Westminster Chorus - Choir of the World 2009

Westminster Chorus
2007, 2010, 2015, 2019 International Chorus Champions
2009 Choir of the World
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The Westminster Chorus wins the Pavarotti Trophy and the Choir of the World title at the 2009 Choir of the World festival in Llangollen, Wales.
Songs:
1. Lux Aurumque
2. Shenandoah
3. Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel
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If you live in Southern California, are in college, a college graduate, or even high school, and are interested in singing Barbershop, Choral, and A Cappella music at the highest level possible, we'd love to meet you! Contact us at: [e-mail]

[@getdusty1]

I so miss barbershop. Maybe when I get old and have no more time for hockey (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), competitive weightlifting and firewood cutting, I'll get back into it. I'm 71.

[@bak2space]

the balance that they create is beautiful. I think balance is hardest thing to create in this piece.

[@danwright32]

I had the honor of singing with Mr. Miller a couple of times in the chorus he's currently conducting. he is absolutely brilliant. by far the best conductor I've ever had the privilege to sing with

[@barbaramcgeever]

As a choral director of 70 treble voiced Aussie males, I want to thank you for unabashedly showing such openly intense musicality. Your pulsating bodies and mesmerising singing is in sync with your excellent director. Such clarity of diction and facial expression. My boys will be loving it.... YOU ROCK!!!!

[@crglo7ver]

i love the comment " i like the part between 0.00 and 10.53" it beats all those comments about the perpetual 5ths and the major diminished dohickys i love the quality of this live performance its great!!!!

[@Sylvanas590]

Whatever technique the tenors use in Lux Aurumque to sustain that long note works wonders. Each of these songs is truly a treat to listen to. This is what real choral singing is about.

[@gnanarubin1981]

Im from Neyyoor a small village in southern end of India... Saw this video.... Really a world class performance..... Harmony and expression are superb... Hats off to the choir.... Wish u All the Best....

[@johnpaddie]

Good lord... It's almost electronic... Precision+emotion... That's unreal

[@Staymewithflagons]

My ancestor settled Westminster, Ca. I went to Westminster in NJ! Nice job!!

[@jasonrampling123]

This is natures reminder that the world does have something to offer and what it has to offer can be AWESOME :)

[@samiam15141]

this is like the 7th time straight listening to this.

[@charlotteguy225]

Still amazing

[@cafontes]

OMG, you are fantastic!! Congratulations...

[@yomega69]

9:08 is some intense conducting

[@amonjojo]

Im going to be in this choir next year, well I have to audition first but I made it into the school for Voice so Im excited now!

[@anfboomer]

Great job guys! I was a member in the University of Houston group that competed, and it was TRULY an honor to compete with such a great ensemble! BEST OF LUCK IN THE FUTURE!

[@OCTenor2]

That Justin Miller is the business

[@EragonMK]

This choir is absolutely breathtaking. The fact that a whole choir can be so well in tune, so perfect on so many levels, is absolutely crazy! I would love to sing in this choir! Amazing. Well deserved Choir of the World victory. Wow.

[@JJayHawk9]

They are from Westminster, CA, USA. The competition is in Llangollen Wales. It's called the choir of the world contest.

[@belbibi]

the first 35 seconds of "Didn't My Lore Deliver Daniel" gave me a nosebleed. that guy is singing his face off.

[@hobbang2]

I luv the faces they pull :D

[@DanishCartoonist]

Wow! In the world capital of Male Choir singing, no less!! Next, to hear them sing something in Welsh?

[@charlotteguy225]

I wish I was a part of a group like this. I'm a bass and this music is right up my alley.

[@bennymclain]

you win

[@yordankaacosta2849]

Goodness!!!!❤❤❤❤

[@nipauqnihc]

It has been about fifve days since I stumbled accross this chorus and i still can't get enough of hearing these beautiful voices that sound like a river of molten gold!

[@merryohg]

@MultitrackManiac Completely agree. The chord on "water" in Shenandoah...I could live in that chord for the rest of my life.

[@timmylead]

the tenor string at the end of the first song is probably the nicest thing i've ever heard. perfect note...

[@kghobbes]

the dynamic contrasts that this choir can perform, such as going from pp to ff, is absolutely beyond words. on the ff parts, they're singing beyond the top of their lungs, and it still rings like a bell. incredible.

[@BrotherBlood101]

Really great job boys! So happy you competed and won! Your barbersohp roots in you really helped with blend its so great! God bless you all!

[@mattdre88]

I love that they are not one of the gigantic choruses, but their voices are so tight that they produce such a wall of sound.

[@aproctor1968]

Just...WOW

[@charlotteguy225]

Very rich/full sound w/o volume and very intense focus to balance is very noticable. Wonderful presentation.

[@carloCGN]

You guys are just amazing, not only you have gorgeous voices (love the basses!), I just adore the passion each one of you sings with and the love and great enthusiasm that your choir director leads you. This makes you SO DIFFERENT from any other choir. This makes you so unique. Thank you so much !

[@rawrfee]

ach i love their facial expressions and movements... it truly demonstrates how connected they are to the spirit of the music, to each other and to their own spirit.

