Summer News
Happy Summer everyone! We’ve started off the season right with some scorchingly hot weather in London over the past couple of weeks - we’re excited to share with you what we’ve been up to, and what’s coming up!
Central America - May 2026
Starting off, we had the most fantastic time in Central America earlier this year, enjoying some beautiful weather, stunning scenery in both Panama and Costa Rica, and some of the best coffee we’ve ever had! The highlight was, of course, our performance at the stunning Teatro Nacional in San José, and an inspiring workshop with brilliant local choir Laus Deo the following day. Here’s a snippet of the choir’s beautiful farewell to us:
New Recording Project Begins!
Since our return to the UK, we’ve been hard at work on a new recording project - this marks the first album-length project that the new line-up has undertaken, and we couldn’t be more excited to share more details with you all later on this year. As you can tell from the video below, we’re taking it extremely seriously and having no fun at all:
VoxPop Festival, Lucerne
Later this year, we’re thrilled to be making our debut at VoxPop Festival, Lucerne - our first time back in Switzerland for almost a decade! A relatively new European a cappella festival, it has quickly gained popularity and has previously featured our wonderful, talented friends The Real Group.
We’ll be headlining the festival on 9th October 2026, and look forward to meeting lots of new faces there!
Wilton’s Music Hall - November 13th 2026
Finally, we’re delighted to announce that we will be returning to Wilton’s Music Hall for the 4th year in a row on Friday 13th November at 7pm. We can’t wait to present our brand new program, Close Mic Classics, and will be making an exciting announcement about our upcoming recording project too! You can grab a ticket here - and be sure to come and say hi to us in the bar after the show!
That’s all for now - we can’t wait to see you at a show soon!
Love,
The Swingles x
A New Chapter Begins...
Over the past year, we've said goodbye to some incredible voices, each leaving their unmistakable mark on The Swingles' signature sound and remarkable history.
After an extensive and thorough audition period, today we are thrilled to unveil our new line-up and the two extraordinary new voices joining The Swingles this year - Sarah Alison and Laura Moisey-Gray.
This isn't just a new line-up. It's the next generation of The Swingles' legacy - bringing new voices, evolving artistry, and a dynamic vision for the future.
We can't wait to share what's coming.
The Swingles are: Mallika Bhagwat, Sarah Alison, Laura Moisey-Gray, James Botcher, Owen Butcher, Jamie Wright and Tom Hartley.
Meet James, our new tenor!
It's so exciting and refreshing to have been given the chance to perform with this fantastic group! I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into the rep and getting to know everyone.
We are so excited to introduce you all to our newest member: James Botcher 🔥
James studied music at the University of York, and studied as a postgraduate in Solo Voice Ensemble Singing. This year, he has enjoyed working as an ad hoc singer for the BBC Singers, ensembles such as I Fagiolini, and evangelising his first St Matthew Passion for the Liverpool Bach Collective. In the last few years, James has worked in Scandinavia singing with the Trondheim Vokalensemble, and for Den Ny Opera with the Barokksolistene.
When he isn't singing, James moonlights as a beatboxer, and owns two very small dogs and a large cat.
James says: It's so exciting and refreshing to have been given the chance to perform with this fantastic group! I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into the rep and getting to know everyone.
We were so impressed by James' vocal versatility, seamless blend, and sunny energy at his audition, and we cannot wait to get started with him!
Please join us in welcoming him to the fold ❤️
Autumn News
Autumn News
Having just passed the Autumn equinox, there is a distinct feel of change in the air and this is not just us Brits being obsessed with the Autumn weather that is sweeping in to the UK at the moment!
Fresh from the highs of our Theatreland Album launch concert at Bloomsbury Theatre in early September, we have been delighted to receive so many kind comments about the album. Thank you all for your support!
We are planning to tour the Theatreland show in 2025, so if you missed out on seeing it live at launch night, hopefully you will get the opportunity to see it next year.
The group will be appearing this week in York on Wednesday 2nd October. This performance (in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall of York University) has been arranged to celebrate something quite remarkable: with Owen recently joining the group earlier this year, there are currently 3 alumni of York University as members of The Swingles (Oli, Owen and Jamie). The connection with York runs strongly in the group and is actually a little more historic than you might think, because John Potter (reader emeritus of the York University Music Department and for many years the Director of the Postgraduate Vocal Studies there) was formerly a Swingle too (as a member of “Swingle II” 1973-1977).
There are still a few tickets left if you are able to join us in what promises to be a very special evening.
Despite the fact that we will be losing one York alumnus when Oli leaves the group after this concert, we are delighted to announce that we will be gaining another one in the form of new tenor James Botcher, who also went to York. James will be joining the group on our Christmas run of a cappella shows “Together for the Holidays", commencing at Wilton’s Music Hall, London on 27th November, before we travel overseas to tour Arizona and Texas in the USA and then Italy throughout December.
As ever, do keep an eye out on our “shows” page for all performance dates, and we hope to see you at an upcoming show soon.
photo credit - Nedim Nazerali
Summer News
We are gearing up for a very exciting summer…
To kick us off, we have our performance at the BBC Proms on the 30th of July, where we will be debuting a brand new work by Anna Clyne entitled The Gorgeous Nothings, alongside the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon. This new work, commissioned jointly by the BBC and The Swingles, and setting the text of Emily Dickinson’s “envelope poems”, uses an innovative new approach to composition called “The Augmented Orchestra” where selected instruments of the orchestra and the amplified singers are recorded/sampled in real time and immediately played back with augmentation (changes to either timbre or pitch, or simply with added acoustic effects (e.g. distortion)). We have been using live-looping technology in our a cappella shows for a while now, so the technique of incorporating “The Augmented Orchestra” in the performance has felt very natural for us. It has been a real privilege for us to work alongside Anna and Jody Elff (co-designers of the AO) in several workshops testing the technology in the run-up to the Proms premiere. Read more about the AO and The Gorgeous Nothings here (International Arts Manager Magazine).
Exactly a month later on August 30th, we will be releasing our long-awaited new album Theatreland: an epic anthology of some of our most beloved songs from the world of musical theatre!
To celebrate this release, we are thrilled to be hosting an official album launch concert at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London on 2nd September, where we will be performing the songs from the album, as well as some old favourites and Swingle classics. Tickets are on sale now: click here to join the party and reserve your spot!
For the latest details on all Swingles performances, see our “shows” page or bandsintown page.
More news will follow soon on the Theatreland project…