The Sixteen

Watch this concert until 31st May at midnight.

What could be more welcome than a little repose and respite from the demands of daily life? The Sixteen's concert programme tells stories of life and love, of tranquillity and stillness, some naïve and simple, others infused with complex imagery. This special concert was filmed in the stunning setting of St John's Upper Norwood, London, for Perth Festival. 

Featuring a stunning selection of music, from exuberant early works such as 'Hoyda, hoyda, jolly rutterkin' and 'I am a jolly foster' to Eric Whitacre's sublime 'Sleep', Stanford’s glorious 'The Blue Bird', and a new commission from Roderick Williams, this is truly music to escape to. 

"Perhaps it is because we have so missed singing in these confined times, but this advert for the range of material to which Christophers’ choristers can apply themselves was exactly what was needed in 2021." Keith Bruce, Vox Carnyx

Good night, beloved Programme

Enjoy this concert excerpt of The Blue Bird by Stanford

About The Sixteen

Whether performing a simple medieval hymn or expressing the complex musical and emotional language of a contemporary choral composition, The Sixteen does so with qualities common to all great ensembles. Tonal warmth, rhythmic precision and immaculate intonation are clearly essential to the mix. But it is the courage and intensity with which The Sixteen makes music that speak above all to so many people.

Celebrating its 40^thanniversary in 2019 The Sixteen gave its first concert in 1979 under the direction of Founder and Conductor Harry Christophers CBE. Their pioneering work since has made a profound impact on the performance of choral music and attracted a large new audience, not least as ‘The Voices of Classic FM’ and through BBC television’s Sacred Music series.

The voices and period-instrument players of The Sixteen are at home in over five centuries of music, a breadth reflected in their annual Choral Pilgrimage to Britain’s great cathedrals and sacred spaces, regular appearances at the world’s leading concert halls, and award-winning recordings for The Sixteen’s CORO and other labels.

Recent highlights include the world premiere of James MacMillan’s Stabat mater (at the Barbican in 2016 and live streamed from the Sistine Chapel in 2018), and his Fifth Symphony‘ Le grand inconnu’ (2019 Edinburgh International Festival and the Lincoln Centre, New York), both commissioned for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen by the Genesis Foundation, an ambitious ongoing series of Handel oratorios, a debut tour of China, and a new, specially-commissioned series of programmes presented by Sir Simon Russell Beale entitled A Choral Odyssey.