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Published: Thursday, 22 August 2024 at 10:00 AM


Read on to discover more about The Sixteen, one of Britain’s leading chamber choirs, founded by Harry Christophers 45 years ago…

The Sixteen celebrates its 45th anniversary…

Good fortune figures in the story of one of Britain’s leading professional chamber choirs. The Sixteen, which made its official debut 45 years ago, welcomed fate’s blessings in lean times and was moved by it to take risks that others might have ducked. Yet its longevity and success owe more to a potent blend of artistic excellence, smart business decisions and what its founder and conductor Harry Christophers describes with a smile as ‘the leap of faith’.

The latter played a decisive role in conceiving CORO, The Sixteen’s own record label, launching its Choral Pilgrimage – an annual series of concerts in British cathedrals, chapels and churches – and developing Genesis Sixteen, its pioneering young artists programme.

Harry Christophers – a most genial conductor

The Sixteen’s greatest good fortune rests in the character of Christophers himself. Tremendously loyal to his musicians, the organisation’s staff and those freelancers who periodically work for it, the present author included, he’s a master of extracting the best from people.

His rehearsal manner is both relaxed and intensely productive, a lesson in how to combine two desirable conditions that others struggle to harness. And it’s delivered with genial English humour, enthusiasm and old-fashioned decency. ‘What I hope we show as a group is that we’re human,’ he notes when we meet in Cambridge. ‘There’s no point in being a conductor of singers if you’re going to feed terror into them!’

Christophers owns a keen ear for the things that he needs to fix in rehearsal and the wisdom to leave his choristers to fix others themselves. While preparing for the launch of this year’s Choral Pilgrimage in the chapel of St John’s College, Cambridge, he deftly smoothed rough edges in Lassus’s Magnificat Benedicta es caelorum Regina and Bob Chilcott’s Lauda Jerusalem Dominum, a specially commissioned setting of Psalm 147, with a few words here or a sung phrase there. The pay-off came later with a performance hallmarked by the emotional engagement and commitment of Christophers’s choristers.

Julie Cooper, a Sixteen regular for almost 30 years, is sure that the group’s generosity of spirit flows from its director. ‘Harry is unique among conductors,’ she says. ‘He’s as you see him: a kind, loyal person, and a deep and great friend. I’m really proud of that and of him.’