[@SJCarlsonMusic]

Music has marched forward, without relent, for the past 600 years. Let us try to maintain that progress, lest our art become stagnate.

[@BarbershopHero]

Guys... You represented the BHS awesomely! This is some of the best singing I've ever heard!

[@paullyboy]

OUTSTANDING BOYS!! Way to go representing USA and your barbershop roots. So Proud!!

[@AlexCarlson]

The arranger for this version of Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel is Aaron Dale.

[@richstan4d]

I was totally there

[@tiktaktrack]

If I lived nearby I would join this Choir!!!! Beatifull

[@metallicaman6288]

yeah. i was there with another choir competing against them. when they went on stage i knew we didnt stand a chance. but all of the top five choirs were pretty damn amazing this year. toughest competition ever. congrats westminster!

[@PACKDEVIL]

Westminster, California

[@EveleiNful]

great conductor :)

[@deandricksmith-taylor5416]

THE CHOIR SOUND SO BEAUTIFUL WHAT GREAT SOUND AND PERFORMANCE AS A PROFESSIONAL CHOIR.

[@trumpetguy19]

@OCTenor2 I would definitely agree with that remark Shawn.

[@lisabuck3235]

Saw them perform this live just a few weeks before this. Still makes the hairs on my body stand on end hearing it!

[@MusikMajor]

I've got to admit, but I never thought I'd be hearing a barbershop-type group doing Whitacre. Now, all I can say is, "Why didn't I think of that?" The purity of barbershop groups suits Eric's music perfectly. Wonderful performance, on every piece. The musicality that carries over from the barbershop genre is impressive-- it's a shame that so many SATB choirs can't duplicate it. Outstanding.

[@Undefined_4_0_4]

The director of the choir is now randomly directing the men's choir at my high school...I flipped out XD

[@405232SING]

I would LOVE to hear this choir perform Ubi Caritas by Durufle. That would be gorgeous.

[@mattdre88]

I'm pretty sure the lead on Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel was on NBC last night.

[@RuebenPaul]

WOW! Goosebumps all over! Would love to see them compete with all the other Choir of the WOrld WInners Like UST SIngers, and the 2 - time Grand Prix Winner Philippine Madrigal SIngers. That would be awesome to watch!

[@nipauqnihc]

Thanks for reply. Your suggestion is an obvious solution which doesn't always work with my Chorus. However one thing our coach suggested when first learning a song is play the first note on the pitch pipe intermittently throughout the song all the way to the end in order to force us to hear where our voices are and if they've gone off key.

[@EmoHokage]

Thats crazy... my High School Chamber Choir that I am apart of is doing Lux AND Shenandoah for a compition we will be in next weekend O.O Im a Bass 2... low notes = fun ;P

[@pets135]

this makes my heart melt.

[@samiam15141]

Beautiful sound all around! The high amount of cute guys (especially in the bass section!) also get my thumbs up :)

[@CalJennings]

Absolutely wonderful!

[@msowinski64]

Love love love love this song! Finally an all male version posted on youtube. ;-))) Eric Whitacre Rocks!

[@LilKroog]

The chords from 7:39 - 7:57 gave me instant goose bumps. Well done. Very well done.

[@p3t1954]

Subscribed some time ago when I stumbled across your "O Love that will not let me go". Glad I subscribed and even though its 11 years ago this posting is just awesome. Just superb listening. Thank you so so much. Keep up this great work. Best wishes and regards from Belfast

[@MyVoiceOverService]

around 2:50 total chills, stunned by the beauty, frozen in my chair!!!!!!!!!

[@beagles73]

these guys gave me goosebumps!

[@SignatureStampsFan]

The lead soloist reminds a lot of Matthew Ward from 2nd chapter of Acts. Awesome voice. By far my favorite chorus. In fact Westminster is the only chorus cd I own.

[@MichaelaMarie2012]

Can I just say that I love you guys?? Your blend is AMAZING, and your voices make me melt into a puddle of happiness and joy. I loved seeing you guys perform at International over the summer. I especially love the arrangement of Sure on This Shining Night that you do.

[@Canadianspunge]

You guys are brilliant! I hope someday I can sing in a choir that's anything at all like yours!

[@RileyNoble]

THIS IS AMAZING!!!

[@olddtrucker]

what a blessing to listen toyou

[@paullyboy]

I recognized that guy too......from the socals

[@thelonearranger1]

I firmly believe that one of the reasons you are winning the barbershop international competition each time is because your chorus does not sing an entire diet of barbershop music. You sing fine choral music with a variety of harmonic styles (including what is almost tone clusters). The Vocal Majority has been the same way, but I don't think they ever did anything as intense as the Lux Aurumque. Bravo!

[@homeydoc]

very nicely done! everybody seems to like being a critic on KZbin without fully appreciating the full gallery and diversity of sound and talent among choirs here. you have an exceptional group, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise.

