IKEN SCHOLARS
chamber choir
Welcome
Welcome to the website of the Iken Scholars, one of London's premier chamber choirs.
We give performances of hidden corners of Renaissance polyphony to audiences across the capital and beyond.
You can explore below our upcoming performances as well as our past projects.
Matthew Dunn, Director
Upcoming performances
Treasures from Arundel (at St Nicholas Church, Arundel)Sat 20 SeptArundel
Treasures from Arundel (at Lambeth Palace)Thu 25 SeptLondon
The Ikens Do Christmas 2025Sun 14 DecAll Saints' Blackheath
Major forthcoming project
Arundel choirbook
Recording and associated performances
The Arundel Choirbook (also called the Lambeth Choirbook), one of the most important extant collections of English polyphony, is 500 years old this year. To mark this significant milestone, the Iken Scholars are collaborating with Lambeth Palace to record seven previously un-recorded works. As well as making these recordings publicly available, it is hoped there will be a number of performances of these pieces throughout the year.
[Reproduced with permission of Lambeth Palace Library throughout this website]
Recent projects
Palestrina: The Last Years
The life and legacy of the Renaissance's greatest composer
The Iken Scholars gave a remarkable concert looking at the final years of Palestrina's life, exploring both his late publications, but also his legacy and influence on the musical life of Rome at the very end of the sixteenth century.
Elizabethan Masterpieces
450 years since Tallis and Byrd's Cantiones Sacrae
The Iken Scholars explored the extraordinary music contained in the first collection of polyphony printed by Tallis and Byrd after a printing monopoly was granted by Elizabeth the First.