- Pensacola Christian College canceled a concert featuring The King's Singers over the weekend.
- The college said a member of the group "maintained a lifestyle that contradicts Scripture."
Famed a cappella group The King's Singers said Florida's Pensacola Christian College canceled their concert on Saturday, seemingly over concerns about some of the members' sexualities.
In a statement Monday, The King's Singers said they were "deeply saddened" to learn the concert, which was scheduled for February 11 and open to PCC and Pensacola, Florida, community members, was canceled with just two hours' notice.
"The school gave its reasons for cancellation as 'concerns' expressed about the 'lifestyle' of members of our group," The King's Singers said.
The King's Singers baritone member Christopher Bruerton told Insider that the "surreal" cancellation came after the group led a master class with two of the school's choirs and began sound check at the college.
"The day went as normal," Bruerton said. "There was absolutely nothing to indicate what was to come."
Bruerton said the group was told the concert was being canceled due to "lifestyle choices by some members of the group" — but he said that it wasn't clear what the college was referring to.
He said that when the group asked the college to clarify its reasoning, it didn't provide any further information.
"We were all racking our brains to think, goodness me, what could this possibly be about?" Bruerton said.
A few hours after the concert was canceled, The King's Singers "started receiving a flood of messages" on social media from apologetic students and community members.
According to Bruerton, the group then concluded that the cancellation was due to one of the members posting online about his relationship with another man.
PCC said in a statement Monday: "PCC canceled a concert with The King's Singers upon learning that one of the artists openly maintained a lifestyle that contradicts Scripture."
"The college cannot knowingly give an implied or direct endorsement of anything that violates the Holy Scripture, the foundation of our sincerely held beliefs," PCC said.
Bruerton said that The King's Singers had performed at PCC years before with no issues or concerns from the school. He said the group followed the school's dress code and guidelines on what they could perform.
"We've always been respectful of that, and this program was no different," Bruerton said.
Bruerton said The King's Singers' performances are all about bringing people together and never follow an agenda.
"We had a big project in the last few years called 'Finding Harmony' where we aimed, through music, to show that communities across the world and throughout the ages have been brought together through music," Bruerton said.
"The whole point is that, for a couple of hours, people can come from either end of the political spectrum to come to our shows and just sit back and enjoy the music that we have to offer," he said.
In the aftermath of the incident, Bruerton said that The King's Singers would return to perform at PCC.
"Because our whole message is finding harmony and bringing people together, then if Pensacola would want to have us back with no sort of conditions in terms of who has to take the stage and that they were accepting of who we are as people, then we would be only too happy to come back and perform a show," Bruerton said.