Baritone Chris Bruerton talks to Joanna Wane about bringing a touch of Kiwi class to acclaimed British choral ensemble the King’s Singers, touring New Zealand in March.

“I’m a tenor with a cold,” is how
baritone Chris Bruerton describes himself, in the typically self-effacing manner of a Cantabrian singing his way into the history books. The only non-Brit invited to join acclaimed Grammy Award-winning a capella ensemble the King’s Singers in its 55-year history, he’ll become the group’s longest-serving member when much-beloved bass Jonathan Howard departs at the end of the year.

Howard’s farewell tour to New Zealand and Australia this month will be an emotional one and finding the right successor will be crucial. “It’s the foundation of our whole ensemble,” says Bruerton, who sings at first baritone and has been a core part of the line-up since 2012. “We tune to our left, if you like, so you’re always conscious of the part below you to achieve that pyramid of sound. But we’re not looking to replace like for like; it’ll be a different energy, a different vibe. There’s only one Johnny Howard.”

The group is back to a full touring schedule this year, spending an average of 200 days on the road. By the time they arrive in Aotearoa for concerts in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, they’ll have swept through Hungary, France, Germany, the United States and China. “So we’re ticking off a few continents before we arrive Down Under.”

A chorister at ChristChurch Cathedral (Canterbury, NZ), Bruerton moved to Britain in 2010 and, in one of those charming twists of fate, was recruited by the King’s Singers after impressing the right person with his vocal performance at Christ Church Cathedral (Oxford, England). Bruerton had seen the ensemble live in concert a few years before at London’s Albert Hall when his cathedral choir was on tour in England, but the possibility of joining them on stage one day never occurred to him. “It’s such a closed circle because it’s invitation only. I don’t think it’s ever on anyone’s radar in New Zealand.”

Any butchered vowels had already been knocked into shape by then, under the stern tutelage of New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir director Elise Bradley, although Bruerton admits his Kiwi accent becomes “more agricultural” when he’s talking to mates from back home. He and wife Liz live in Kennington, a wee village in the Vale of White Horse district just to the south of Oxford. He comes home when he can and there’s quite a Kiwi mafia on the international singing circuit these days. Bruerton studied under Dame Malvina Major at Canterbury University with soprano Amina Edris, who’s married to Sol3Mio tenor Pene Pati. “Every now and then the stars align and the three of us catch up somewhere in Europe or America.”

Established in 1968 by six choral scholars at King’s College, Cambridge, the King’s Singers became a full-time professional ensemble after quitting their day jobs to embark on a three-month tour to New Zealand and Australia. “So we’re actually a really important part of their wider history,” notes Bruerton. Since joining the group, he’s performed in huge concert halls (at Salt Lake City in Utah, there were 22,000 people in the audience), at VIP embassy functions and in private living rooms (the most intimate was a soiree for 30 guests held by a music society in Los Angeles).

In the absence of a conductor running the show, the King’s Singers operate as a collaborative affair with no internal hierarchy. While a management team based in London handles the concert bookings, almost everything else — from marketing and social media to overseeing the finances and writing programme notes — is divvied up between the six singers. With global time zones to juggle, that can mean being on the clock 24/7. “For us, it’s our business, so we take a lead role in every aspect of it,” says Bruerton. ”But gosh, sometimes, you get to the end of the day and think, ‘Have I done any singing or am I just an administrator who sings on the side?’”

The most affable chap you could hope to meet, Bruerton is diplomatic when asked how all the different personalities in the group play out. He sits towards the extrovert end of the spectrum, always up for a post-concert nightcap but not at his best in the mornings, when others are off to the gym or sitting quietly with a book over breakfast. An enormous amount of their time is spent travelling between gigs. On the recent tour to Hungary, they were based in Budapest but two of their concerts, in Debrecen and Szeged, were a two- to three-hour drive away.

“That’s the less-glamorous side,” he says. ”It’s hard being away from the people you love for 200 days a year, isn’t it? I think it’s important to be vulnerable and to be able to share how you’re feeling in today’s age — for six blokes to be able to say they’re having a tough time today. But we’re a pretty jovial bunch and everyone enjoys a bit of Kiwi humour from time to time.”

Soundtrack: Protest songs with the power to change the world

The King’s Singers will perform a different programme at each of their three New Zealand concerts. The Auckland show, Finding Harmony, is dedicated to anthems of struggle and revolution. Bruerton picks five of his favourite pieces:

NKOSI SIKELEL’ IAFRIKA, Enoch Sontonga (1897) – arranged by Neo Muyanga

“A popular hymn, with the first stanza written in Xhosa, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika was later sung in defiance during South Africa’s apartheid era and became the anthem of the ANC [African National Congress] in exile. Now you’ll hear it at rugby test matches, incorporated into the official South African national anthem. Neo Muyanga is a great composer who was part of those protests during apartheid and we made it our mission to speak with people like him who had lived experience of all these songs so we’re not just six white guys coming in but able to tell these stories in a meaningful way.”

NE IRASCARIS DOMINE / Be Not Angry, O Lord, William Byrd (1589)

“William Byrd was in favour with Queen Elizabeth I in Protestant-ruled England and wrote all sorts of lovely songs in her honour. But he was a devout Catholic who had to worship in secret. This motet [written in Latin] is a powerful piece that describes the fall of Jerusalem — an allegory for the fall of the Catholic Church. You can hear the anguish he writes with.”

MU ISAMAA ON MINU ARM / My Fatherland is My Love, Aleksander Kunileid (1869) – adapted by Gustav Ernesaks (1944)

“Banned under Soviet rule — and now the unofficial Estonian national anthem — Mu Isamaa on Minu Arm was sung in defiant protest by hundreds of thousands in what became known as the “Singing Revolution” until the country’s eventual independence in 1991. Last year, we played it as an encore at the first of three concerts in Estonia and the entire audience rose to their feet and sang along with us. It was so moving, it gave us all tingles.”

TSINTSKARO, Georgian folk song (circa 11th century)

“Many of these old Georgian songs were nearly lost through centuries of persecution when Soviet occupiers and other invaders destroyed many of the churches. Manuscripts were buried to protect them and against all the odds, the people remained strong and managed to preserve this wonderful tradition of polyphonic singing in three parts until the manuscripts were dug up again centuries later.

It’s only in the past 30 years or so that there’s been a resurgence of this music — now safeguarded through the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage programme — as it’s been discovered by modern Georgian folksingers and shared with the world. It’s like musical time travel, isn’t it?”

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, gospel song (circa 1920s) – arranged by Stacey V Gibbs

“The version I grew up with as a kid is slightly different to this Southern Baptist take. Embellishing the melody or doing it a little differently is a very gospel thing to do. Much loved by Martin Luther King, this uplifting spiritual became a central part of the civil rights movement in the US in the 1960s and was often sung at rallies.”

• The King’s Singers perform Finding Harmony at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell on March 14 as part of the Auckland Arts Festival programme. Their New Zealand tour also includes a Wellington concert, Songbirds, on March 13 at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts and An Evening with the King’s Singers in Christchurch on March 15.

Joanna Wane is an award-winning senior feature writer in the New Zealand Herald’s Lifestyle Premium team, with a special focus on social issues and the arts.