David on How to Engage Your Audience

> Hello, this is David and I'm here to talk about communication This is the first in the series of videos on communication And this is about performing a solo in a small ensemble Performing a solo in a small ensemble may seemed one of the most easy aspects of ensemble singing It might seems you can just stand there and deliver your solo and ignore those people accompanying you. It is true that it the accompanist the ones that have to do the most to adjust the balance But it is important that the soloist does not just ignore what is going on behind them or next to them. In some groups the soloist steps forward and they obviously become the center of atension for the audience however that's not something we do within the King's Singers We prefer to stay in our positions and it requires the soloist may be to in some way with the body language indicate to the audience that they are important. Here's an example of Chris Gabbitas singing the solo in "Home" first of all not engaging the audience. > There we have an example how not to do it. Chris was not engaging the audience and the rest of us were balancing to him Perhaps we can show you how to do it in this following video which is the same music in which Chris engages the audience and the rest of us balance better to him > So in conclusion when singing a solo in the ensemble you must always remember to balance to the accompaniment behind you Enjoy your moment in the spot light but always remember you have to go back into the ensemble when you finished. >