A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.

A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus. The former term is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church (whether or not they actually occupy the choir) and the second to groups that perform in theatres or concert halls, but this distinction is far from rigid.

The term "Choir" has the secondary definition of a subset of an ensemble; thus one speaks of the "woodwind choir" of an orchestra, or different "choirs" of voices and/or instruments in a polychoral composition. In typical 18th- to 21st-century oratorios and masses, chorus or choir is usually understood to imply more than one singer per part, in contrast to the quartet of soloists also featured in these works.

Evensong in the quire of the York Minster, showing carved choirstalls.

Structure of choirs[link]

Choirs are often led by a conductor or choirmaster. Most often choirs consist of four sections intended to sing in four part harmony, but there is no limit to the number of possible parts as long as there is a singer available to sing the part: Thomas Tallis wrote a 40-part motet entitled Spem in alium, for eight choirs of five parts each; Krzysztof Penderecki's Stabat Mater is for three choirs of 16 voices each, a total of 48 parts. Other than four, the most common number of parts are three, five, six and eight.

Choirs can sing with or without instrumental accompaniment. Singing without accompaniment is called a cappella singing (although the American Choral Directors Association^[1] discourages this usage in favor of "unaccompanied," since a cappella denotes singing "as in the chapel" and much unaccompanied music today is secular). Accompanying instruments vary widely, from only one to a full orchestra; for rehearsals a piano or organ accompaniment is often used, even if a different instrumentation is planned for performance, or if the choir is rehearsing unaccompanied music.

Many choirs perform in one or many locations such as a church, opera house or school hall. In some cases choirs join up to become one "mass" choir that performs for a special reason. In this case they provide a series of songs or musical works to celebrate and provide entertainment to others.

In worship services[link]

Accompaniment[link]

Egyptian Alexandria Jewish choir of Rabbin Moshe Cohen at Samuel Menashe synagogue. Alexandria, Egypt.

Eastern Orthodox churches, some American Protestant groups, and some synagogues do not use instruments. In churches of the Western Rite the accompanying instrument is usually the organ, although in colonial America, the Moravian Church used groups of strings and winds. Many churches which use a contemporary worship format use a small amplified band to accompany the singing, and Roman Catholic Churches may use, at their discretion, additional orchestral accompaniment.

Liturgical function[link]

In addition to leading of singing in which the congregation participates, such as hymns and service music, some church choirs still sing full liturgies, including propers (introit, gradual, communion antiphons appropriate for the different times of the liturgical year). Chief among these are the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches; far more common however is the performance of anthems or motets at designated times in the service.

Types[link]

• Mixed choirs (with male and female voices). This is perhaps the most common type, usually consisting of soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices, often abbreviated as SATB. Often one or more voices is divided into two, e.g., SSAATTBB, where each voice is divided into two parts, and SATBSATB, where the choir is divided into two semi-independent four-part choirs. Occasionally baritone voice is also used (e.g., SATBarB), often sung by the higher basses. In smaller choirs with fewer men, SAB, or Soprano, Alto, and Baritone arrangements allow the few men to share the role of both the tenor and bass in a single part.
• Male choirs, with the same SATB voicing as mixed choirs, but with boys singing the upper part (often called trebles or boy sopranos) and men singing alto (in falsetto), also known as countertenors. This format is typical of the British cathedral choir.
• Female choirs, usually consisting of soprano and alto voices, two parts in each, often abbreviated as SSAA, or as soprano I, soprano II, and alto, abbreviated SSA.
• Men's choirs, or Male Chorale, usually consisting of two tenors, baritone, and bass, often abbreviated as TTBB (or ATBB if the upper part sings falsetto in alto range. ATBB may be seen in some barbershop quartet music.
• Children's choirs, often two-part SA or three-part SSA, sometimes more voices. This includes boy choirs.

Choirs are also categorized by the institutions in which they operate:

• Church choirs
• Collegiate and university choirs
• Community choirs (of children or adults)
• Professional choirs, either independent (e.g. Anúna) or state-supported (e.g., BBC Singers, National Chamber Choir of Ireland, Canadian Chamber Choir, Swedish Radio Choir).

An English school choir

• School choirs
• Signing choirs (of Deaf or Hearing individuals), using Sign Language rather than voices
• Integrated Signing and Singing Choirs, using both Sign Language and Voices and led by both a Signductor and a Musical Director.

Some choirs are categorized by the type of music they perform, such as

• Bach choirs
• Barbershop music
• Gospel choirs
• Show choirs, in which the members sing and dance, often in performances somewhat like musicals
• Symphonic choirs
• Vocal jazz choirs

Arrangements on stage[link]

One possible layout

German Kantorei in front of the orchestra

There are various schools of thought regarding how the various sections should be arranged on stage.

In symphonic choirs it is common (though by no means universal) to order the choir behind the orchestra from highest to lowest voices from left to right, corresponding to the typical string layout.

In a cappella or piano-accompanied situations it is not unusual for the men to be in the back and the women in front; some conductors prefer to place the basses behind the sopranos, arguing that the outer voices need to tune to each other.

More experienced choirs often sing with the voices all mixed together. Proponents of this method argue that it makes it easier for each individual singer to hear and tune to the other parts, but it requires more independence from each singer. Opponents argue that this method loses the spatial separation of individual voice lines, an otherwise valuable feature for the audience, and that it eliminates sectional resonance, which lessens the effective volume of the chorus.

For music with double (or multiple) choirs, usually the members of each choir are together, sometimes significantly separated, especially in performances of 16th-century music. Some composers actually specify that choirs should be separated, such as in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem.

Consideration is also given to the spacing of the singers. Studies have found that not only the actual formation, but the amount of space (both laterally and circumambiently) affect the perception of sound by choristers and auditors.^[2]

Historical overview of choral music[link]

Antiquity[link]

Relief, now in Athens, showing Dionysus with actresses (possibly from The Bacchae) carrying masks and drums.

The origins of choral music are found in traditional music, as singing in big groups is extremely widely spread in traditional cultures (both singing in one part, or in unison, like in Ancient Greece, as well as singing in parts, or in harmony, like in contemporary European choral music).^[3]

The oldest unambiguously choral repertory that survives is that of ancient Greece, of which the 2nd century BC Delphic hymns and the 2nd century AD. hymns of Mesomedes are the most complete. The original Greek chorus sang its part in Greek drama, and fragments of works by Euripides (Orestes) and Sophocles (Ajax) are known from papyri. The Seikilos epitaph (2c BC) is a complete song (although possibly for solo voice). One of the latest examples, Oxyrhynchus hymn (3c) is also of interest as the earliest Christian music.

Of the Roman drama's music a single line of Terence surfaced in the 18c. However, musicologist Thomas J. Mathiesen comments that it is no longer believed to be authentic.^[4]

See also Ancient music.

Medieval music[link]

Church singing, Tacuinum Sanitatis Casanatensis, XIV century

The earliest notated music of western Europe is Gregorian Chant, along with a few other types of chant which were later subsumed (or sometimes suppressed) by the Catholic Church. This tradition of unison choir singing lasted from sometime between the times of St. Ambrose (4th century) and Gregory the Great (6th century) up to the present. During the later Middle Ages, a new type of singing involving multiple melodic parts, called organum, became predominant for certain functions, but initially this polyphony was only sung by soloists. Further developments of this technique included clausulae, conductus and the motet (most notably the isorhythmic motet), which, unlike the Renaissance motet, describes a composition with different texts sung simultaneously in different voices. The first evidence of polyphony with more than one singer per part comes in the Old Hall Manuscript (1420, though containing music from the late 14th century), in which there are apparent divisi, one part dividing into two simultaneously sounding notes.

Renaissance music[link]

Luca della Robbia's Cantoria, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence

During the Renaissance, sacred choral music was the principal type of formally notated music in Western Europe. Throughout the era, hundreds of masses and motets (as well as various other forms) were composed for a cappella choir, though there is some dispute over the role of instruments during certain periods and in certain areas. Some of the better-known composers of this time include Dufay, Josquin des Prez, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and William Byrd; the glories of Renaissance polyphony were choral, sung by choirs of great skill and distinction all over Europe. Choral music from this period continues to be popular with many choirs throughout the world today.

The madrigal, a partsong conceived for amateurs to sing in a chamber setting, originated at this period. Although madrigals were initially dramatic settings of unrequited-love poetry or mythological stories in Italy, they were imported into England and merged with the more dancelike balletto, celebrating carefree songs of the seasons, or eating and drinking. To most English speakers, the word madrigal now refers to the latter, rather than to madrigals proper, which refers to a poetic form of lines consisting of seven and eleven syllables each.

The interaction of sung voices in Renaissance polyphony influenced Western music for centuries. Composers are routinely trained in the "Palestrina style" to this day, especially as codified by the 18c music theorist Johann Joseph Fux. Composers of the early 20th century also wrote in Renaissance-inspired styles. Herbert Howells wrote a Mass in the Dorian mode entirely in strict Renaissance style, and Ralph Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor is an extension of this style. Anton von Webern wrote his dissertation on the Choralis Constantinus of Heinrich Isaac and the contrapuntal techniques of his serial music may be informed by this study.

Baroque music[link]

The Baroque period in music is associated with the development around 1600 of the figured bass, with dramatic implications in the realm of solo vocal music such as the monodies of the Florentine Camerata and opera. This innovation was in fact an extension of established practice of accompanying choral music at the organ, either from a skeletal reduced score (from which otherwise lost pieces can sometimes be reconstructed) or from a basso seguente, a part on a single staff containing the lowest sounding part.

