Under its present musical director Russell du Plessis, Collegium Musicum of London - with a regular membership of about thirty singers - functions very much as chamber choir, focusing naturally on a capella repertoire and works accompanied by small instrumental forces. It is particularly at home, therefore, with sacred works of the Renaissance and early Baroque periods as well as music of the twentieth century, which encompasses also a great secular literature.

While championing the works of native British composers - such as Taverner, Byrd, Tallis, Purcell in the earlier group, or Britten, Maxwell Davies, Tavener in the latter - the choir explores an international repertoire, extending beyond established French, German, Spanish and Italian masters to Czech, Hungarian and Russian composers, thus widening the horizons of choral experience for the singers and audiences alike.

above: the choir at a performance of Rossini's
Petite Messe Solennelle on Saturday 6 February
1999 at The Church of Our Most Holy
Redeemer, Exmouth Market, London EC1

To complement its regular concert-giving in the spheres outlined, the choir enjoys working with orchestras and guest conductors to perform from the classical canon - oratorios, masses, motets and choruses by Bach, Händel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Bruckner, Dvorák, etc.

Though the majority of its concerts take place in London churches renowned for their musical tradition, Collegium Musicum is pleased to perform at a variety of events and venues throughout southern England, and to undertake tours offering contact to an ever wider public for its music-making.

The Choir's Biography

The Collegium Musicum of London is a chamber choir formed in 1972 by Laszlo Heltay. He built an excellent reputation for the choir both in Britain and abroad and was its director until 1989. He has retained his involvement as its President.

The Collegium Musicum has a broad repertoire: in concerts it has performed masses by Bach, Haydn and Rossini as well as works by contemporary composers such as Martin Dalby, Stephen Oliver and Jonathan Dove.

The choir has sung in a variety of venues from small parish churches to the Barbican and St John’s Smith Square, although, since 1997, it has used The Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, Exmouth Market as its base.

It has sung in a number of English festivals and, in 1990, gave a series of concerts of English music in Denmark. From 1994 to 1996, the choir was directed by Ronald Corp. Under his direction, the choir performed a variety of works including Bach’s St John Passion, Alan Bush’s Winter Journey, Duruflé’s Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor and Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden. Since January 1997, the choir was directed by Peter Owens, whose debut concert with the choir was a presentation of works by John Taverner and his 20th century near-namesake John Tavener. An identical programme marked Peter's final concert with the choir in May, 2010, before Russell du Plessis took over as Musical Director in July.

above: CML performing Faire is the Heaven, English Church music, Saturday, 10 October, Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, Exmouth Market.