Images of audiences queuing to hear early Tudor polyphony or contemporary choral compositions belonged to the world of fantasy before The Sixteen and Harry Christophers brought them to life. The UK-based ensemble, hallmarked by its tonal richness, expressive intensity and compelling collective artistry, has introduced countless newcomers to works drawn from well over five centuries of sacred and secular repertoire. The Sixteen’s choir and period-instrument orchestra stand today among the world’s greatest ensembles, peerless interpreters of Renaissance, Baroque and modern choral music, acclaimed worldwide for performances delivered with precision, power and passion.
Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2019, The Sixteen arose from its Founder and Conductor Harry Christophers’ formative experience as cathedral chorister and choral scholar. His enterprise, launched in 1979, built on the best of the British choral tradition while setting new standards of virtuosity and musicianship. The Sixteen’s professional female and male voices create a distinctive sound of great warmth and clarity. Although refined over four decades, that sound has remained remarkably consistent, always responsive to the emotional content of words and music, ever alert to subtle nuances of colour and shading.
The Sixteen has widened its reach at home in recent years as ‘The Voices of Classic FM’, Artistic Associates of Kings Place, and with a 2016 – 2017 Artist Residency at Wigmore Hall. Since 2000 its annual Choral Pilgrimage has brought the ensemble to Britain’s great cathedrals and abbeys to perform sacred music in the spaces for which it was conceived. Appearances in the BBC television series Sacred Music, and a specially-curated series of online films entitled A Choral Odyssey, both presented by Simon Russell Beale, have also helped grow The Sixteen’s audience.
‘No praise would be too high for the range of The Sixteen, from seraphic notes on the brink of audibility to a richness of which a Russian choral ensemble would be proud,’ concluded one reviewer following the world premiere performance of Sir James MacMillan’s Stabat mater, commissioned for The Sixteen by the Genesis Foundation. The work, first performed at London’s Barbican in October 2016, was later streamed live from the Sistine Chapel and recently received its US premiere at the Lincoln Centre, New York. Their long-standing relationship with James MacMillan has continued to flourish with the group recently performing the world premiere of his Fifth Symphony at the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival.
International tours are an essential part of life for The Sixteen. The ensemble makes regular visits to major concert halls and festivals throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. It gave its first tour of China in October 2017, followed soon after by debut concerts in Estonia and Lithuania. The Sixteen’s touring credits include performances at the Cité de la musique in Paris, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Vienna’s Musikverein, together with appearances at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Lucerne, Prague and Salzburg festivals.
The Sixteen’s period-instrument orchestra, central to the ensemble’s ambitious continuing series of Handel oratorios, has drawn critical acclaim for its work in semi-staged performances of Purcell’s Royal Welcome Songs in London, a production of Purcell’s King Arthur in Lisbon and new productions of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse at Lisbon Opera House, The Coronation of Poppea at English National Opera, and Handel’s Belshazzar at Grange Festival.
Following the success of the inaugural Choral Pilgrimage, The Sixteen launched its own record label in 2001. CORO has since cultivated an award-winning catalogue of over 190 titles, albums of choral works by Francis Poulenc, Purcell’s welcome songs for James II, and the world premiere recording of MacMillan’s Stabat mater recent among them. The Sixteen’s substantial discography for CORO and other labels has attracted many prestigious international prizes, including a Gramophone Award for Early Music and a Classical Brit Award for Renaissance, recorded as part of the group’s contract with Universal Classics and Jazz. In 2009 The Sixteen was named as Classic FM Gramophone Artist of the Year and received the Gramophone Best Baroque Vocal Award for its recording of Handel’s Coronation Anthems. In 2018 the group won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society award for best ensemble.
The Sixteen’s commitment to the future of choral music is clearly reflected in its extensive outreach programme, using the power of music to engage and inspire new and existing audiences as well as transforming music education. Genesis Sixteen, supported by the Genesis Foundation, offers the UK’s first fully funded choral training programme for singers aged 18 to 23. It has been specially designed to help participants navigate the testing transition from student status to life as professional performers.