A new genre was the vocal concertato, combining voices and instruments; its origins may be sought in the polychoral music of the Venetian school. Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) brought it to perfection with his Vespers and his Eighth Book of Madrigals,^[5] which call for great virtuosity on the part of singers and instruments alike. His pupil Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672) (who had earlier studied with Giovanni Gabrieli) introduced the new style to Germany. Alongside the new music of the seconda pratica, contrapuntal motets in the stile antico or old style continued to be written well into the 19th century.

It should be remembered that choirs at this time were usually quite small and that singers could be classified as suited to church or to chamber singing. Monteverdi, himself a singer, is documented as taking part in performances of his Magnificat with one voice per part.^[6]

Independent instrumental accompaniment opened up new possibilities for choral music. Verse anthems alternated accompanied solos with choral sections; the best-known composers of this genre were Orlando Gibbons and Henry Purcell. Grand motets (such as those of Lully and Delalande) separated these sections into separate movements. Oratorio, pioneered by Giacomo Carissimi, extended this concept into concert-length works, usually loosely based on Biblical stories.

The pinnacle of the oratorio is found in George Frideric Handel's works, notably Messiah and Israel in Egypt. While the modern chorus of hundreds had to await the growth of Choral Societies and his centennial commemoration concert, we find Handel already using a variety of performing forces, from the soloists of the Chandos Anthems to larger groups (whose proportions are still quite different from modern orchestra choruses):

Yesterday [Oct. 6] there was a Rehearsal of the Coronation Anthem in Wesminster-Abby, set to musick by the famous Mr Hendall: there being 40 voices, and about 160 violins, Trumpets, Hautboys, Kettle-Drums and Bass' proportionable..!

—Norwich Gazette, October 14, 1727

Lutheran composers wrote instrumentally accompanied cantatas, often based on chorales (hymns). While Dieterich Buxtehude was a significant composer of such works, it was largely up to the next generation to undertake cantata cycles on texts for the entire church year. Telemann wrote choral cantatas for Frankfurt (later published in solo versions as the Harmonische Gottesdienst) and Graupner cycles for Darmstadt, but Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) made a truly monumental contribution: his obituary mentions five complete cycles of his cantatas, of which three, comprising some 200 works, are known today, in addition to motets. Bach himself rarely used the term cantata. Motet refers to his church music without orchestra accompaniment, but instruments playing colla parte with the voices. His works with accompaniment consists of his Passions, Masses, the Magnificat and the cantatas.

Baroque cantata with one voice per part

A point of hot controversy today is the so-called "Rifkin hypothesis," which re-examines the famous "Entwurff," Bach's 1730 memo to the Leipzig City Council (A Short but Most Necessary Draft for a Well Appointed Church Music) calling for at least 12 singers. In light of Bach's responsibility to provide music to four churches and be able to perform double choir compositions with a substitute for each voice, Joshua Rifkin concludes that Bach's music was normally written with one voice per part in mind. A few sets of original performing parts include ripieni who reinforce rather than slavishly double the vocal quartet.

	Hallelujah Chorus The Hallelujah Chorus, from George Frideric Handel's Messiah, is one of the most famous choruses of all time
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Classical and Romantic music[link]

Composers of the late 18th century became fascinated with the new possibilities of the symphony and other instrumental music, and generally neglected choral music. Mozart's choral works, though not as numerous as his works for other media, stand out as some of his greatest (such as the "Great" Mass in C minor and Requiem in D minor, the latter of which is often considered the greatest Requiem Mass of all time). Haydn became more interested in choral music near the end of his life following his visits to England in the 1790s, when he heard various Handel oratorios performed by large forces; he wrote a series of masses beginning in 1797 and his two great oratorios The Creation and The Seasons. Beethoven wrote only two masses, both intended for liturgical use, although his Missa solemnis is suitable only for the grandest ceremonies. He also pioneered the use of chorus as part of symphonic texture with his Ninth Symphony and Choral Fantasia.

In the 19th century, sacred music escaped from the church and leaped onto the concert stage, with large sacred works unsuitable for church use, such as Berlioz's Te Deum and Requiem, and Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem. Rossini's Stabat mater, Schubert's masses, and Verdi's Requiem also exploited the grandeur offered by instrumental accompaniment.

Oratorios also continued to be written, clearly influenced by Handel's models. Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ and Mendelssohn's Elijah and St Paul are in the category. Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms also wrote secular cantatas, the best known of which are Brahms's Schicksalslied and Nänie.

A few composers developed a cappella music, especially Bruckner, whose masses and motets startlingly juxtapose Renaissance counterpoint with chromatic harmony. Mendelssohn and Brahms also wrote significant a cappella motets.

The amateur chorus (beginning chiefly as a social outlet) began to receive serious consideration as a compositional venue for the part-songs of Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and others. These 'singing clubs' were often for women or men separately, and the music was typically in four-part (hence the name "part-song") and either a cappella or with simple instrumentation. At the same time, the Cecilian movement attempted a restoration of the pure Renaissance style in Catholic churches.

	"Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen" (How lovely is thy dwelling place) from Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms
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20th and 21st centuries[link]

As in other genres of music, choral music underwent a period of experimentation and development during the 20th century. While few well-known composers focused primarily on choral music, most significant composers of the early century produced some fine examples that have entered the repertoire.

The late-Romantic composers, such as Richard Strauss and Sergei Rachmaninoff, contributed to the genre. Ralph Vaughan Williams's Mass in G minor harks back to the Renaissance style while exhibiting the vibrancy of new harmonic languages. Vaughan Williams also arranged English and Scottish folk songs. Arnold Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden is a tonal kaleidoscope, whose tonal centers are constantly shifting (his harmonically innovative Verklärte Nacht for strings dates from the same period). Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych also explored new ways of harmonizing and arranging Ukrainian folk songs, producing masterpieces such as Dudaryk and Shchedryk, the latter of which featured a four-note ostinato theme and became a popular Christmas carol known as Carol of the Bells after it was translated by Peter J. Wilhousky.

The advent of atonality and other non-traditional harmonic systems and techniques in the 20th century also affected choral music. Serial music is represented by choral works by Arnold Schoenberg, including the anthem "Dreimal Tausend Jahre," while the composer's signature use of sprechstimme is evident in his psalm "De Profundis." Paul Hindemith's distinctive modal language is represented by both his a cappella Mass and his Six Chansons on texts by Rilke, while a more contrapuntally dissonant style comes through in his secular requiem, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. Olivier Messiaen also demonstrates dissonant counterpoint in his Cinq Rechants, which tell the Tristan and Isolde story. Charles Ives' psalm settings exemplify the composer's incomparably radical harmonic language. Tone clusters and aleatory elements play a prominent role in the choral music of Krzysztof Penderecki, who wrote the St. Luke Passio, and György Ligeti, who wrote both a Requiem and a separate Lux Aeterna. Milton Babbitt incorporated integral serialism into works for children's chorus, while Daniel Pinkham wrote for choir and electronic tape. Meredith Monk's Panda Chant and Astronaut Anthem explore overtones in an unconventional text setting. Though difficult and rarely performed by amateurs, pieces that demonstrate such unfamiliar idioms have found their way into the repertories of the finest semi-professional and professional choirs around the world.

More accessible styles of choral music include that by Benjamin Britten, including his War Requiem, Five Flower Songs, and Rejoice in the Lamb. Francis Poulenc's Motets pour le temps de noël, Gloria, and Mass in G are often performed. A primitivist approach is exemplified by Carl Orff's widely performed Carmina Burana. In the United States, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Randall Thompson wrote signature American pieces. In Eastern Europe, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály wrote a small amount of music for choirs. Frank Martin's Mass for double choir combines modality and allusion to Medieval and Renaissance forms with a distinctly modern harmonic language and has become the composer's most performed work.

The so-called holy minimalists are represented by Arvo Pärt, whose Johannespassion and Magnificat have received regular performances; John Tavener (Song for Athene) and Henryk Gorecki (Totus Tuus) share this label. American minimalism and post minimalism are represented by Steve Reich's Desert Music, choral excerpts from Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach and John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer, and David Lang's Pulitzer Prize-winning Little Match Girl Passion.

At the turn of the 21st century, choral music has received a resurgence of interest partly due to a renewed interest in accessible choral idioms.^{[citation needed]} Multi-cultural influences are found in Osvaldo Golijov's St. Mark Passion, which melds the Bach-style passion form with Latin American street music, and Chen Yi's Chinese Myths Cantata melds atonal idioms with traditional Chinese melodies played on traditional Chinese instruments. Some composers began to earn their reputation based first and foremost on their choral output, including the highly popular John Rutter and Eric Whitacre. The large scale dramatic works of Karl Jenkins seem to hearken back to the theatricality of Orff, and the music of James MacMillan continues the tradition of boundary-pushing choral works from the United Kingdom begun by Britten, Walton, and Leighton. Meanwhile, primarily media music composers such as John Williams and Kentaro Sato, and prominent concert orchestral composers such as Augusta Read Thomas, Sofia Gubaidulina, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Thomas Ades also contribute vital additions to the choral repertoire.