[@tiffanyscott5152]

Beautiful

[@Pinkspade123]

Wow, i thought that solo was beautiful with the soprano in the virtual choir....but wow this is just as amazing :)

[@Icyveins906]

All of those overtones are godly, even in Lux you guys managed to place one. For those of the classical singing style, this is what barbershop training does. You can learn dominant seventh chords in jazz, but this genre is epitmoe of mastery when it comes to the major triad. This can help any song: learning to balance and tune chords to the point where soundwaves overlap and cause a ringing buzz to occur. They even pulled it off on a minor chord. You guys are just incredible.

[@jibcraip]

congrats for wining !! This was beautiful ! composition/arrangement/interpretation ! Hope you guys come to France one day ! we need chorus like that !!

[@Th3seGuys]

BARBERSHOP!!!!!!

[@Icyveins906]

To any and all men out there who love to sing. Barbershop training on any level will benefit your abilities forever. This is where you learn to belt, even as basses. Such as on the LI-ON'S DEN at the beginning. There is also no better place to learn how to hear certain harmonies from major and minor to diminished, dominant, and augmented. No matter what your choir teachers say, tall vowels are only good for long, slow, foggy sounds, otherwise, it's the megaphone shapeset, WIDE, NO EXCEPTIONS!

[@demonrabbit83]

@msowinski64 Absolutely!!! When i was in high school, we played Eric's piece called October at state band. It made a lot of the people in the audience cry. Such an amazing artist of music.

[@SJCarlsonMusic]

I really appreciate your choir and the dedication you men put into the perfection of your art. There are those who will embrace new methods, colors, sounds, and techniques, and those who will not because their opinion of "proper etc." has become engendered with "right etc.". I try to balance my musical digest, varying my intake so long as the work in question was designed with artistic integrity in mind. Those who cannot do this shall one day pass from the world, their voices lost to the void.

[@Running_in_spite]

They rehearse like crazy, stopping constantly to fix tuning, and we have a couple perfect pitch singers in the group.

[@MrRakitaVoCal]

@leetfeetman We fluctuate year to year because guys are in school, move away, get busy or have work/life sadly take them away from us. What you see in this video was the amount of guys who were both singing with us regularly AND able to afford the trip to UK to compete in Choir of the World. US based contests are more "local" for us so we swell to approximately 65 at those competitions.

[@KiltedNerd]

mrgray4 I have since spoken to the director and found out that they are not that way.. . What I was speaking of is the driving force behind barbershopping. Earlier know as SPEBSQSA which stood for society for the preservation encouragement of barber shop singing in america. Most BBShop choruses allow any and all to join their ranks, but then hold "try outs" if people want to compete or perform in the shows. This allows for the men that cannot sing so well, but enjoy it to be part of the group.

[@MyVoiceOverService]

truly awesome. Thank you for posting this!!!!!!!

[@UnaiSitaring]

love it...

[@loydsheryl]

And the chorus was incredible under Royce Ferguson's direction, as well.

[@tenorjoe]

@mattdre88 yeah he sings with the Socal Vocals, who was singing in the Sing Off on NBC

[@FrodoFrog87]

OMG!!!!!!! that is absolutely incredible. This is a challenge to all BBS choruses out there to diversify and become the best they can be as musicians, not as barbershoppers. The rest of the world should be weary of the caliber of BBS singers around the glbe. an absolute credit to these guys, they have done an amazing job and I look forward to more of this!

[@tenorjoe]

this isnt the westminster choir college. this is the westminster chorus, which is not affiliated with any school. it is made up of young men from all around southern california who love hanging out with their friends and making awesome music.

[@licencedtospill]

@noblescallion Shenandoah is perhaps the archetypal American folk song, and these guys just do an amazing job with it.

[@GardenALittle]

Thank God, I enjoyed it :)

[@jhernandez16]

@noblescallion . Yea I pretty much had to sit down and arrange it. Thats how much i liked it. Im going to try to do it with my group. :)

[@BarbershopHero]

I'm sure i've already posted on this video... But this is the most amazing thing I think I've ever heard. You guys should do Sleep, followed by Water Night, then Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine. In that order. Thanks! :)

[@JaredTVW]

@Wally773MTG This is the first men choir arrangment of Lux Arumque to bring me to tears, and I have sang this before. This music is good, if you don't like it, that's perfectly fine, but please, don't bring them down because I enjoy it and at least 322 other people like it and the audience loved it. They are great.

[@nipauqnihc]

These men truely made my heart stop! They are AMAZING. Btw, I thought they were a Welsh Chorus because Llangollen is the name of the town where my Great Grandmother grew up in Wales .

[@sephannoj]

@dragonbladeclock you are among one of the luckiest people in the world. I am beyond jealous.

[@jmiller823]

@amonjojo Westminster Chorus is not in affiliation with Westminster Choir College. We are based out of Southern California. It is a strange coincidence that Joe Miller is with Westminster Choir College on the east coast and that Justin Miller is in CA with Westminster Chorus.

[@cck523]

Amazing coordinating 9:07

[@KyleBatchelder93]

the chord at 5:13 is amazing.....wow

[@jmiller823]

@MrDrewboggess Thanks.

[@jmiller823]

Icyveins, sorry to inform you that is not what we teach at Westminster. Thanks for your endorsement of Barbershop, though.

[@xavier041]

i love the sound i just feel like looking at them makes me feel like they are trying to get get me into a van or something