Alma Consort · London

The sound of an English cathedral, wherever you are.

A professional consort of eight to twenty-four voices, travelling from London to sing weddings, memorials, private concerts, and ceremonies of state and celebration across Europe, the Caribbean, the Americas, Africa, the Indian Ocean, and Asia.

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The ensemble

The London Choral Service is the booking office of Alma Consort, a professional ensemble of consort singers based in London. The same singers perform every engagement.

The singers are prize-winning graduates of the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Their credits include the coronation of King Charles III, the BBC Proms, Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Royal Opera House, and the English National Opera. Luca Wetherall, Tutor in Music at the University of Oxford, directs the consort and auditions every singer himself.

The ensemble’s own site is almaconsort.com.

Choosing a voicing

Alma Consort sings in four sizes, and two things decide which. The first is the room: how much stone there is to carry the sound, how high the ceiling is, whether you are indoors at all. The second is whether anyone is listening.

For a ceremony, the building does most of the work and the guest list barely matters — a stone church flatters a small group, a carpeted room or an open terrace swallows it. For a set during drinks or dinner it is the other way round: the singers have to clear the noise a talking room makes, and that does rise with the number of people making it. A reception often wants more voices than the ceremony did.

Choosing a voicing

Twelve voices give two singers to each part, with four soloists besides. This is our recommendation for most churches: enough sound for the nave, and a solo voice free to step forward for an Ave Maria or a solo verse.

Alma Consort in performance.

Repertoire

We sing sacred and secular music, with the English tradition at its core: Byrd and Tallis through Parry and Howells, alongside plainsong, European polyphony, and contemporary settings. For a reception, a dinner, or a private concert we sing part-songs and folk arrangements, and we arrange songs written for other forces — if a piece matters to you and no choral setting exists, we will make one or commission it.

The consort sings unaccompanied or with an organist; we can also bring instrumentalists where the programme asks for them. Luca Wetherall plans the whole programme with you, around the occasion and the building.

Where we have sung

We sing at private events in churches, chapels, hotels, country houses, and private estates, and we travel internationally, including across Europe and the United States. In London, our singers have performed at:

  • Westminster Abbey
  • St Paul’s Cathedral
  • Southwark Cathedral
  • Brompton Oratory
  • Temple Church
  • the Guards’ Chapel
  • St Martin-in-the-Fields
  • Chelsea Old Church

How it works

  1. Enquiry

    Tell us the date, the venue, and the occasion.

  2. Programme

    Luca proposes music, an ensemble size, and a running order, and revises it with you.

  3. Preparation

    The consort rehearses in London. Where the engagement is abroad we arrange the singers’ travel and accommodation ourselves, and liaise with your venue, planner, and celebrant.

  4. Performance

    We arrive the day before, rehearse in the space, and sing.

For planners and venues

We work with event and wedding planners, private offices, and the events teams of luxury hotels and estates. We hold public liability insurance and can provide risk assessments and method statements. We invoice in pounds sterling, euros, or US dollars.

We do not name clients, publish photographs, or release recordings from a private engagement without permission, and the consort will sign a confidentiality agreement where you need one.

For planners and venues who bring us engagements more than once, we offer a standing arrangement. Our page for planners, venues and estates sets out lead times, the compliance paperwork we hold ready, and how a standing arrangement works.

Private engagement questions

Where do you travel?

Anywhere the flights and the rehearsal schedule allow. Europe is the most straightforward: the consort can fly out on a Friday and sing on the Saturday, which is why Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Greece come up most often. We also sing in the Caribbean, the United States and Mexico, across the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, and in South Africa. Our destination guides set out the rite, the language, and the travel and permit position country by country. If your venue is somewhere else, ask us and we will tell you what the calendar allows.

Can you sing more than once across a wedding weekend?

Yes, and abroad it is usually the sensible plan. The fares and the rooms are the expensive part of bringing the consort out, and they are spent whether we sing once or four times. A welcome dinner, the ceremony, the drinks afterwards and a late unaccompanied set cost far less together than they appear to, and they give guests who have travelled a long way something at each stage rather than twenty minutes in the middle of a Saturday. Our country guides set out where each moment works best.

How much notice do private events need?

Six to twelve months is usual, and dates abroad want the longer end of that: booking flights and rooms for twelve to twenty-four people takes longer than clearing the singers’ diaries. A date six weeks out is still worth asking about if it happens to be free. Tell us your date as soon as it is fixed, even if the music is nowhere near settled.

What determines the cost?

The number of singers, the distance they travel, and the nights they stay. Our UK rates for each ensemble size are published on the pricing page. An engagement abroad also carries return flights and accommodation for the whole consort, who arrive the day before to rehearse in the building. We quote for the whole engagement before you commit, and we invoice in pounds sterling, euros, or US dollars.

What do you need from the venue?

Room for the consort to stand where the guests can hear them, which in a church usually means the chancel, a gallery, or the west end. A stone building needs no amplification. For a ballroom or a marquee, send us the dimensions and tell us whether the floor is carpeted: a soft room absorbs sound that a chapel would carry, and that changes the number of singers we recommend. Tell us as well whether we are singing to a room that is listening or to one that is talking over drinks — a reception needs voices enough to clear the noise, and that is the one case where the size of the party moves the answer.

What happens if a singer falls ill?

Luca books the replacement himself, from singers the consort already works with, and briefs them on the programme before they travel. A deputy signs the same confidentiality agreement as everyone else on the engagement.

Do you sing outside churches, and beyond sacred music?

Yes to both. At receptions, private dinners, and concerts in country houses and hotels we sing part-songs, folk arrangements, and pieces we arrange for the consort from songs written for other forces. Sacred repertoire suits a memorial or a ceremony of state. Luca builds each programme around the occasion and the building rather than working from a set list.

Enquire

We take a small number of engagements each year. Tell us about yours.

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