A number of traditions originating outside of classical concert music have enriched the choral repertoire as well as provided new outlets to composers:

• At the end of the 19th century, male voice choirs became popular with the coal miners of South Wales, and numerous choirs were established including the Treorchy Male Choir, Morriston Orpheus Choir and Cor Meibion Pontypridd Male voice choirs. Although the mining communities which gave rise to these choirs largely died out in the 1970s and 1980s with the decline of the Welsh coal industry, many of these choirs continue, and are seen as a traditional part of Welsh culture and perform worldwide. Not all of the choirs were based on coal – some started in the rugby clubs, such as Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir and Morriston Rugby Choir, while others such as Pontarddulais Male Choir were formed out of a youth choir.

• Black Spirituals entered the concert repertoire with the tours of the Fisk College Jubilee Singers, and arrangements of such spirituals are now part of the standard choral repertoire. Notable composers and arrangers of choral music in this tradition include William Dawson, Jester Hairston and Moses Hogan.

• During the mid 20th century, barbershop quartets began experimenting with combining larger ensembles together into choruses which sing barbershop music in 4 parts, often with staging, choreography and costumes. The first international barbershop chorus contest was held in 1953 and continues to this day.

• During the late 20th century, one of the major areas of growth in the choral movement^{[citation needed]} has been in the areas of LGBT choruses. Starting around 1979, gay men's choruses were founded within a period of months in major U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Dallas. Over the last quarter century the number of such groups, men's, women's and mixed, has exploded. GALA Choruses, an associative group, now has well-over 100 member choruses throughout the world.

• African and African American choirs have a distinct and passionate sound. They incorporate their culture into the music; have a more upbeat tempo and use traditional instruments. They are also very good at singing slow and soulful renditions.

See also[link]

• Come and sing

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Choirs

Look up chorus, chorale, or choir in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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More spoken articles

• ChoralNet
• International Federation for Choral Music
• Musica International - The Virtual Choral Library
• Choral Public Domain Library
• Musica International - choral music repertoire database
• Global Chant Database – Index of Gregorian Chant - online database of plainchant melodies and texts
• Sacred Classics - online radio program of choral music
• Art of the States - information and free recordings of several choral works
• The Boy Choir & Soloist Directory
• Male Voice Choirs
• Female Voice Choirs
• A history of UK cathedral choirs and choir schools
• The Association of Gaelic Choirs
• British Choirs on the Net, UK
• St. Luke's Choir – Coptic Orthodox Church
• Gerontius - choirs and choral music resources UK
• Choral database
• National Association of Choirs, UK
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Choir". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chorus". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

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Eric Whitacre
Whitacre conducting in 2007
Background information
Born	(1970-01-02) 2 January 1970 (age 42)
Occupations	Composer Conductor Lecturer Model
Website	EricWhitacre.com

Eric Whitacre (born 2 January 1970 in Reno, Nevada) is an American Grammy award winning composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation.^[1][2] In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst (released by the British ensemble Polyphony on Hyperion Records) became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination. Robert Hollingworth commented: "what hits you straight between the eyes is the honesty, optimism and sheer belief that passes any pretension. This is music that can actually make you smile."^[3] In addition to Whitacre's litany of choral and wind ensemble compositions, he is also known for his "Virtual Choir" projects on YouTube, bringing individual voices from around the globe together in a cyber internet choir. His virtual choirs have exposed his music to a new audience and have helped it gain an unprecedented popularity.^[4][5] Whitacre signed a long-term recording deal with Decca in 2010 and continues to develop his award winning musical Paradise Lost. A concert version was given at Carnegie Hall in 2010.^[6] Plans for the stage show and soundtrack extend into 2013.

Biography[link]

Coming to classical music relatively late in life when he joined a college choir at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), where he earned a BA in Music in 1995. The first work that Eric Whitacre sang – Mozart's Requiem – changed his life. Inspired to compose, his first piece Go, Lovely Rose was completed at the age of 21. At the age of 23 he completed his first piece for Wind Orchestra, Ghost Train, which has been recorded over 40 times and has continued to sell phenomenally well. He went on to the Juilliard School (New York), where he studied with Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning composer, John Corigliano and earned his Master of Music degree.

Countless recordings feature music written by Eric Whitacre, but his first album as both composer and conductor on Decca/Universal, Light & Gold, won a Grammy in 2012, reaped unanimous five star reviews, and became the no. 1 Classical Album in the US and UK charts within a week of a release. Eric's second album, Water Night, was released on Decca in 3 April 2012 and will feature seven world premiere recordings and include performances from his professional choir Eric Whitacre Singers, the London Symphony Orchestra, Julian Lloyd Webber and Hila Plitmann.

He has written for the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Chanticleer, Julian Lloyd Webber, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Rundfunkchor Berlin, and The King's Singers, among others. His musical, Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, won both the ASCAP Harold Arlen award and the Richard Rodgers Award, and earned 10 nominations at the Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. A versatile musician, he has also worked with prolific film composer, Hans Zimmer, co-writing the Mermaid Theme for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. In 2011, Eric conducted the winning entries of the Abbey Road 80th Anniversary Anthem Competition, recording the London Symphony Orchestra and his professional choir, the Eric Whitacre Singers, in Abbey Road Studio 1.

Eric's ground-breaking Virtual Choir, Lux Aurumque, received over a million views on YouTube in just 2 months (now approaching 3 million), featuring 185 singers from 12 different countries. Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, Sleep, was released in April 2011 and involved over 2,000 voices from 58 countries. Virtual Choir 3, Water Night, combined 3746 submissions from 73 countries and was released in April 2012.

As a conductor, Eric Whitacre has performed across the world with orchestras, choirs and bands, and he gives regular guest workshops. His Soaring Leap initiative is a dynamic one-day workshop where singers, conductors and composers read, rehearse and perform several of Eric's works, digging deep into the poetry and exploring the compositional tools. An exceptional orator, he was honoured to address the U.N. Leaders programme and give a TED Talk in March 2011, which earned the first full standing ovation of the conference. He has addressed audiences at Duke, Harvard, The Economist, Seoul Digital Forum and JCDA Conference in Tokyo. Eric was appointed Composer in Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, UK, in September 2011.

Many of Eric Whitacre's works have entered the standard choral and symphonic repertories and have become the subject of scholarly works and doctoral dissertations. Whitacre has received composition awards from the Barlow International Composition Competition, the ACDA and the American Composers Forum. In 2001, he became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the ACDA. Eric Whitacre currently lives in London with his wife (Grammy award winning soprano, Hila Plitmann) and their son.

Style[link]

Whitacre writes music that incorporates contemporary sounds and influences while demanding precision, intonation and ensemble. He is probably best known for his choral works; however, both his choral and instrumental styles use his signature "Whitacre chords," or pan-diatonic clusters usually arranged in successive increasing or decreasing density. Whitacre achieves this growth and decay by splitting voices divisi—in one case up to 18 parts. These sonorities can often be read as seventh or ninth chords, with or without suspended seconds and fourths. Perhaps his most famous chord is a root-position major triad with an added major second and/or perfect fourth. Whitacre makes frequent use of quartal, quintal and secundal harmonies, and is also known for his use of unconventional chord progressions. His use of rhythm often involves mixed, complex, and/or compound meters. His pieces sometimes include frequent meter changes and unusual rhythmic patterns. Another trademark of Whitacre's pieces is the use of aleatoric and indeterminate sections, as well as unusual score instructions involving, in some cases, hand actions and/or props.^[7]

Projects[link]

Virtual Choir[link]

Whitacre's Virtual Choir projects were inspired by a video sent to him of a young girl singing one of his choral pieces.^[8] He began with a test run of Sleep, then Lux Aurumque in 2009^[4][9] and then Sleep again in 2010. The video for Lux Aurumque, featuring a virtual choir of 185 voices from 12 countries, was described as a "musical experience that works better than anyone might have expected."^[10] It received over a million hits in the first two months of its release.

The 2010 version of the Virtual Choir 2.0 "Sleep" began in October 2010, and the video submission process was completed on 10 January 2011. Whitacre spoke at The 2011 TED Conference^[11] and this video was released on 1 April 2011, accompanied with a short 2 minute example of the "Sleep" project. The YouTube release was on 7 April 2011. One year later,it had been viewed over 900,000 times.

On 27 September 2011, Eric announced on his blog his plans for a "Virtual Choir 3". On 21 December 2011, it was revealed that the piece will be "Water Night", an a cappella piece he wrote in 1995.^[12] By the entry close date of 1 February 2012, 3,746 videos had been uploaded by 2,945 people in 73 countries, singing one or more parts of Water Night. NBC Network's Nightly News, and ABC National News television reported on the Virtual Choir. This heightened awareness of the project in the mainstream. The completed work was released as a YouTube video 2 April 2012, and received 100,000 views in the first week. On 15 April, on the exact 100 year anniversary moment of the sinking of the Titanic, the Water Night Virtual Choir video was shown in the new Titanic Belfast commemorative building, in remembrance of those lost in the disaster.

