Collegium Cantorum is a concert choir, organized in 1986, specializing in "large forms for small choirs" and drawing most of its repertory from the great masterpieces of medieval and Renaissance Europe.

We are always interested in meeting new singers who are skilled in reading music (in modern notation) and are interested in "early-music-style" ensemble singing.

Our performances are open to the public without charge. This means that generally, our work is a pro-bono "labor of love", although many of the singers are professional musicians. (It occasionally happens that voluntary contributions from audiences are large enough to permit small stipends for the singers, but this is never predictable.)

The literature we perform is quite challenging, exciting, and satisfying, and is often well "off the beaten path" even for early-music groups. The works, usually large-scale, date from between the earliest years of polyphonic notation (the mid 1100s) and the end of the 1500s. Occasionally these boundaries are overstepped, but not often. We are not averse to the secular music of the times, but our fondness for "large forms" has usually meant, in practice, that most of our literature is sacred "cathedral" music.

"Off the beaten path" does not mean "obscure for its own sake": we present works that deserve on their merits not to languish in obscurity. One intention is to leave listeners wondering why they have never heard some of these works before, and to judge from numerous audience comments over the years, we have often done so. Unfortunately, the "down side" of the effort to bring great music out of obscurity is that we often perform to small audiences; those who have attended our concerts, though, have told us many times that they were very glad they did. This is a trade-off we willingly make.

We usually perform with 2 or 3 singers (rarely more) per part; occasionally pieces are performed with only 1 on a part. Solo work, when it occurs, is generally shared out evenly among the group.

We generally rehearse 5 or 6 times (including the dress rehearsal) per program, sometimes less but rarely more. It follows that singers are expected to prepare and practice in advance. Music is distributed approximately one month before the first rehearsal for a program.

Our usual practice is to present each program twice, once on a Saturday evening and again the next (i.e., Sunday) afternoon. The typical schedule for a pair of performances is

• 4 or 5 regular rehearsals (depending on the difficulty of the literature) on consecutive Tuesday evenings from 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM, followed by
• a dress rehearsal on the Friday evening before the first performance, from 7:00 to 10:00 PM, followed by
• the first performance on a Saturday evening, with a call time of 7:00 PM, followed by
• the second performance on the next afternoon (i.e., Sunday), with a call time of 2:30 PM.

Regular (Tuesday) rehearsals are held at
 
      The Arlington Community Church
      6040 Wilson Boulevard
      Arlington, Virginia 22205
      (Between Ballston and Seven Corners)

Dress rehearsals and performances are held in Washington-area churches whose acoustics are appropriate to medieval and Renaissance "cathedral music".