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).[1] The ensemble has an associated choral group, Choir of The King's Consort. Together, they have made over 90 recordings, largely on the Hyperion label, and sold over 1,000,000 discs.[2] 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 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), 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.[3]

Amongst their awards was the 2006 BBC Music Magazine Choral Award for their recording of Michael Haydn's Requiem Mass.[4]

In June 2007, harpsichordist Matthew Halls temporarily took over as the group's Artistic Director from Robert King, who was jailed for the sexual abuse of minors.[5] King molested five boys he was mentoring,[6] the youngest of whom was 12, and was convicted of 14 counts of indecent assault over an 11-year period.[7] On 1 May 2009, a new group directed by Halls (consisting of some of the then-current players, singers and soloists of The King's Consort) was launched under the new name, Retrospect Ensemble, following a decision by The King's Consort Board of Trustees.[8] The name "The King's Consort" had been temporarily licensed to Halls's group but in 2009 reverted to Robert King.[9]

  1. ^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, Oxford University Press, 1996
  2. ^ Erica Jeal "King has left the building", The Guardian, 21 October 2005 (accessed 3 October 2007)
  3. ^ IMDb (accessed 3 October 2007)
  4. ^ BBC Music Magazine (accessed 3 October 2007)
  5. ^ James Fenton, Facing the music, The Guardian, 16 June 2007 (accessed 3 October 2007)
  6. ^ Westphal, Matthew. "Conductor Robert King Convicted of Abusing Teenage Boys". Playbill Arts. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  7. ^ Amy Bourke, Conductor jailed for abusing boys can still teach, Pink News, 6 June 2007 (accessed 2 February 2019)
  8. ^ "Taking Note", Gramophone Magazine, April 2009 Issue, p. 13 (accessed 19 November 2009)
  9. ^ Hewett, Ivan, "Retrospect Ensemble: the born-again consort", The Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2009 (accessed 19 November 2009)