Recording projects[link]

Whitacre's first album with Decca, Light & Gold, was released in October 2010. This album won the Grammy for Best Choral Performance in 2012.^[13] From October to December 2010, Whitacre was a visiting Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge during Michaelmas (Autumn) Term.^[14]

Whitacre's second album with Decca, Water Night, was released on 3 April 2012 in the United States, and features some of his newest compositions for chorus and for orchestra.^[15]

Performance projects[link]

Whitacre has worked collaboratively with Distinguished Concerts International New York^[16] (DCINY), and is due to collaborate with them again in 2011 in New York, Vancouver and Los Angeles. With regard to his musical "Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings", he was described by the New York Times as a "younger, hipper Andrew Lloyd Webber, with fleeting hints of Bernstein and Sondheim".^[6]

On 24 October 2010, he conducted an all-American programme with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the Barbican London in a performance that featured his commission for the London Symphony Chorus entitled Songs of Immortality. On 28 November 2010, he sat on the panel of judges for the final episode of Choir of the Year, broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3. In December 2010, Whitacre conducted the I Vocalisti choir in Hamburg, and was a guest conductor of the Christmas performance of the Berlin Rundfunkchor.

On 6 November 2010, Whitacre conducted Côrdydd, a Cardiff-based mixed choir, and friends in a concert of his work at the BBC Hoddinott Hall in the Wales Millennium Centre.

He composed a piece for the Sidney Sussex college choir, and worked with students in masterclasses and workshops. The concert version of his musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings was performed to a sold out audience at Carnegie Hall in June 2010.

Whitacre is a founding member of BCM International, a quartet of composers consisting of himself, Steven Bryant, Jonathan Newman and James Bonney, which aspires to "enrich the wind ensemble repertoire with music unbound by traditional thought or idiomatic cliché."^[17]

Awards and honors[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011)

Whitacre has won awards from the Barlow international composition competition, American Choral Directors Association, American Composers' Forum and in 2001 became the youngest recipient ever of The Raymond C Brock Commission given by the American Choral Directors Association. His musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings earned him a Richard Rodgers Award and received 10 nominations at the 2007 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. The album Cloudburst and Other Choral Works received a Grammy nomination in 2007 for Best Choral Performance. Later, his album "Light and Gold" won a Grammy for Best Choral Performance in 2012.^[18]

Works[link]

Wind symphony[link]

• Equus
• Ghost Train Triptych
  • Ghost Train
  • At the Station
  • Motive Revolution
• Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!
• Noisy Wheels of Joy
• October
• Sleep (choral transcription)
• The Seal Lullaby (choral transcription for wind symphony and piano)
• Lux Aurumque (transcription of the choral work, transposed a semitone lower from C-Sharp Minor to C Minor)
• Cloudburst (choral transcription)
• Libertas Imperio (From Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings)

SATB choral[link]

• A Boy and A Girl (poem by Octavio Paz)
• Alleluia (adapted from his October)
• Animal Crackers, Volume 1 (Poems by Ogden Nash)
  • The Panther
  • The Cow
  • The Firefly
• Animal Crackers, Volume 2 (Poems by Ogden Nash)
  • The Canary
  • The Eel
  • The Kangaroo
• The City and the Sea (poems by e. e. cummings)
  • i walked the boulevard
  • the moon is hiding in her hair
  • maggie and millie and molly and may
  • as is the sea marvelous
  • little man in a hurry
• Cloudburst (poem by Octavio Paz)
• Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)
  • Temuna
  • Kala Kalla (Light Bride)
  • Larov (Mostly)
  • Eyze Sheleg! (What snow!)
  • Rakut (Tenderness)
• Goodnight Moon (chorus and piano)
• Her Sacred Spirit Soars (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine (libretto by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Little Birds (poem by Octavio Paz)
• little tree (poem by E. E. Cummings)
• Lux Aurumque (poem by Edward Esch; translated into Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri) (also set for male chorus)
• Nox Aurumque (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Oculi Omnium
• The Seal Lullaby (poem by Rudyard Kipling)
• She Weeps Over Rahoon (poem by James Joyce)
• Sleep (originally a setting of Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"; for copyright reasons^[19] the published version uses a specially-written text by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Sleep, My Child (Choral transcription from Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings)
• The Stolen Child (setting of a poem by William Butler Yeats, commissioned in 2008 by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and The King's Singers for their respective 25th and 40th anniversaries)
• This Marriage (poem by Jalal al-Din Rumi)
• Three Flower Songs
  • I Hide Myself (poem by Emily Dickinson)
  • With a Lily in Your Hand (poem by Federico García Lorca)
  • Go, Lovely Rose (poem by Edmund Waller)
• Three Songs of Faith (poems by E. E. Cummings)
  • i will wade out
  • hope, faith, life, love
  • i thank You God for most this amazing day^[20]
• Water Night (poem by Octavio Paz; translated by Muriel Rukeyser)
• When David Heard (from II Samuel 18:33)
• Winter (poem by Edward Esch)
• What If (lyrics by David Norona and Eric Whitacre)

SSA choral[link]

• She Weeps Over Rahoon (text by James Joyce)
• Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)
• The Seal Lullaby (text by Rudyard Kipling)
• I Thank You God (text by E. E. Cummings)

TTBB choral[link]

• Lux Aurumque (poem by Edward Esch, translated into Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• The Seal Lullaby (text by Rudyard Kipling)

Choral works not yet published[link]

• Goodnight Moon
• Songs of Immortality
  • Lie still, sleep becalmed (poem by Dylan Thomas)
  • After Great Pain (poem by Emily Dickinson)^[21]

Orchestral[link]

• A Boy and a Girl
• Equus
• Goodnight Moon (strings, harp, soprano)
• Lux Aurumque
• October
• The River Cam
• Water Night
• Winter
• Winter (for strings, choir and sitar)

Solo voice[link]

• The City and the Sea (poems by E. E. Cummings)
• Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)

Music theatre[link]

• Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, a musical featuring electronic, world, and orchestral instruments; classical singers; and many different styles of music.

Other arrangements[link]

• Rak HaHatchala (Only the Beginning) [aka Five Hebrew Love Songs]; for soprano voice, solo violin, piano

Film and Television[link]

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, co-composer (with Hans Zimmer) of the Mermaid Theme and choral segments

Publishers[link]

Whitacre is published by Chester Music; G. Schirmer; Walton Music; Santa Barbara Music; Shadow Water Music; and Carpe Ranam Music.

Biography portal

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Eric_Whitacre on WikiMusicGuide
• Biography on Hyperion Records
• NPR Review of Cloudburst and choral audio. 28 September 2006
• Music Productions Ltd (Management company of Eric Whitacre)
• Eric Whitacre write-up on ChesterNovello web site
• Eric talking at TED about the virtual choir
• Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'
• Classical Archives Interview

Gareth Malone
Gareth Malone at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
Born	1975 Bournemouth
Residence	London, England, UK
Education	Bournemouth School University of East Anglia Royal Academy of Music
Occupation	Choirmaster and television presenter
Known for	The Choir, The Big Performance
Awards	2007: BAFTA Television Award - Best Feature (The Choir) 2009: BAFTA Television Award - Best Feature (The Choir: Boys Don't Sing) 2009: Broadcast Award — Best Popular Factual Programme Winner (The Choir: Boys Don't Sing) 2010: 36th BPG Television and Radio Awards — Best TV Performer in a Non-acting Role & best Factual Entertainment show (The Choir)[1] 2010: Freedom of the City of London
Website
www.garethmalone.com

Gareth Malone (born Bournemouth, 1975^[2][3]) is a British choirmaster and broadcaster, self-described as an "animateur, presenter and populariser of choral singing". He is best known for his television appearances in programmes such as The Choir which focus on singing and introducing choral music to new participants.^[3]

Biography[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2010)

Gareth Edmund Malone was educated at Bournemouth School, and sang with the Symphony Chorus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO)^[4]. He studied drama at the University of East Anglia, Norwich where he was in the university choir and composed music for theatre productions. After graduating he did private tuition and then applied for a postgraduate vocal studies course at The Royal Academy of Music. He passed with distinction in 2005.

Working at the LSO he was awarded the position of Edward Heath Assistant Animateur in 2001. He entered television work when approached by 20/20, a production company which wanted to make a series about singing in schools. Without knowing who could front the programme they had researched the term "community choirmasters" and discovered Malone’s name. The Choir was very successful, winning two BAFTAs^[5][6] and a Broadcast award.^[7]

Until December 2009, Malone worked for the London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke's where he ran their youth choir and community choir.

On 31 December 2009, Malone conducted the first New Year's Eve Twitter Community Choir performance of Auld Lang Syne. He asked his followers on Twitter, and friends on Facebook, to join in with the event.

A later project was The Knight Crew, a youth opera based on a book written by Nicky Singer and performed at Glyndebourne. After choosing approximately 50 cast out of over 400 applicants between the ages of 14-20 through workshops and auditions, and months of rehearsals, The Knight Crew was performed at Glyndebourne between 3 and 6 March 2010. The project was filmed for a television series, Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne and aired on the BBC on 1 July 2010.

In May 2010 Malone was awarded the Freedom of the City of London by Nick Anstee, Lord Mayor of the City of London in recognition of his music education work in London.^[8]

His first book Music for the People: A Journey through the Pleasures and Pitfalls of Classical Music^[9] was published on 28 April 2011.^[10]

Television work[link]

Gareth Malone's television appearances began in 2007 with his reality television series The Choir, broadcast on BBC Two. The series focussed on teaching choral singing to people who have no experience of singing, with the first programme set in Northolt High School, a comprehensive school in the west London suburbs. Subsequent follow-ups continued the theme by taking choral music to challenging situations; Boys Don't Sing (2008) featured pupils at a boys' school who were reluctant to sing, and the third series, entitled Unsung Town, featured the formation of a community choir in South Oxhey, a suburban town where singing was not a current activity.

