We’re dreaming of our Winter Concert

Diversity will be singing music by Eric Whitacre, Sally Beamish, J S Bach, Iain Farrington, plus some of our favourite Christmas songs and carols.

Saturday 12 December 2026 at 7:30pm.
St James Church, 56 St James’s Gardens, Holland Park, London W11 4RA

Tickets on sale shortly.

Meet our new musical director, Richard Decker

Richard is a countertenor and conductor from south-east London, described as a countertenor star of the future by OperaNow. He has performed in operas such as Dido and Aeneas, Die Fledermaus, and Rinaldo, and has worked with leading opera companies including Kentish Opera, Tête à Tête, HGO and Merry Opera.

He is an accomplished concert singer, with a diverse portfolio ranging from Handel’s Messiah to Orff’s Carmina Burana
Richard is the current MD of Dartford Choral Society, and is about to become Director of Music at St John’s Church.

He trains the choristers for the Tonbridge School Chapel Choir and the King’s Chapel of the Savoy and has previously worked as Assistant Conductor with the Orchestra of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Richard’s favourite musical is Carousel, closely followed by West Side Story.

Our wonderful Music Director Jan Rautio is leaving us

After more than ten years – he will be sorely missed! Jan’s expert leadership, musicality and good humour have brought so much to the choir, and we are endlessly grateful for all the time and energy he has given us.

Some highlights of his time with us have included travels to Brussels, Bologna and Munich for the Various Voices festival, and Manchester, Cardiff, Brighton and Bristol for Hand in Hand. We’ve done performances in amazing venues like Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral. We’ve sung in French, German, Italian, Ukrainian and Japanese, with pieces from Baroque opera to Berlin cabaret, pop and musical theatre, thanks to Jan’s breadth and depth of musical interests.

We’ve collaborated with the West London Sinfonia to perform Verdi’s Requiem and Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, and with countless vocal soloists and instrumentalists.

We won’t forget performing Jan’s own amazing composition “Gloria”, the challenges of Poulenc’s Gloria or C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat, or the beautiful Mozart C Minor Mass. His wonderful arrangements of songs from “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to Mendelssohn’s “Hear My Prayer” will live on in our repertoire and memories.

We want to wish Jan all the very best for the future – and say a huge THANK YOU for the music!

Various Voices LGBT+ music festival Brussels

In June we were honoured to have been invited to reprieve our 2025 exotic performance of ‘Cabaret’ at the festival’s opening ceremony!

This was followed by street performances in 34 degree sunshine, and a visit to Brussels LGBT community centre.

Diversity sing Jacques Brel

Diversity Choir sang BRUXELLES at Belgian singer, comedian and entertainer Jacques Brel’s statue in Brussels as part of our performance at the Various Voices LGBT+ music festival 2026 featuring over 100 choirs and 4000 singers from around the world. Musical Director: Jan Rautio.

The joy of singing

We had a lovely time singing for residents at the Dyers’ Almshouses in Crawley last weekend – it was a great opportunity to sing our repertoire from the Various Voices festival again!

We’d like to thank the Dyers Company for their generous donation to the choir, which will help us enormously. Singing every week and putting on concerts brings us and our audiences huge enjoyment, and the Dyers Company’s support is greatly appreciated.

Yes M’Lud

Last month we had the pleasure of singing at Lincoln’s Inn Pride Celebration Dinner – thank you The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn for having us! The event was great fun, and the Inn was a beautiful setting to sing in

If you’d like entertainment from Diversity Choir for an event – feel free to contact us. We sing a wide range of classical and popular music.
Photo by @coloursbyreena

Diversity shares “Abundant Love”

At Diversity’s 2026 Summer Concert our friends enjoyed an evening of live choral music featuring works by Ravel, Rachmaninov, Maddalena Casulana, Hildegard von Bingen, plus plenty of showtunes and other treats.