Kenneth Shenton writes:
NIGEL PERRIN was an English counter-tenor of outstanding ability and admirable range. His early talent was nurtured in the choirs of Ely Cathedral and King’s College, Cambridge, and he was a member of the King’s Singers for 11 years. It fell to Perrin to re-introduce the counter-tenor voice to modern-day audiences. His unerring accuracy, effortless delivery, warm tone, and sensitive interpretations endeared him to audiences worldwide. Likewise, his sense of humour, generous spirit, and impeccable timing won him the high regard of colleagues.
Born in Wood Green, north London, on 4 November 1947, David Nigel Perrin was the only son of Sidney Perrin, a member of the Royal Air Force, and his wife, Phyllis. He spent his early years in Yorkshire, and took up a place, aged eight, at the King’s School, Ely, where he sang in the cathedral choir. When, aged 13, his voice broke, he seamlessly moved down to the alto line. He won a choral scholarship at King’s College, Cambridge, in 1966, where he read history, English, and theology. He went on to study for a Dip. Ed. at King’s College, London, where he joined the choir of St Clement Danes. He was an early member of a close-harmony group, the Scholars, and in 1969 he was also a Lay Vicar of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Twelve months earlier, a group of six former choral scholars of King’s College, Cambridge, had come up with a plan to form an a cappella close-harmony vocal group. Officially launched as the King’s Singers in May 1968, they initially got by with borrowed arrangements while performing at college concerts, in village halls, and at their former schools. It was a meeting with the agent Richard Armitage, of the Noel Gay Organisation, that ultimately propelled them to international stardom. Within two years, they were appearing on Saturday-night prime-time television, as regular guests on Presenting Nana Mouskouri. As the lead alto, Martin Lane, increasingly had health problems, for a brief time Felicity Palmer took the top line, until Perrin was free to join the group.
Throughout Perrin’s time with the group, the King’s Singers were international jet-setters, with a deceptive laid-back image, who remained professional to their fingertips. They worked with top arrangers and were also deeply committed to commissioning works. These included Penderecki’s “Ecloga VIII”, Luciano Berio’s setting of works of Ovid, Peter Dickinson’s cantata Winter Afternoons, Stanley Glasser’s “Lalela Zulu”, Paul Patterson’s amusing Time Piece, Richard Rodney Bennett’s “The House of Sleepe”, and Malcolm Williamson’s setting of Grimm’s fairy tale The Musicians of Bremen, which was premièred in Sydney during the group’s 1972 Australian tour.
The group also built up an impressive, eclectic, and extensive discography. Particularly popular was their recording of Josef Horovitz’s children’s cantata Captain Noah and his Floating Zoo.
Perrin left the King’s Singers in 1980 to become a vocal coach and choral conductor. He was meticulous and exacting, and this was particularly true of the Bath Camerata which he formed with friends in 1986, and which had early success in the Sainsbury’s Choir of the Year competition. Other choral ensembles that he directed included the Bath Bach Choir, the Exeter Festival Chorus, and the South Cotswold Choral Group.
Perrin worked at Marlborough College for ten years, before becoming a voice tutor at Wells Cathedral School, where he also conducted the Chamber Choir. Besides being a popular adjudicator at choral festivals, he was a keynote contributor to seminars, workshops, and summer schools worldwide.
Nigel Perrin died on 23 June, aged 76.