In 2011, Malone's show Gareth Malone Goes to Glyndebourne won an International Emmy Award in the Best Arts Programme category.^[11][12]

In 2010 Malone presented a children's programme for CBBC, The Big Performance in which ten keen but extremely shy young singers took the opportunity to overcome their fears. They performed for a larger audience each week, taking it in turns to be the soloist and in the final week they performed for BBC Proms in the Park. A second series was broadcast in 2011 with the final week taking the form of a performance of a choral arrangement of the song "Keep Holding On" for the BBC charity telethon Children in Need 2011, where the ten singers led a live choir in the studio along with chidren's choirs nationwide linked by satellite.^[13]

For the BBC Two programme The Choir: Military Wives, first broadcast in November 2011, Malone went to Chivenor Barracks in Devon creating a choir from wives and partners of military personnel deployed to Afghanistan. The culmination of the programme was the opening performance for The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 12 November 2011. The three-minute piece performed by the Military Wives Choir was the song Wherever You Are, a love poem compiled from letters written between the women and their absent husbands and partners and set to music by composer Paul Mealor.^[14] A campaign has been launched to promote sales of the CD single, with the aim of it becoming the 2011 Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart, which has been publicly supported by BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans.^[15] First day sales, which included all pre-orders, indicated that they were outselling their closest rivals, Little Mix, by a hundred singles to one, causing Ladbrokes to close betting for the Christmas number one, and Simon Cowell to admit defeat in the race. The pre-order sales caused the single to become one of the top 20 best-selling music products of all-time at Amazon.co.uk.

Television filmography[link]

Malone's television appearances include to date:^[16]

The Choir: Unsung Town series was also broadcast by NHK Educational TV and NHK BS1 (NHK衛星第1テレビジョン, NHK Ēsē Dai-ichi Terebijon^?) (NHK Broadcasting Satellite Television 1) in Japan in 2010.

Personal life[link]

Malone is married to Becky, an English teacher.^[24] They live in north-west London with their daughter, Esther,^[25] who was born on 22nd September 2010.^[26]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gareth Malone

• Official website
• Gareth Malone at the Internet Movie Database
• Gareth Malone on Twitter
• Youtube video of Gareth conducting the Military Wives choir performing a Paul Mealor composition

James Blake

Country	United States
Residence	Saddlebrook Florida , Tampa, Florida, United States
Born	(1979-12-28) December 28, 1979 (age 32) Yonkers, New York
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	183 lb (83 kg; 13.1 st)
Turned pro	1999
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$7,350,311
Singles
Career record	349–231 (at ATP Tour-level, Grand Slam-level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	10
Highest ranking	No. 4 (November 20, 2006)
Current ranking	No. 92 (April 30, 2012)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	QF (2008)
French Open	3R (2006)
Wimbledon	3R (2006, 2007)
US Open	QF (2005, 2006)
Other tournaments
Tour Finals	F (2006)
Olympic Games	SF - 4th place (losing bronze-finalist) (2008)
Doubles
Career record	109–104 (at ATP Tour-level, Grand Slam-level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	6
Highest ranking	No. 31 (March 31, 2003)
Current ranking	No. 214 (November 22, 2010)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	QF (2005)
French Open	2R (2002)
Wimbledon	SF (2009)
US Open	2R (2000, 2001)
Last updated on: April 13, 2012.

James Riley Blake^[1] (born December 28, 1979) is an American professional tennis player. Blake is known for his speed and powerful, flat forehand. As of April 2012, Blake is ranked World No. 74 among active male players with 24 career finals appearances (10–14 record), whilst his career-high singles ranking is World No. 4. His career highlights include reaching the final of the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup, the semifinals of the Beijing Olympics and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open (2008) and US Open (2005, 2006). His two titles for the United States at the Hopman Cup are an event record. Blake was a key performer for the United States 2007 Davis Cup championship team, going 2–0 in the championship tie vs. Russia at second singles. In 2005, Blake was presented with the Comeback Player of the Year award for his remarkable return to the tour. Later, in 2008, Blake was awarded another honor by the ATP where he was named the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year. On July 3, 2007, Blake's autobiography Breaking Back: How I Lost Everything and Won Back My Life, which discussed his comeback after his unlucky 2004 season, was released and debuted at No. 22 on the New York Times Best Seller list. He co-wrote this book with Andrew Friedman.

Early life[link]

Blake was born in Yonkers, New York to an African American father Thomas Reynolds Blake and a British mother Betty.^[2] He has a brother Thomas, who is also a professional tennis player, and three older half-brothers: Jason, Christopher and Howard, and a half-sister Michelle.

Blake started playing tennis at age five alongside his brother Thomas. When he was 13, he was diagnosed with severe scoliosis and for five years as a teenager he was forced to wear a full-length back brace for 18 hours a day, though not while playing tennis. Blake attended Fairfield High School in Fairfield, Connecticut, where a schoolmate and childhood friend was future musician John Mayer. Blake was inspired to pursue tennis after hearing his role model Arthur Ashe speak to the Harlem Junior Tennis Program. Brian Barker was his first (and longtime) coach. He left Harvard University, where he was a member of the A.D. Club, after his sophomore year to pursue a career in professional tennis.

Playing style[link]

Blake's style of play is primarily that of an aggressive offensive baseliner. He generally prefers to hit winners from the baseline, but his solid net volley and transition game give him an effective all-court game. His forehand (along with Federer and Fernando González) is considered to be one of the best in the game. However, his one-handed backhand is known to be suspect. Another major strength is his great foot speed. Blake tends to return serves (especially second serves) with great pace, and also makes contact with the ball earlier (on the uprise) when hitting ground strokes. Combined with his relatively flat strokes, these techniques (despite being riskier in terms of making errors) allow him to put more pace on the ball, giving opponents less time to react. Blake likes to take control of points and will usually attempt to hit an outright winner earlier in the rally than many others. He is known as a shot maker. His go-for-broke style makes him one of the most entertaining players on the tour, though this also makes him an inconsistent player, evidenced by his recent slide in the rankings. Since hiring new coach and doubles specialist Kelly Jones, Blake has begun to incorporate more serve-and-volley play into his game.

Career[link]

2000–2001[link]

At the age of 21, Blake saw his first Davis Cup action in 2001 against India and became the third person of African-American heritage to play for the Davis Cup for the United States (after Arthur Ashe and MaliVai Washington).

Ranked no. 120 in the world, Blake accepted a wild card into Cincinnati. He beat a qualifier and Arnaud Clément to reach the round of 16, where he met Patrick Rafter. Blake came close to winning the first set (falling in a tiebreak), and after dropping the second set, Rafter, according to Blake's autobiography, complimented him at the net and boosted his confidence immeasurably by saying "Now do you believe you can beat someone like me, or even me?"

2002–2003[link]

In January, Blake won the 2002 USTA Waikola Challenger in Hawaii. A month later in Memphis he posted his first win over a top-10 ranked opponent, Tommy Haas, who was then ranked no. 5, and reached the finals, losing to Andy Roddick. He reached the quarterfinals at the ATP Masters Series (AMS) event in Rome in May and the finals at Newport in July.

In August, in Cincinnati, he won his first career ATP Tour title and his first ATP Masters Series title: it came in doubles with Todd Martin, making Blake the first African-American male to win a title of any kind in Cincinnati's 101-year history. He was also the first African-American to reach a final in Cincinnati since 1969, when Arthur Ashe reached the doubles finals with Charlie Pasarell. The next week in Washington, he won his first ATP Tour singles title, beating Andre Agassi in the semifinals and Paradorn Srichaphan in the final.

At the US Open, he reached the third round, before falling to top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt in five sets.

In 2003, his best results were a quarterfinals appearance at Indian Wells; a round of 16 finish at the Australian Open, Cincinnati, and Miami; a semifinal appearance at San Jose, and a finals appearance at Long Island.

2004[link]

While practicing with Robby Ginepri for the Masters event in Rome, he broke his neck when he slipped on the clay and collided with the net post. In July, his father died of stomach cancer. At the same time, Blake developed shingles, which temporarily paralyzed half his face and blurred his sight.

2005[link]

Blake's injuries and personal issues caused him to post relatively poor results for the first half of 2005. By April his ranking was 210. He decided to play the Challenger circuit, the "minor leagues" of tennis, in order to gain confidence and get more matches. In May he entered events in Tunica, Mississippi and Forest Hills, New York, winning both. He rejoined the ATP circuit and by August reached the final at the International Series event in Washington, D.C. where he fell to Roddick.

He was given a wild card into AMS Cincinnati, drawing Federer in the first round. He then won the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament in New Haven, Connecticut, defeating Feliciano López in the final.

After New Haven he was ranked 49.

He then accepted a wildcard into the US Open, defeating No. 2 Rafael Nadal 6–4, 4–6, 6–3, 6–1 in the round of 32. He beat Tommy Robredo in four sets to reach the quarterfinals, succumbing to Andre Agassi in a fifth-set tiebreak, losing 3–6, 3–6, 6–3, 6–3, 7–6.

In October at the Stockholm Open, Blake won his third ATP tour title, defeating Srichaphan in the final. Blake finished 2005 ranking 22.

2006[link]

Blake won the title at Sydney, taking his fourth ATP tour title defeating Russian Igor Andreev in the final.

