Our history

Adoramus was founded in 1996 by David Hooke, then Music Director at Christ Church, Cockfosters. It grew out of a series of successful Family Christmas Carol concerts in previous years, attracting audiences of around 1,000 at the former Lee Valley Leisure Centre.

Our first concert was at The Latymer School, Edmonton, on 29th June 1996, with a large orchestra and a choir of around 30, performing music from Opera to Gospel, and everything in between.

Since then Adoramus has performed on over 90 occasions, has recorded 5 CDs, been broadcast on air on three occasions and participated in BBC Songs of Praise. In 2017 the Orchestra played at the Royal Albert Hall with David Hooke conducting and Nicki Hooke singing. 

Our concerts

Since 1996, we have provided creative, entertaining programmes that have appealed to a variety of audiences. These have included Faure’s Requiem, D-Day and Battle of Britain Concerts, Summer Love Classics from shows and operas, ‘Baroque-ing around the Christmas Tree’, ‘Bravo Beethoven’, Magnificats, the Messiah and carols to name a few! We typically perform 4-5 concerts a year, in and around London including Edmonton, Enfield, Broxbourne, Northwood, Potters Bar, Muswell Hill, Palmers Green, Barnet and Cockfosters in schools, churches and concert halls. Every other year we seek to perform at larger venues such as Watford Colosseum and the St Albans Arena, generating audiences of 500 and more. We enjoy being overseas, with tours in past years in northern Italy, Normandy in France and Turkey. Sometimes a concert or venue does not require a large choir and orchestra and for these events we have the Adoramus Singers and a small orchestral ensemble.

Our concerts have included visual media and are often compered in an informative, humorous and thought-provoking way which adds an extra dimension to our performances.