Kings Singer dies
RIPMessage from the vocal group:
We’re so very sad to hear of the death of our former First Baritone, Anthony Holt, who died last week. His contribution to our group was tremendous over his 16 years in it (starting in 1969) and I’m sure many of you will remember his beautiful singing. We were happy he could be with us during the 50th anniversary a few years ago to celebrate the ensemble he did so much to develop. Our thoughts are with Beverly and all Tony’s loved ones.
After Kings, he became a teacher at St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Anthony was 82.
The original line up was great – and had been in the Choir when Willcocks had made some of his landmark recordings. RIP.
Anthony Holt actually came into The King’s Singers from Christ Church, Oxford (i.e. he wasn’t at King’s, Cambridge). He also wasn’t quite in the original line, but when in 1969 (a year after the ‘official’ foundation of the group) he joined Nigel Perrin, Alastair Hume, Alastair Thompson, Simon Carrington and Brian Kay, this marked the stabilising of personnel in the group, with which he then sang for a remarkable 16 years. RIP.
One of the line-up I remember from my youth, as THE King’s Singers; subsequent iterations were (in my humble opinion) a shadow of the original sextet. Are the other founders still with us?
While Tony was part of the first stable group that established the Kings Singers internationally, he was, strictly speaking, the third baritone to occupy that spot. He was a graduate of Christ Church, Oxford rather than King’s College, Cambridge. I always find it amusing that Felicity Palmer sometimes took the top line in the early years.