A NEW director has joined The Sarum Consort as it launches its 2014-15 season.

Tenor, keyboard player and conductor Alastair Carey has become the new director of the highly-regarded musical group.

Carey began his musical career in his home country of New Zealand and he has been working in the UK since 2006, appearing with groups ranging from the Gabrieli Consort to I Fagiolini, both frequent visitors to the Ageas Salisbury International Arts Festival.

The first concert of the season is The Portal to Paradise at St Martin’s Church in Salisbury at 7.30pm on October 4.

The concert explores three different funeral settings: Herbert Howells’ Requiem, written following the death of his nine-year-old son, I Am the Resurrection by late Renaissance English composer Thomas Tomkins and Missa pro Defunctis by Portuguese composer Duarte Lobo.

The voices of the consort will be exploring consolation, eternity and the after-life.

Tickets cost £18, or £8 for under 21s, and are on sale at Sarum Books in Catherine Street, via the website sarumconsort.org and on the door.