2025 Audition Information Pack
Thank you for your interest in joining the Cantus Ensemble. I have put together this information pack to give you a little more information about the choir and the audition process.
This summer the choir is preparing for its fifteenth anniversary year in 2026, with an exciting programme of projects from September 2025 onwards, culminating in a large project in November 2026.
We have vacancies in all voice parts but are particularly looking for more tenors and basses ahead of performing Alfred Schnittke’s remarkable Concerto for Choir in 24 parts, many of which are for lower voices! We are looking for outstanding, London-based choral singers to join our team as we embark on a special season of high-quality music-making, featuring four concerts and a tour to Europe.
Formed in 2011, Cantus came from a desire to create a home for singers in London who wanted to continue singing to an exceptional standard but also enjoy a varied & fulfilling social life after leaving university. If you enjoy singing a wide range of choral repertoire to a high standard and are looking for a group with a vibrant social life, then the Cantus Ensemble is the choir for you.
The Choir
Honorary Patron: Sir James MacMillan
Founded in 2011, the Cantus Ensemble is one of London’s leading non-professional chamber choirs. We thrive on passionate, precise, and gripping performances of works - large and small - from across the choral spectrum. The choir’s membership is comprised of some of the capital’s finest amateur singers, with day jobs ranging from teaching and accounting to fine wine and television production.
Most of our rehearsals take place on Tuesday evenings St Gabriel’s Church, Pimlico, with concert venues varying as dictated by repertoire and programming needs. We maintain an excellent relationship with St Gabriel’s, our home for the past 12 years. In exchange for our rehearsal space in the church, members are required to sing evensong twice per term which, as well as keeping subs low, gives everyone an opportunity to sing those staples of choral evensong we all know and love.
We also tour to an international destination every season during one of the May Bank Holiday weekends, and regularly sing guest evensongs across the UK: recent venues have included St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
The choir’s repertoire is varied, and we have become known for exciting and innovative programming that challenges the norms of choral concerts. We perform works from the renaissance period to the present day and have given the UK and European premieres of several works by living composers. We enjoy tackling some of the most challenging and exhilarating works in the choral repertoire, from Strauss’ twenty-part Deutsche Motette, to Poulenc’s Figure Humaine. Recent immersive performances have included Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles, Mason Bates’ Sirens and Grammy and Pulitzer Prize for Music winner Caroline Shaw’s epic Partita for 8 Voices. As well as introducing singers and audiences to new works, Cantus continues to sing choral favourites, from Duruflé and Mozart’s Requiems, to Bach Motets and modern classics by Tippett, Poulenc and more.
Cantus been consistently recognised for its excellence, with appearances on Classic FM, BBC Radio 3, Scala Radio, and ITV. We have developed an excellent relationship with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, whom we have now performed alongside in eight concerts at both the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall.
The choir has won admiration from composer Sir James MacMillan, conductor Nigel Short and choral luminaries such as Ghislaine Morgan and Will Todd.
The choir performing at the Royal Albert Hall in a programme of video game music with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
How does the choir operate?
All singers on our list are invited to join every project and only in very rare circumstances may it be necessary to limit numbers (for balance reasons, for example). We typically aim to perform with a choir of around 32 singers. While we fix each patch (usually consisting of 6-8 rehearsals and a concert) individually, we expect everyone on our list to commit to at least two of our three main concert projects each season.
Cantus thrives as a group because of its loyal and committed members. All singers are expected to:
• Attend all rehearsals for each project they commit to. Absences are at the discretion of the Director and Choir Manager and will of course be granted where necessary.
• Sing in at least two of our three main concerts, as well as Christmas if they are able
• Sing at least two evensongs per term at St Gabriel’s, Pimlico
All other events (more on these below) are entirely optional, although attendance is warmly encouraged!
The social side
One of the choir’s defining features is its welcoming, friendly social atmosphere. Aside from going to the pub after rehearsals there are regular social events ranging from wine-tasting to Ceilidhs. Once per project there is a Saturday rehearsal (usually around lunchtime) which is followed by a social of some kind: recent events have included a Six Nations rugby afternoon, Cantus Sports Day, and the fiercely contested Cantus Challenge. At the end of year, we hold an Annual General Meeting, after which friends and family join us for an evening Ceilidh.
We feel that a warm and vibrant social side contributes to a healthy exchange of musical ideas in rehearsals, and this is a key factor in the dynamic sound that we produce in concerts and services. We are a close-knit group of friends and welcoming to new members - in Cantus you’re guaranteed to make new friends for life. There are even four couples who met in Cantus who are now married!
The Audition Process
Auditions this summer will take place over the following dates:
Tuesday 9 September (1900-2130)
Saturday 13 September (1100-1800)
The venue for both days is St Gabriel’s Church Halls, Churchill Gardens, London SW1V 3AA.
Audition Format
Audition for Cantus are run in an inclusive and friendly manner. For most of your audition you will be singing as part of a quartet (the other three parts being made up by current Cantus members who are not re-auditioning). This will - hopefully - put you more at ease while allowing us to assess the most important things for a choral singer in a tight-knit ensemble: blend, intonation, and awareness of the other parts.
On the day, you will be asked to sight-read an additional piece for vocal quartet. With sight-reading, rather than looking for absolute perfection, we will spend a few minutes working on the piece together to assess how you take direction and how quickly you are able to get up to speed.
The full audition format is as follows:
+Welcome and informal chat
+Scales to assess range
+Simple aural tests
+Prepared quartet piece
+Sight-reading with quartet
Auditions take up to fifteen minutes.
To book an audition please fill in the form on the audition page of our website, www.thecantusensemble.com/join, offering as much availability as possible. We will then contact you individually with a time slot and a link to your audition pack.
The choir singing at the Basilica of St Paul’s outside the Walls in Rome on one of our European tours
Membership subscriptions
Members of the choir typically pay around £40 for each project they participate in (this varies depending on the exact project expenditure), to cover the cost of music, venue hire and our accompanist.
Members are offered many paid opportunities throughout the year (especially around Christmas), which tends to offset this cost, whilst singing additional evensong services with can bring it down even more.
2025/26 Season Dates & Repertoire
Project 1: Concerto for Choir, Alfred Schnittke
Tues 23, 30 Sept - 7, 14, 21, 28 Oct - 4 Nov
Sat 11 Oct (1-5pm) plus social
Concert: Sat 8 Nov (2-5pm rehearsal / 7.30pm performance)
Project 2: The Night Before Christmas, to include music by Weir, Adés, Gardner & Berkeley
Tues 18, 25, Nov - 2, 9, 16 Dec
Concert: Sat 20 Dec (2-5pm rehearsal / 7pm performance)
Project 3: Messages across the divide - Musikalische Exequien, Schütz & Mass Transmission, Mason Bates
Tues 27 Jan - 3, 10, 17, 24 Feb -3, 10, 17 March
Sat 31 Jan (1-5pm) plus social Concert: Sat 21 March (2-5pm rehearsal / 7pm performance)
Project 4: Visions of flying machines - music to include The Ecstasies Above, Tarik O’Regan & Night Flight
Cecilia McDowall, plus works by Vaughan Williams, Judith Bingham, Eric Whitacre & Ola Gjeilo.
Tues 29 April - 5, 12 May - 2, 9 June
Sat 9 May (1-5pm) plus social
Concert: Sat 13 June (2-5pm rehearsal / 7pm performance)
Project 5: European tour
Rehearsal on Tues 19 May
Tour 23-27 May
The choir performing Rachmaninov’s All Night Vigil in 2022
