Alma Consort · Destinations

Of everywhere we travel, Malta suits a choir best.

Alma Consort travels from London to sing nuptial Masses and blessings in Valletta, Mdina and on Gozo.

Enquire about your wedding

What kind of ceremony are you having?

Malta makes almost every route easy for a visiting couple, which along with the buildings is why we rate it so highly.

A Catholic nuptial Mass is the island’s normal form of wedding and needs no negotiating. A Church of England service is equally available: St Paul’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral in Valletta is a working chaplaincy of the Diocese in Europe, and an Anglican wedding there is as close to an English cathedral wedding as you will get outside England. A civil ceremony is legally straightforward for visitors, and humanist or celebrant-led ceremonies at hotels and private venues are common.

English is an official language, so whichever you choose, nothing has to be translated and your guests can follow, and sing, throughout.

Across a Maltese weekend

Malta is small enough that a wedding weekend has no logistics to speak of. Guests stay in Valletta or Sliema, the church may be in Mdina, the reception somewhere else again, and none of it is more than half an hour away. The whole party moves easily.

With the buildings Malta has, that is worth exploiting. A consort can sing at a welcome dinner, then in a baroque church on the Saturday, then at the reception, and the church is such a different acoustic from anything else on the island that guests hear two distinct things from the same singers.

If any part of the weekend is on Gozo, add the ferry to the plan; everything else is straightforward.

The destination that was built for this

If a couple asked us to name the single best place outside England to hear a consort at a wedding, the answer would be Malta, and it is not a close contest.

The islands have an extraordinary density of baroque churches, built in stone, built tall, and built at a time when music was assumed to be part of what happened inside them. English is an official language, so the celebrant, the venue and your guests all operate in it without anyone translating. The country is Catholic, so a nuptial Mass with a full sung ordinary is the norm rather than something to negotiate. And the flight is under three and a half hours.

The practical consequence is that almost everything that makes a destination wedding musically awkward elsewhere — no building, no liturgy, a language barrier, a dry outdoor acoustic — does not apply here.

The nuptial Mass in a Maltese church

A Maltese wedding is usually a full nuptial Mass, and the parishes are accustomed to music being taken seriously. The shape is the familiar one: entrance, Kyrie and Gloria, psalm and acclamation, the rite of marriage, offertory, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, communion motets and a recessional.

Maltese churches often have their own organ and, in some parishes, their own singers. We are glad to work alongside a house organist rather than around one, and it usually improves the result: an organ in a building like this is worth using. Tell us early if the church expects its own musicians to be involved, and we will plan the programme so that everybody has something to do.

English, Latin and Maltese

The service may be conducted in English or in Maltese, or in a mixture, and your celebrant will tell you which. Either way we would sing the ordinary in Latin, which needs no negotiation in a Catholic church and suits these buildings.

Because English is an official language, this is the one Mediterranean destination where you can reasonably expect the congregation to sing a hymn. If you want that, and a congregation singing in a Maltese church is a considerable sound, choose something well known and let us lead it. Our guide to choosing wedding hymns applies here almost unchanged.

Stone, height and a great deal of reverberation

Maltese limestone churches are reverberant, sometimes strikingly so, with tails long enough that tempo becomes the main musical decision. Polyphony sounds magnificent; anything fast turns to mud. We plan Maltese programmes slower than we would at home, and we use the building rather than fighting it.

The size of these churches means the number of singers is driven by the room rather than by how many people are standing in it. A large parish church or the co-cathedral scale of building wants sixteen voices to feel proportionate even with a modest congregation; a small chapel in Mdina or on Gozo is well served by eight. This is the one destination where we regularly recommend more singers because of the architecture rather than because of an absent acoustic.

Getting a consort to Malta

Direct flights from London run daily and year-round, at around three and a half hours. Malta is a member of the European Union, so we travel as British musicians under the same arrangements that apply across the Schengen area, and we handle that paperwork ourselves.

The island is small enough that transfers from the airport to any venue are short, which removes the usual risk of a long inland drive after a delayed flight. Gozo adds a ferry crossing and should be planned with an extra margin.

Where in Malta

Valletta

City churches at the grandest end of what the islands offer, with the height and stone that make sixteen voices sound like a cathedral choir. Everything is within a short transfer of the airport and the hotels, which makes Valletta the simplest logistics of any destination on our list.

Mdina

The old walled city, and the most atmospheric setting in Malta for a wedding. The cathedral and the smaller churches within the walls are both worth singing in; the smaller ones need eight voices rather than sixteen. Vehicle access inside the walls is restricted, so plan the approach.

Gozo

Quieter, greener, and with parish churches out of all proportion to the size of their villages, which is excellent news acoustically. The ferry crossing means building an extra hour into the schedule each way, and we would generally arrive the day before rather than the morning of.

Questions about singing in Malta

Why is Malta better for a choir than Italy or Spain?

Three reasons that stack. The churches are baroque, stone and tall, which is the acoustic this repertoire assumes. English is an official language, so nothing is lost in translation and your guests can sing a hymn. And a nuptial Mass with a sung ordinary is the normal form of service rather than something to request. Elsewhere you get one or two of those; Malta gives you all three.

Will the church have its own organist?

Often, yes, and that is a good thing rather than a complication. An organ in a Maltese church is worth using, and we plan programmes that give a house organist a real part rather than working around them. Tell us early what the parish expects.

How many singers for a Maltese church?

Driven by the building more than the guest list. A large parish church wants sixteen voices to feel proportionate, because the room is enormous. A small chapel in Mdina or a village church on Gozo is well served by eight. Send us the church and we will tell you.

Can our guests sing hymns?

Yes, and Malta is the destination where we most often suggest it. With English as an official language there is no barrier, and a congregation singing a familiar hymn in a building with that much stone is one of the better sounds available at a wedding anywhere.

Travel and permit information on this page last checked 29 August 2026. Requirements change and vary by venue, diocese and celebrant; confirm the current position with us before you fix a date. Other country guides.

Enquire

Tell us where in Malta you are marrying and when. If the date is free, Luca Wetherall will come back with what the music could be and what the whole engagement would cost, travel included.

Fields marked * are required.