For more information on The Sixteen, Harry Christophers and CORO, please visit The Sixteen
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HARRY CHRISTOPHERS - Founder and Conductor, The Sixteen
Any account of choral music in the early twenty-first century would be incomplete without a chapter dedicated to the work of Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. The conductor, in partnership with the ensemble he founded over 40 years ago, has set benchmark standards for the performance of everything from late medieval polyphony to new works from today’s finest choral composers. While his artistry arises from the great British tradition of cathedral and collegiate choral singing, it soars above convention to open fresh perspectives on Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary music.
The Sixteen’s soundworld, rich in tonal variety and expressive nuance, reflects Harry Christophers’ determination to create a vibrant choral instrument from the blend of mixed adult professional voices. “There is nothing bland or homogenised about the choral sound,” observed the Guardian following a recent performance. “But [Christophers’] choir can also produce wonderfully smooth sustained textures, in which miraculously they make every word clear at the same time.” The Sixteen has also developed an acclaimed period-instrument orchestra under Christophers’ artistic leadership, now central to their series of Purcell odes and royal welcome songs and ongoing survey of Handel’s dramatic oratorios.
Collaboration and collegiality are among the cornerstones of Harry Christophers’ music-making. He speaks of The Sixteen as a family of musicians, one united by ties of loyalty and reinforced by the strength of the organisation’s board and staff. Their recent work together includes an Artist Residency at Wigmore Hall, a large-scale tour of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, and the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Fifth Symphony. Recent highlights have included a performance of MacMillan’s Stabat mater for Pope Francis in the Sistine Chapel at Easter 2018, and a return to Australia during The Sixteen’s 40th anniversary tour in 2019.
Alongside his commitments with The Sixteen, Harry Christophers served as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society (H+H) for 13 years, and has recently been appointed their Conductor Laureate. He attracted critical acclaim to America’s oldest continuously active performing arts organisation, enhancing the international reputation of its period-instrument orchestra and chorus with a succession of recordings for The Sixteen’s own CORO label while broadening its local reach through education and community projects in Boston and beyond.
Guest conducting engagements add an extra dimension to Harry Christophers’ work. He has appeared with, among others, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie. His conducting credits also include extensive work in opera, including productions for English National Opera, Lisbon Opera and the Granada, Buxton and Grange festivals.
Harry Christophers has overseen a transformation in The Sixteen’s work since the launch of their annual Choral Pilgrimage in 2000. Choral Pilgrimage programmes have introduced many newcomers to unfamiliar sacred compositions and composers, drawing capacity audiences to the cathedrals, churches and other venues within The Sixteen’s national touring circuit. Christophers and The Sixteen have also connected with large audiences through their BBC television series, Sacred Music, presented by actor Simon Russell Beale. Their latest hour-long programme, Monteverdi in Mantua, was first broadcast in 2015 at Easter time.
Christophers was inspired by the success of the Choral Pilgrimage to commission new scores for The Sixteen, supported by Genesis Foundation funding, and develop Genesis Sixteen, a pioneering young artists’ scheme designed to nurture the next generation of professional ensemble singers. The tour’s positive momentum also influenced the decision to form CORO in 2001. The label’s award-winning catalogue has grown to include over 190 titles, comprising all The Sixteen’s new recordings and albums by such associated artists as the Handel and Haydn Society.
Harry Christophers’ recordings for CORO and other labels have attracted numerous prestigious prizes. He won the Ensemble/Orchestral Album of the Year at the 2005 Classical Brit Awards for Renaissance, issued to mark The Sixteen’s 25th anniversary, and was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award for IKON. In 2009 his second recording of Handel’s Messiah, made for CORO, was honoured with the MIDEM Classical Award, while he received the coveted Gramophone Artist of the Year Award together with the Best Baroque Vocal Award for Handel’s Coronation Anthems. Away from the recording studio, he has recently collaborated with BBC Radio 3 presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch to produce a book entitled A New Heaven: Choral Conversations in celebration of the group’s 40th anniversary.
Harry Christophers was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s 2012 Birthday Honours for his services to music. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, as well as the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and has Honorary Doctorates in Music from the Universities of Leicester, Northumbria, Canterbury Christ Church and Kent.
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