The Sixteen's Blog

Winchester Cathedral

The Sixteen’s 2012 Choral Pilgrimage starts this evening in Winchester Cathedral, in a programme entitled The Earth Resounds.

Harry has written: ‘I have decided to explore the quite amazing sacred music emanating from Flanders in the 15th and 16th centuries.  This extraordinary music spans 100 years of innovation and brilliance.  Josquin Desprez, Antoine Brumel and Orlande de Lassus were truly European composers, leaving their origins to work in the top establishments of Aix-en-Provence, Ferrara, Rome and Munich. Their music has a unique sonority which I believe will astound you’.

Here are Julie Cooper and Harry talking about the start of the tour during rehearsals yesterday.

Tonight at 7pm London-time (GMT+1), you can join Harry Christophers via Facebook for the first Sixteen Social: a chance to ask him questions about The Sixteen, our history and our future plans.

All is explained here.

This is the week the 2012 Choral Pilgrimage starts: The Earth Resounds, with music by Josquin, Brumel and Lassus.

We are in Winchester Cathedral on Friday evening and St Albans Cathedral on Saturday: there are some tickets still available.  Contact the National Centre for Early Music for details.

Georgina in Leon

Our record label CORO’s mobile shop is a regular sight at our UK concerts.  Last week in Spain, as our regular distributors there Harmonia Mundi Iberia were too busy to service the full tour, Georgina, who helps run the label from our Oxford office, travelled with the choir to act as our sales operative.  You can see her here in Leon Cathedral, just before the doors were opened for the 3000+ audience to flood in.

This week we are in Kilburn recording the repertoire for our Choral Pilgrimage 2012 tour: works by Josquin, Brumel and Lassus.  This will be released in March, before the tour starts in Winchester Cathedral on 13 April.

Leon Cathedral

We were pleased to see one of our major sponsors, Quadrant Chambers, get due credit in an article by Edward Fennelly in today’s legal section in The Times: ‘The Sixteen, led by telegenic Harry Christophers, gave a sublime performance of Victoria’s Hail Mother of the Redeemer in Winchester Cathedral last Saturday.  Prominent in the concert’s programme – and quite rightly so – was the plug for Fleet Street’s Quadrant Chambers, the principal sponsor of The Sixteen’s “Choral Pilgrimage”.  That seems a smart move.  Public support for the arts is on the wane, so backing a blue-chip cultural institution such as The Sixteen brings instant recognition among what might be called the Quadrant demographic.  Also, when you go on to the sponsorship section of The Sixteen’s website, you get whizzed along to Quadrant quicker than you can say Financial Services Act.  This is the kind of sponsorship deal that gets members of chambers singing off the same hymn sheet.

…backing a blue-chip cultural institution such as The Sixteen brings instant recognition…