continue to thrive.” – CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
“The legendary Swingle Singers, in their latest incarnation, navigated the dauntingly virtuosic terrain with breathtaking and often quite beautiful results.” – BAY AREA REPORTER
“The Swingle Singers pitched those mysteriously lovely chords with laser-like precision… a triumph” – THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
“How a group that has been going since the early 1960s can continue to create the same wonderfully pure and inspiring sounds that first made it famous is a mystery.” – IRISH EXAMINER
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