Minnesota has deservedly earned its status as a choral capital, for uniting voices in harmony is a key element of the state's artistic and spiritual ethos. But we've got nothing on England. Despite being about two-thirds the size of Minnesota, it's fairly bursting with magnificent professional choirs and vocal ensembles. Of course, they got a millennium's head start on us in establishing a choral culture.

And, if you leave out pop and rock, England boasts no more famous singing group than the King's Singers, an all-male sextet founded in 1968 that continues to navigate the upper reaches of the international classical sales charts 56 years later. This a cappella group has won a worldwide following for its way with everything from Renaissance madrigals to contemporary compositions to jazz and pop.

On Sunday afternoon, the group paid a visit to south Minneapolis' Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Well, almost the entire group: Baritone Nick Ashby became a father a week ago and is taking a leave to be home with the new baby. So his five colleagues put their heads together and curated a concert program that would supplant the planned collection of works by Nordic composers with something that would work equally well with five voices rather than six.

So the almost-capacity crowd at Bethlehem was rewarded with a kind of greatest hits concert. Yes, there was a collection of Nordic tunes (from Sweden, specifically), but also songs from Georgia and Estonia, the English Renaissance, avian-inspired offerings by 16th-century French composers and the Beatles, and a dash of Gershwin and Elton John.

Despite being one voice short of a full complement, the group proved in fine form throughout the performance, not only executing some challenging material with enviable expertise but also proving a joy to watch as the singers subtly cued one another and exhibited flamboyant showmanship when the songs called for it.

While 30 men have passed through the King's Singers over the years, its current lineup has been in place since 2019. Holding down the low notes since 2010 has been bass Jonathan Howard, who seemed something of a most valuable player throughout Sunday's concert, be he providing the gravelly ground beneath Georgian folk tunes, the firm foundation under his colleagues' ethereal Renaissance flights or thumping out swinging bass lines on the jazz-flavored fare.

At the opposite end of the tonal register are the group's trademark tandem of countertenors, and they sport a fine pair in Patrick Dunachie and Edward Button. They soared sweetly on the polyphony of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, and skillfully took on trumpet parts on the Beatles' "Penny Lane" and "The Bare Necessities" from Disney's "The Jungle Book."

There were also lovely solos in the middle voices from tenor Julian Gregory on another Beatles song, "Blackbird," and baritone Christopher Bruerton on Waldemar Åhlén's sumptuous "Sommarpsalm."

But the strongest impressions were made when the harmonies of the five singers were particularly tightly woven, as on Anders Edenroth's "Words," Clément Janequin's tribute to birdsong, "Le chant des oiseaux," and ballads both schmaltzy (Amanda McBroom's "The Rose," made famous by Bette Midler) and transcendent. Such was an encore of U2′s reverent meditation, "MLK," that left the enthusiastic audience enraptured.

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.

Note: A video of Sunday afternoon's concert will be available for streaming on the Bethlehem Music Series YouTube page through Monday evening.