At the Australian Open he was seeded twentieth, losing in the third round to Spaniard Tommy Robredo. He broke into the Top 20 for the first time in his career.

In March he beat Hewitt in the final at Las Vegas for his fifth ATP tour title.

At the first AMS event of the year Indian Wells, Blake defeated Robredo in the third round and world No. 2 Nadal in the semifinals, reaching his first career ATP Masters Series singles final, losing in the final to Federer. By reaching the final, Blake became the first African-American man since Arthur Ashe to reach the world's top 10.

On clay, Blake defeated former world No. 1 Carlos Moyà in the first round at AMS Hamburg before losing to Mario Ančić in the third round.

At the French Open he defeated Spaniard Nicolás Almagro in four sets in the second round, to become the last remaining American man at the French, then was beaten by Frenchman Gaël Monfils in five sets.

Beginning the grass court season at the Stella Artois Championships, he defeated Andy Roddick in the semifinals, losing to Lleyton Hewitt in the final.

At Wimbledon, Blake progressed to the third round but lost to Max Mirnyi in five sets.^[3]

Now ranked No. 5, Blake's next tournament was the International Series at Indianapolis. He won the singles title, defeating Roddick (for the second time in 2006).

In Washington, D.C. he lost in the third round to Marat Safin and in New Haven in the first round to Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo.

At AMS Canada he fell to Richard Gasquet (who would reach the final that week before losing to Roger Federer). At AMS Cincinnati he lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero (who lost in the final to Andy Roddick).

At the US Open he reached the quarterfinals, losing to top seed and defending champion Roger Federer. In that match Blake won his first set against Federer, winning the third set in a tiebreaker 11–9.

In his debut appearance at the Thailand Open in Bangkok, Blake won his seventh singles title, defeating Jarkko Nieminen in the quarterfinals, Marat Safin in the semifinals, and Ivan Ljubičić (for the first time) in the final.

Two weeks later Blake won his fifth title of 2006, defending his 2005 title in Stockholm, defeating Jarkko Nieminen.

For the first time, Blake qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. He went 2–1 in the Gold Group, defeating No. 2 Nadal and No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko, while losing to No. 6 Tommy Robredo. He qualified for the semifinals, beating defending champion David Nalbandian 6–4, 6–1, losing the final to Federer 6–0, 6–3, 6–4.

Blake finished 2006 at a career-high World Number 4 and as the highest-ranked American tennis player.

2007[link]

Blake won at the Sydney International for the second consecutive year. However, he then suffered a disappointing loss in the Round of 16 at the Australian Open, losing to tenth seed and eventual finalist Fernando González 7–5, 6–4, 7–6. He followed that up with a loss to Tomáš Berdych in Davis Cup play and a second round loss in the SAP Open (San Jose) to Number 103 ranked Ivo Karlović.

At the 2007 Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas, as the defending champion, he was involved with a deep controversy. It was one of the several tournaments experimenting with the new round robin format,^[4] and Blake had lost his first match to Evgeny Korolev. Korolev lost his other match to Juan Martín del Potro. In order for Blake to advance to the quarters, he had to defeat Del Potro in straight sets while losing five games or less. This would result in a three-way tie, with Blake losing the fewest games. With Blake leading 6–1 3–1, Del Potro retired. This eliminated Del Potro from the three-way tie as he failed to complete one of his matches. Korolev then moved on to the next round, breaking the tie because he had defeated Blake in their match.

That caused a big uproar among fans, James Blake, and commentators, as they felt James Blake deserved to advance. After a press conference of many hours, the ATP, led by Etienne de Villiers, decided that, since Blake would have met the guidelines the way the match was going, and since neither player knew the consequences of retiring (Del Potro said he would have finished the match had he known), Blake would have advanced anyway. They overruled the tournament guidelines, giving Blake a place in the quarterfinals.

The following morning, De Villiers reversed his reversal deeming that it was unfair to Korolev as you should not change the rules in mid-tournament, regardless of what happened. As a result, Korolev re-advanced to the quarterfinals, sending Blake to Indian Wells without a 3rd consecutive title defense. Shortly after this incident, the ATP decided to cancel the round robin format, reverting any tournaments planning a round robin draw to the standard single-elimination draw.^[5]

Roland Garros 2007 was a disappointment for Blake, losing in the first round to Ivo Karlović 4–6, 6–4, 7–5, 7–5. Blake was one of nine American men to lose in the first round of Roland Garros. This was the first time in the open era where an American male had not made it into a Grand Slam second round.

In Wimbledon 2007, James reached the third round, matching his best showing there (2006), but was unable to get past former World Number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, losing 3–6, 6–3, 6–3, 7–6.

During the summer hardcourt season, he advanced to his second career ATP Masters Series event and won a singles title. At AMS Cincinnati, he beat Alejandro Falla, Nicolas Kiefer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Sam Querrey and Nikolay Davydenko en route to the final before falling to Roger Federer. He won the singles title at Penn Pilot in New Haven, CT, and started the North American hardcourt season by reaching the finals at Los Angeles, losing to Radek Štěpánek in three sets 7–6, 5–7, 6–2 after having three set points in the first set.

In the second round of the 2007 US Open, he won his first career five-set match against Fabrice Santoro, whom he defeated 6–4, 3–6, 6–2, 4–6, 6–4. Blake made it to the fourth round, where he lost to No. 10 Tommy Haas in five sets 4–6, 6–4, 3–6, 6–0, 7–6, despite having match points in the fifth set.

Blake and the rest of the US Davis Cup team defeated Sweden in September to reach the finals against Russia.

James also participated in Madrid and Basel. In Madrid, he fell to former top ten star Mario Ančić in the second round. In Basel, he fell in the second round to Ivo Karlović. However, Blake teamed with former number one doubles player Mark Knowles of the Bahamas to make the final. In the first round, he and Knowles upset US Open champions Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle in three sets. In the semifinals, the team bore match points twelve times, and finally defeated Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett, the second seeds 7–5, 6–7, [12–10] with thirteen needed match points.^[6] Their luck, however, was halted by top seeds and top ranked Bob and Mike Bryan, who are Blake's Davis Cup teammates. Blake and Knowles lost 6–1 6–1. After the match, James quoted: "'Yes, they played as well I have seen them play in a while. It's tough. I have seen them do it to a lot of guys in Davis Cup from the sidelines and know how little fun it is to face them. That's the reason why they are the best doubles team in the world right now. [At the start of the week] I told Mark I had not won a lot of doubles matches this year, so I was glad to have him get me through a couple of wins. I had a great time and a lot of fun. Getting a chance to play with one of the best doubles players, really ever, was exciting for me. I learnt plenty and hopefully we’ll be better next time.'"^[7]

Blake lost in the third round of Paris to Richard Gasquet and thus finished outside the top eight players, losing his chance to defend the points he gained as finalist in the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup.

James Blake won his match in the 2007 Davis Cup finals against Mikhail Youzhny 6–3, 7–6, 6–7, 7–6 (and also against Dmitry Tursunov). Andy Roddick won his match versus Tursunov and Bob and Mike Bryan won the doubles rubber over Igor Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko, sealing the Davis Cup win for the United States.^[8][9]

2008[link]

James Blake began 2008 hoping to win his third consecutive Medibank International title. However, the defending champion bowed out of the tournament in the first round, losing to French veteran Fabrice Santoro 6–7, 2–6. The third seed (Blake) was said to be "uncharacteristic" in reference to his frustration.

At the Australian Open, Blake defeated his first round opponent, Chilean Nicolás Massú. He then defeated compatriot Michael Russell 6–3, 6–2, 6–2. In the third round, he fought back from two sets down to beat French veteran Sébastien Grosjean 4–6, 2–6, 6–0, 7–6, 6–2 who had beaten him in each of their three previous meetings.

In the fourth round, Blake beat Marin Čilić in three sets to advance to the quarterfinals, his best showing yet down under. In the quarterfinal, James Blake faced world No. 1 Roger Federer, and fell in straight sets 7–5, 7–6, 6–4. Although out of the Australian Open, Blake's ranking jumped back into the Top 10 to No. 9 following his best performance in the tournament yet.

In Davis Cup, the USA played Austria on clay. James defeated Stefan Koubek in four sets 5–7, 7–5, 6–2, 6–2. Despite being down 2–5 in the second set, James turned things around, helped in part by unforced errors by Koubek.

In Delray Beach, James made it to the final for the second consecutive year, but fell to No. 244 Kei Nishikori of Japan in three sets in the final 6–3, 1–6, 4–6. At the 2008 SAP Open, he rebounded from that loss by defeating compatriot Sam Warburg in straight sets in the first round 6–3, 6–1 and Jesse Levine in straight sets in the second round 6–3, 6–4. However, he lost to Robby Ginepri 2–6, 2–6 on the following round.

At the 2008 Pacific Life Open, Blake, the ninth seed, received a "bye" in the first round, before defeating Marc Gicquel 6–3, 6–7, 6–1 in the second round. In the third round, Blake beat former World Number 1 Carlos Moyà 6–3, 6–4.^[10][11] He then defeated Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the fourth round in straight sets 6–4, 6–2, before losing to Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals 5–7, 6–3, 3–6.

At the 2008 Miami Masters, Blake reached the quarter-finals, but again lost to Rafael Nadal in three sets 6–3, 3–6, 1–6.

