The King’s Singers. Picture : Qatar Happening
Fran Gillespie/Staff Correspondent

There can’t be many singing groups in the world which can claim to have delighted three generations of people the world over, but The King’s Singers is one of them. On Wednesday evening, in the packed theatre at the American School in Doha, an audience ranging in age from small children to their grandparents was enthralled by the polished and relaxed musical performance given by the six current singers.
Founded in 1968 and taking its name from King’s College, Cambridge, where the six original singers studied, the group tours the world for 7 months a year, as well as making innumerable recordings and frequent TV appearances. As each singer retires another is carefully selected to take his place, but in more than forty years there have only been 21.
Wednesday’s performance ranged from 16th century madrigals to baritone Phil Lawson’s own arrangement of a Beatles number and another by Billy Joel. In between came a marvellous rendition of a selection of Edward Lear’s nonsense limericks, first read aloud, deadpan style, in English and then wittily sung  in Italian to a setting by Goffredo Petrassi.
Later in the programme came a selection of popular traditional British and Irish songs, ranging from the north country political ditty Bobby Shafto to the sweet Irish air The Last Rose of Summer and Robert Burns’ Ae Fond Kiss, and finishing with the lively Irish jig Phil the Fluter’s Ball.  
Like no other group, these six relaxed and smiling men, impeccably dressed in their trademark matching grey suits and yellow ties, have found a way of elegantly bridging the gap between serious and light music and between ancient and modern. Their effortless blending of text and harmony, the balance of voices between countertenors David Hurley and Timothy Wayne-Wright’s almost eerie falsettos to Jonathan Howard’s rich bass, their technical perfection and cheerful unstuffiness all combined to delight the audience.
The King’s Singers nevertheless produce a unique and at times extraordinary range of sounds to accompany their singing, to the extent that anyone hearing without seeing them could almost be fooled at times into thinking that musical instruments were somewhere in the background.
This, and their expert miming, and at times their simply clowning around while in full voice, won the hearts of the audience and made it easy to understand the perennial popularity of the Singers. Their style is essentially British, understated and informal, and after the show, despite the fact that they were about to head off for South Korea on the last pre-Christmas leg of a demanding tour that includes China and Singapore, they offered to stay and chat to members of the audience. 
This was only the second appearance of the King’s Singers in the Gulf region – the first was in Dubai in April, and it appears that the singers were genuinely astonished to discover what an enthusiastic following they enjoyed, with people driving from Oman and even Kuwait to see them perform. This made it easy for them to accept an invitation to perform in Doha. ‘We very much hope to be back here,’ said Jonathan Howard, the youngest member of the group, who joined only last year. 
The King’s Singers were performing as the opening concert of the fourth season of the American School of Doha Chamber Music series, sponsored by the International Bank of Qatar.