The King's Consort
The King's Consort is a British period music orchestra founded in 1980 by the English conductor and harpsichordist Robert King (b. 1960, Wombourne). The ensemble has an associated choral group, Choir of The King's Consort. Together, they have made over 100 recordings, from 1987 to 2007 releasing 90 albums on the Hyperion label, and subsequently a further 13 recordings for their own Vivat label, selling over 1,500,000 discs. The orchestra performs concert seasons in the UK and tours internationally.
Their repertoire is primarily from the baroque and early classical periods but has also included late 19th century repertoire as well as contemporary commissions by Michael Finnissy and, more recently, Michael Berkeley and includes recordings and live performances of opera and instrumental music. The ensemble's main performing base has been in London's Wigmore Hall from 1987, and the larger Cadogan Hall for performances that required both the orchestra and the choir. The King's Consort have performed seven times at the BBC Proms including their début in 1991 with Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks, Handel’s Deborah in 1993, a programme celebrating the 300th anniversary of the death of Purcell (1995), the Venetian spectacular Lo Sposalizio (1998), The Coronation of King George II, a special programme to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II (2002), Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 (2004), and Michael Haydn's Requiem Mass and Mozart's Coronation Mass (2006).
The King's Consort Choir appears on the sound tracks of several films, including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Kingdom of Heaven, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and The Da Vinci Code.
Amongst their awards was the 2006 BBC Music Magazine Choral Award for their recording of Michael Haydn's Requiem Mass. On their Vivat label, their debut recording, I Was Glad, reached number 1 in the UK Specialist Classical Albums Chart and was a finalist in the 2013 Gramophone Awards. A series of recordings of the music of Purcell were finalists in the Gramophone awards in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
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