In Davis Cup, Team USA played France. Unfortunately for France, they were missing two of their best players, Richard Gasquet and Jo Wilfried Tsonga due to injuries. So Michaël Llodra and Paul-Henri Mathieu were the players playing singles for France. After Andy Roddick defeated Llodra, James would play Mathieu. James won in a three-hour, 48-minute, five-set match against the Frenchman 7–6, 6–7, 6–3, 3–6, 7–5. He had to save two match points to defeat the number 12 Mathieu.

Blake then started the clay court season at the River Oaks International tournament in Houston, Texas. He defeated Kei Nishikori in the first round 6–4, 6–4, 15-year-old Ryan Harrison in the second round, No. 5 seed Agustín Calleri of Argentina in the quarterfinals, and Óscar Hernández of Spain in the semifinals 6–3, 7–6. In his second ATP final of the year and his first career clay-court final, Blake fell to Spaniard Marcel Granollers Pujol 4–6, 6–1, 5–7.

James received a wild card to play in the clay tournament in Barcelona, Spain. However, he lost in the first round to German Denis Gremelmayr in straight sets.

Looking for a better performance on clay, James played in the Master Series tournament in Rome. He received a bye in the first round. In the second round, he faced Italian hopeful Andreas Seppi. James won in three sets 7–6, 3–6, 6–1. In the third round, he faced Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. He won in three sets 5–7, 7–5, 6–2. His run was ended in the quarterfinals by Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in three sets 7–6, 6–7, 1–6.

At the French, he made it to the second round before being defeated by Ernests Gulbis in four sets. He fared no better at Wimbledon, losing in the 2nd round to the resurgent semi-finalist Rainer Schüttler in five sets, 3–6, 7–6, 6–4, 4–6, 4–6.

At the Cincinnati Masters, Blake lost to Ernests Gulbis 4–6, 6–1, 3–6 in the third round.

In August 2008, Blake represented the United States as one of its three men's singles tennis players in the Beijing Olympics. In the quarterfinals, he gained one of the biggest wins of his career with his first ever win over Roger Federer 6–4, 7–6. At the time, Federer was ranked as the world's No. 1 men's player.^[12] His semifinal match was against Fernando González, the Men's Singles bronze medalist at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Blake had triple match point in the middle of the final set, but would go on to lose 4–6, 7–5, 11–9. He then lost in the bronze medal match to Serbian Novak Djokovic 4–6, 6–7.

In the US Open, Blake was stretched to a 5 set thriller against American teenager Donald Young 6–1, 3–6, 6–1, 4–6, 6–4 in the first round. Blake easily won his second round match after Steve Darcis retired 4–6, 6–3, 1–0. Blake then lost to friend and fellow American Mardy Fish in the third round in straight sets 3–6, 3–6, 6–7.

In the Madrid Masters, Blake had a first round bye and played Gilles Simon losing it 6–3, 1–6, 4–6. Soon after, he played in the Davidoff Swiss Indoors tournament and made it all the way to the quarterfinals before losing to Feliciano López of Spain 4–6, 6–7. In the Paris Masters Blake got to the semis after a walkover by Roger Federer in the quarters and lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 4–6, 3–6. Because of this loss, Blake was not able to qualify for the year end Masters in Shanghai.

2009[link]

Blake participated in the Hopman Cup, an exhibition tournmanent partnering Meghann Shaughnessy. The team were the top seed, with Blake looking to win his third Hopman Cup. Blake lost to Slovak Dominik Hrbatý but defeated Nicolas Kiefer and Lleyton Hewitt.

Blake defeated Frank Dancevic 6–4, 6–3, 7–5 in the first round of the Australian Open. His success continued in the second round of the Australian Open after deposing of Frenchman Sébastien de Chaunac 6–3, 6–2, 6–3 in a match laden with spectator noise and bad line calls.^[13] Blake went on to face the 18th seed, Igor Andreev, in the third round and beat him 6–3, 6–2, 3–6, 6–1. He lost in the fourth round in straight sets to the 2008 runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6–4, 6–4, 7–6.

In the SAP Open in San Jose, Blake defeated fellow American Vincent Spadea 6–3, 6–4 in a first round match, hitting 12 aces and converted his two break point chances to race to the win in 50 minutes. Blake would go on to defeat Frenchman Florent Serra 6–4, 6–3. Blake prevailed in a 20-point first set tie-break against sixth-seeded compatriot Sam Querrey and then eased through the second set with one break of serve to post the 7–6, 6–3 victory in 67 minutes. He then lost to fellow American Mardy Fish 3–6, 2–6.

In his next tournament, the Regions Morgan Keenan Championships in Memphis, Tennessee, Blake was defeated in the first round by Lleyton Hewitt 6–3, 1–6, 4–6.

In the Davis Cup first round tie against Switzerland in Birmingham, Alabama, he lost the opening match to Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets. But he won the fifth match in straight sets to make the final tie 4–1 to book the U.S's place in the quarterfinals.

Blake started the clay season as top seed at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships and lost to Guillermo Cañas 6–4 6–4 in the first round. He also then lost in Rome Masters in the first round to Romanian qualifier Victor Crivoi 7–5, 6–3.

Blake at the 2009 French Open.

Blake then played at the 2009 Estoril Open. Blake recorded his first clay-court win of the 2009 ATP World Tour season, earning a confidence-boosting 5–7, 6–4, 6–2 win over Portugal's highest-ever ranked player Frederico Gil. Blake, who improved to 10–8 on the year, next defeated France's Marc Gicquel in the second round 7–6, 6–2 and Florent Serra 6–4, 6–1 in the third. Blake advanced to his first clay-court final on European soil on Sunday, after beating second seed and former Estoril Open champion Nikolay Davydenko 6–7, 7–6, 6–3 in a rain-interrupted semi-final that was carried over due to bad light. Blake won the first and fifth points against serve, courtesy of a Davydenko backhand error and then a forehand volley winner on approach to the net. He quickly opened up a 6–2 lead and won the second set when Davydenko hit a backhand wide. Davydenko managed to save one break point at 15–40 in the fourth game of the third set, with a couple of clever forehands that left Blake stretching outside the tramlines, but the 2003 titlist and 2006 and 2008 runner-up was unable to win the second break point as Blake secured a 3–1 lead. Davydenko almost broke back in the next game, but Blake produced his A-game hitting a cross-court forehand winner on approach to the net that left Davydenko flailing. At 1–4, the World No. 11 found himself 0–40 down but won five straight points – closing out with successive forehand winners. Blake made it 5–2 with successive aces and, minutes later, booked a spot in his 23rd ATP World Tour final (10–12 record) with a service hold to 30. Blake extended his winning streak to 7–0 over Davydenko, in the pair's first clay-court meeting that last two hours and 26 minutes. Blake was defeated by Spain's Albert Montañés later that day in the finals. The 28-year-old Montanes saved two match points at 4–5 in the second set and fought back to beat fourth-seeded Blake 5–7, 7–6, 6–0 in two hours and 14 minutes. Blake fought off one break point for a 5–4 lead, before setting up two championship points on the Montanes serve at 15–40. Blake squandered the first point with a backhand return long of the baseline and the second point went begging when he committed a backhand error. Blake dropped to 12–9 on the 2009 ATP World Tour season. Blake was attempting to become the first American to win a clay-court title since Mardy Fish at Houston in April 2006 and the first American to win on European clay since his Davis Cup team mate Andy Roddick lifted the St. Poelten trophy in May 2003.

At the 2009 French Open, Blake lost in the first round to qualifier Leonardo Mayer 7–6 7–5 6–2.

At the AEGON Championships at Queen's club, Blake defeated Ivan Ljubičić 6–2, 7–6 Sam Querrey 6–4, 4–6, 6–3 and Mikhail Youzhny 7–6, 6–3 to reach the semi-finals. He then reached the final after Andy Roddick retired with an ankle injury in the first set when the score was tied at 4 games all. He then went on to lose in the final to Andy Murray 7–5, 6–4.

At the Wimbledon Championships, Blake, seeded 17th, lost in the first round to Andreas Seppi in straight sets 7–5 6–4 7–6. He was the first seeded player to be knocked out of the tournament.^[14] In his post-match press conference, Blake stated that he was battling a stomach virus, having to take painkillers before going on court. He also heavily criticized the ATP Tour, blaming their poor scheduling for his loss of focus, as well as the withdrawal of world number 1 Rafael Nadal.^[15]

Blake partnered with compatriot Mardy Fish at the Wimbledon Men's Doubles. In the first round they defeated third seeds Lukáš Dlouhý and Leander Paes and then Marc Gicquel and Arnaud Clément in straight sets. They defeated advanced to the semi-finals after defeating Simon Aspelin and Paul Hanley. They lost to defending champions Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić in the semi-finals although they won the first two sets.

Following a 3rd Round loss at the 2009 US Open to Spain's Tommy Robredo, Blake split with longtime coach Brian Barker. He is now coached by Kelly Jones.

2010[link]

Blake started his 2010 campaign at the Brisbane International in Australia. Blake came back from a set down to top fifth seeded American Sam Querrey 4–6, 6–3, 6–4. He then defeated Frenchman Marc Gicquel 6–3, 3–6, 7–6, surviving three match points in the deciding set tiebreak to make the quarter-finals. There Blake lost to Gaël Monfils 6–3, 3–6, 4–6. Blake was also entered in the men's double draw with Andy Roddick. The duo defeated fourth seeds Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares on the way to the semifinals before losing a heartbreaker to eventual champions Jérémy Chardy and Marc Gicquel 4–6, 6–3, 11–13.

