New website for the Choir of King’s College

The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge is one of the most recognisable and revered musical institutions in the world, with Carols from King’s forming part of Christmas traditions for millions of people across the globe.

We were delighted to work on the development of a new website that could support this audience, a collaboration with Showcase Creative Studio who are specialists in designing websites for classical musicians. This brought together their deep understanding of the sector with our experience of delivering high performing e-commerce websites for arts and cultural organisations.

The main motivation behind the project was to consolidate all choir information, activities, and retail offerings, as this was previously divided across the King’s College Cambridge website and a separate, stand-alone online shop. The new site presents all choir-related material within a single online space, resulting in a cohesive experience that lets users explore upcoming events alongside the latest product releases.

Other key challenges included:

• Significant traffic spikes around Easter and Christmas.
• The need for high performance and reliability under pressure.
• Periods of intensive email notification activity.
• Managing and delivering large volumes of digital assets efficiently.
• Reliability of pre-ordered digital product releases.
• Making downloads accessible for non-technical users.

Our focus was on creating a robust, high‑performance digital platform that quietly does its job, allowing the music and content to take centre stage. Working closely with Showcase Creative Studio, we:

• Developed a lightweight, performance‑focused WordPress theme to ensure fast load times during peak traffic.
• Restructured the site’s information architecture to make key content easy to find.
• Implemented Amazon SES to efficiently handle periods of high email volume.
• Reconfigured the system managing the product releases.
• Designed an intuitive, user-friendly download interface with clear instructions, minimising technical barriers and ensuring all users can access content easily.

The new website provides a calm, intuitive and dependable digital home for the Choir, capable of supporting large global audiences at the most important times of the year. It offers improved performance during high‑demand periods, a clearer user journey for listeners and supporters, and a scalable platform ready to grow with future programmes and releases. Most importantly, it supports an institution whose work means a great deal to people around the world, something we’re incredibly proud to have been part of.