ARMONICO CONSORT is a critically acclaimed choir, instrumental ensemble, and music charity. It is known for inspiring audiences through passionate performances, providing imaginative singing opportunities for young people, and supporting people living with dementia through the power of music.

ARMONICO CONSORT began in 2001, founded by Christopher Monks and a group of university colleagues with a shared passion for music from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods, along with the imagination to find new and unusual ways to present concerts. Audiences seemed to love their engaging and imaginative approach, and most concerts in those early years sold out.

“That gave us the confidence, energy, and self-belief to continue and do more, also to take more risks with our programming, and to keep experimenting,” says Christopher. The ideas kept flowing, as did the titles (“many of them were created in the pub”), including the programs Naked Byrd and Supersize Polyphony, and the recently created operas Monteverdi’s Flying Circus, Too Hot to Handel, and Baroque Around the Block. Although their horizons have broadened to encompass contemporary repertoire and new commissions, Armonico’s signature concerts continue to feature choral masterpieces, rarely heard gems, and new musical discoveries from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, imaginatively performed by some of the world’s finest period singers and instrumentalists…

“I’m particularly proud of Supersize Polyphony, where we perform 40- and 60-part works by Tallis and Striggio in a circular arrangement, surrounding the audience, interspersed with the timeless chants of Hildegard of Bingen,” Christopher continues. It was this particular program that earned the group their first 5-star reviews, in The Times and BBC Music Magazine, and there were many more after that.

More recently, Armonico Consort has become the world’s leading authority on the choral works of Francesco Scarlatti, a forgotten member of the famous dynasty. Their recording of his Dixit Dominus and Messe a 16 has been hailed as “Spectacular: the classical music find of the century” by Le Figaro, Paris, and the first modern performance of his only surviving oratorio, Daniele, described as “an exemplary revival” by The Times.

Armonico’s educational program (AC Academy) has been central from the outset and now encompasses after-school choirs and a school choir-building program that has established nearly 300 choirs and trained teachers as choir leaders, reaching more than 250,000 young people. The program provides high-quality performance opportunities in venues across the country, including the Royal Albert Hall, where Armonico’s largest project to date, It Takes a City, for 2,000 voices and orchestra, premiered in 2022.

“Many of these young people have been with the group since they were 7 years old and now sing as AC Academy Scholars alongside professional singers. It’s incredibly rewarding to see how the opportunities we’ve created have changed them not only as musicians but also as human beings, and this fuels so much of what we create,” says Christopher.

The Choir Creation program has recently expanded through partnerships with Westlands Entertainment Venue Yeovil and internationally in Kenya and with Fundación Azteca Mexico, where training new choir leaders will help create the country’s first high-level symphony orchestra and choir.

The benefits of singing for physical and mental well-being are well established, and Armonico Consort witnessed this firsthand when they created a workplace choir for their sponsors, Phillips 66, in 2016. New research suggests that Baroque music is extremely effective at unlocking memories in people affected by dementia. And, with the formation of the Alzheimer’s Society, Armonico’s Communities program now includes singing sessions in care homes and the first of what will soon be many community choirs: Warwick Memory Singers.

Armonico Consort continues to develop and expand its vital community and educational work with school-aged children, young people with special educational needs, and people living with dementia, thanks to generous donations to the charity’s Encore Appeal of £300,000 in 2023.

Throughout 2024, Armonico tours the ‘Forgotten Scarlatti’ choral masterpieces of Francesco Scarlatti in new editions by Dr. Geoffrey Webber and presents a new semi-staged version of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. The summer also sees the return of AC Academy Does the Royal Albert Hall, a biennial celebration of the Choir Making program involving thousands of children. It will include a musical work tailor-made for children with special educational needs and will feature guest dancers from the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, plus what may well be the world’s largest performance of Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’ with 2,500 singers.