At the 2010 Australian Open Blake defeated French veteran Arnaud Clément 7–5, 7–5, 6–2 in the first round. He then faced fourth seed and US Open champion Juan Martín del Potro in the second round, losing a classic in five grueling sets 4–6, 7–6, 7–5, 3–6, 8–10.

Blake then lost in the opening round at the 2010 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament against a former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis 4–6, 2–6.

In the first round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, Blake fell to top-seeded American counterpart Andy Roddick 3–6, 6–4, 6–7.

At the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, No. 7 seed Blake won consecutive matches for the second time in 2010, topping fellow American Taylor Dent 6–1, 3–6, 6–3 and the Dutchman Robin Haase 6–3, 6–1. Blake was eliminated in the quarterfinals by 2nd seed Ivo Karlović 3–6, 7–6, 1–6.

Blake returned to action for the third consecutive tournament on American soil at the first Masters event of the year, 2010 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California. An unseeded Blake advanced to the round of 64 with a quick win over Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6–3, 6–2. He then advanced to the Round of 32 with his most impressive win of the season to that point, a 6–1, 6–4 destruction of 13th seed David Ferrer. In the Round of 32, Blake lost a disappointing match to Spain's Nicolás Almagro 4–6, 6–3, 3–6. The loss dropped Blake's three set record to 3–4 on the year.

Blake also played in the doubles draw, teaming with Andy Roddick to reach the Round of 16 where the American duo fell to top-seeded Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjić 4–6, 6–3, 7–10.

At the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Blake defeated Serbian wildcard Filip Krajinović in three sets 6–7, 6–4, 6–4 to advance to the Round of 64. In the second round, he lost to 27th seed Thomaz Bellucci 6–3, 1–6, 2–6.

In July 2010, Blake played for the Boston Lobsters of the World TeamTennis pro league.

On April 14, Blake announced that he would be taking the clay court season off with a serious knee injury. As a result of this injury Blake missed the French Open for the first time since 2004.^[16]

James Blake practicing at US Open 2010

Blake returned to action at Wimbledon where he lost to Dutchman Robin Haase 2–6, 4–6, 4–6. The result was surprising considering that Haase lost badly to Blake earlier in the season at Delray Beach. During this match, Blake harshly accused ESPN commentator and former WTA player Pam Shriver of disrupting play due to her overly loud commentary from the box situated above the court behind him. This led to a verbal exchange between the two during the match. After the match, an emotional Blake declared that if his knee problems did not subside he may consider retirement.^[17] Blake, who refuses to take any anti-inflammatories for his knee, called his performance "embarrassing" and said "I can't beat these guys at 80 percent."

Despite these comments, Blake chose to continue his rehab to prepare for the U.S. hardcourt season. He opened an official Facebook page where he can communicate better with fans in an announcement made on his website. In the first round of the Atlanta Tennis Championships, an inaugural event previously played in Indianapolis, Blake lost a tough three-set match to Taylor Dent 3–6, 6–3, 4–6. Despite winning 49% of points, Blake could not break Dent in crucial moments. The big-serving Dent saved 12/14 break points in the match. The loss was the seventh that Blake endured in the deciding set in 2010. However, Blake fared much better in the doubles draw, pairing with American up-and-comer John Isner. The duo completed a strong comeback from 6–3, 4–2 down to top fellow Americans Robby Ginepri and Ryan Sweeting 3–6, 6–4, 10–3. In the quarterfinals, Blake and Isner easily dispatched Germans Michael Kohlmann and Rainer Schüttler 6–4, 6–1 before falling in two tiebreaks to Rajeev Ram and Scott Lipsky in the semis.

At the Los Angeles Open, Blake's singles fate took a turn for the better. Prior to the tournament, Blake told the LA Times that retirement was "no longer a thought" and that he was "not done yet".^[18] In the opening round, Blake easily dispatched Leonardo Mayer in a rematch from the 2009 French Open first round 6–1, 6–4 before topping Benjamin Becker 7–5, 7–6. In the quarterfinals, Blake got off to a hot start, winning the first set over Spaniard Feliciano López 6–3. However, after dropping the second set in a close tiebreaker 6–7, Blake fell in the third 4–6. Blake also entered the doubles draw of this tournament with American Sam Querrey but the duo fell quickly in the first round 3–6, 3–6 to Lopez and Janko Tipsarević.

Following Los Angeles, Blake appeared at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C.. He came into the tournament as a former finalist and champion at this event. His first opponent was the United States' Ryan Sweeting. Despite winning the first set, poor serving hurt Blake in a 3–6, 6–3, 6–4 setback. After the match, Sweeting called the win "the best of (his) career".

The next tournament James Blake faced, was in New Haven, his hometown tournament – the tournament where he claimed an ATP World Tour title when the tournament ran for the first time in 2005, defeating Feliciano López and followed this up by winning the title for a second time in 2007, where he defeated countryman Mardy Fish in the final. Despite an unfortunate draw and a few uninspiring losses in the last few weeks, Blake made and impressive display and ousted World No.76 Pere Riba 6–0, 6–1 in the first round, converting five of eleven break point opportunities. Blake won the lightning quick match in a minuscule 35 minutes, making it the shortest match win of 2010, beating the previous record held by Olivier Rochus who beat Abdulla Hajji in 38 minutes in Doha. This match was also one of the quickest matches in tennis history. In the second round match between Blake and seventh-seed up-and-comer Alexander Dolgopolov Jr., despite playing some great shots, Blake lost 6–4 6–2 in a rain-interrupted match.

At the 2010 US Open, Blake advanced to the third round losing to eventual finalist Novak Djokovic 6–1, 7–6, 6–3. This defeat dropped his singles record to 13–15.

2011[link]

Blake began his 2011 comeback tour ranked out of the Top 150 for the first time since 2005. He ended his partnership with coach Kelly Jones, choosing to travel alone.^[19] In a preseason interview, Blake stated he was healthy and carrying a positive attitude and would skip the Australian Open.^[19]

In his first match of the year, on February 8 at the SAP Open in San Jose, Blake defeated American qualifier Jesse Levine 7–5, 6–1 after Levine succumbed to an injury late in the second set. The American ran into red-hot Canadian youngster Milos Raonic in the second round and fell 6–2, 7–6 after battling back from a late break down in the second set to force a tiebreaker. Raonic would go on to win the tournament, his first as a pro.

Blake accepted a wild card into the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and promptly defeated Brazilian clay-court specialist Ricardo Mello 6–4, 6–3. In the round of 16, Blake was defeated by former doubles partner and close friend Robert Kendrick 7–6, 6–3.

He returned to action at Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, drawing No. 7 Benjamin Becker in the first round. Blake broke Becker late in the first set and battled back from a 3–1 hole in the second set to win 7–5, 6–4. In the second round he lost to Kei Nishikori of Japan 6–3, 6–4 in a rematch of the 2008 final.

In the 2011 US Open, Blake hit a forehand winner on match point against Jesse Huta Galung in the first round that was clocked at 125mph, thus making it the fastest forehand ever hit, eclipsing Gael Monfils's earlier record of 122mph against Marcos Baghdatis. Blake won the match 6–4, 6–2, 4–6, 6–4. In the second round he lost to David Ferrer of Spain 6–4, 6–3, 6–4.

2012[link]

Blake will be playing for the Philadelphia Freedoms of World Team Tennis this summer. It will be Blake's seventh overall WTT season, and first with the Freedoms. He will be the team's marquee player on July 10, 2012 when they face the Sacramento Capitals.

Equipment[link]

Blake worked with Prince to create a new racquet with Prince's O3 technology. However, he did not feel comfortable with this racquet. So, he switched back to the Dunlop Sport Aerogel 200, then the 4D 200, for the 2009 season.^[20] He changed to Wilson at the start of the 2010 season, using the new Six.One Tour strung with Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power 16L strings at high tension (60+ pounds). He did not feel comfortable with this racquet either. Therefore, he switched back to Dunlop again. After the US Open of 2010, he began to test out rackets for Head. As August 26, 2011, he announced he will use Donnay rackets as his choice and using a customized Donnay X-Dual Pro. His clothing sponsor is Fila, with whom he started working in 2009 after using Nike for most his career. He has his own clothing line named Thomas Reynolds after his father.

Personal life[link]

Blake enjoys golf and basketball and is a fan of the New York Mets. He was featured on Bravo's second edition of Celebrity Poker Showdown but got 2nd after losing to Maura Tierney.^[21]

Blake is also a red pro on Full Tilt poker.^{[citation needed]} He appeared in People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive issue.^[22] He is good friends with singer/songwriter John Mayer, who also attended Fairfield High School.^[23] When Blake was invited by Virginia's Anthem Insurance to do a cancer charity game honoring his late father, he invited John Mayer, Andy Roddick and Gavin DeGraw to perform.^[24]

Major Finals[link]

Tennis Masters Cup[link]

Singles: 1 (0–1)[link]

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2006	Shanghai	Hard (i)	Roger Federer	6–0, 6–3, 6–4

Masters Series[link]

Singles: 2 (0–2)[link]

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	2006	Indian Wells	Hard	Roger Federer	7–5, 6–3, 6–0
Runner-up	2007	Cincinnati	Hard	Roger Federer	6–1, 6–4

ATP Career Finals[link]

Singles: 24 (10–14)[link]