King's Voices
King's Voices is an English choir, and is the mixed-voice chapel choir of King's College, Cambridge. It is a resident choir to the college's chapel, alongside the Choir of King's College, Cambridge.
Foundation and Role in College
The choir was founded in October 1997 under the direction of Dr John Butt, then Director of Studies of Music at the College. The primary aim of the choir was to give female students to opportunity to sing in the chapel, and it renders female King's students able to audition for choral awards. This is not, however, a requirement to sing in the choir, and most members are volunteers. The choir is also open to singers from other colleges, as well as staff and fellows from within the college. The majority of the choir are King's students, however.The choir sings evensong on Mondays in the University term. In addition to this, other services such as compline are occasionally sung by King's Voices. The choir also performs a mix of sacred and secular music elsewhere in the college throughout the year, in King's College Music Society concerts, as well as at other college events such as dinners. Outside of King's, the choir also participates in concerts and services in and around Cambridge and East Anglia such as Great St Mary's Church and Ely Cathedral, as well as in other locations such as St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and St Mary Magdalene, Richmond. The choir also tours once a year, around Easter time, giving concert and radio performances.
The current director is Ben Parry, a former choral scholar, and Assistant Director of Music at King's. He took over in 2013 from Simon Brown.
Previous Tours and Appearances
Tours
The first King's Voices tour was in 2001, which was an exchange trip with the University Choir of Cologne. Since then, the choir has toured every year, with the exception of 2020, where the planned tour to Portugal was cancelled due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. King's Voices give concert and radio performances in various locations during each tour; in 2003, the tour to Paris included concert performances at Notre-Dame de Paris and La Madeleine.| Year | Location |
| 2001 | Exchange trip with University Choir of Cologne |
| 2002 | Venice |
| 2003 | Paris |
| 2004 | Amsterdam |
| 2005 | Brussels |
| 2006 | Rome |
| 2007 | Dublin |
| 2008 | Copenhagen |
| 2009 | Barcelona |
| 2010 | Bologna |
| 2011 | Malta |
| 2012 | Ariège and Toulouse |
| 2013 | Berlin |
| 2014 | Verona |
| 2015 | Salzburg |
| 2016 | Amsterdam |
| 2017 | Dublin |
| 2018 | Iceland |
| 2019 | Pavia |
| 2020 | Coimbra and Lisbon- cancelled due to COVID-19 |