Genesis Sixteen

Do you have a passion for choral singing? Are you aged 18 to 23? Would you like to make a career in ensemble singing?The Sixteen is seeking between 22 and 26 young singers aged from 18 to 23 to take part in an exciting new project called Genesis Sixteen.

Genesis Sixteen is The Sixteen’s new training programme which aims to nurture the next generation of talented young voices and specifically to bridge the gap from student to professional practitioner.

This is the UK’s first fully-funded choral programme for young singers and the idea is to identify and nurture students with exceptional musical ability and the potential to become professional ensemble singers, an area in which The Sixteen is internationally renowned. Routes into the world of professional choral singing are reducing in the UK, not least because Oxford and Cambridge choral scholarships are only available to those who obtain the very highest examination grades, and music conservatoires still tend to tailor their training towards solo careers.

During the course of a year, a series of intensive weekend and week-long courses for singers will be led by key artists from The Sixteen, including founder and conductor Harry Christophers. A unique partnership between The Sixteen and the Genesis Foundation means that the participants will receive a bursary for UK travel, accommodation and board costs while participating on the scheme’s four courses, around the UK.

"our priority is to identify the next generation of ensemble choral singers and to give them the opportunity to train at the highest level. We are delighted that the generosity of the Genesis Foundation has made this possible."

Harry Christophers

See full details on the Genesis Sixteen pages on our website.

Wells Cathedral

There are worse ways to spend a Saturday morning than gazing for a couple of hours at the West Front of Wells Cathedral (alternating with staring at the laptop screen). Our Choral Pilgrimage hotel here is The Swan, which has a spectacular view from its lounge. The present cathedral was begun around 1180, on a new site to the north of the old. Started nearly 10 years before Lincoln and more than 40 years before Salisbury, Wells was the first English cathedral to be built throughout with the pointed arch, shafted column and ribbed vault of the Gothic style. A great setting for last night's packed concert. Off to Tewkesbury now.

Recent TV coverage in France

France 3 video news item about our recent concert in St Paulien during the Chaise-Dieu festival; the chap from the Mairie made a brilliant speech at the post-concert reception which for a long while seemed to be about the opening of a new swimming-pool - had he got the wrong speech out of his pocket, we wondered? But no, with the panache of a French philosopher, he was making the point that both physical and mental culture were crucial in these straightened times and that the French must continue to invest in culture - I can't say I've heard many local politicians in the UK say the same.

Arthur's Seat (before Purcell)

So, our Victoria and Padilla concert went down well in Edinburgh last Friday evening. Can't remember when I last heard Victoria whooped - at least this bodes well for our all-Victoria programme on next year's Choral Pilgrimage, when we mark the 400th anniversary of his death.

A larger group go up to Edinburgh this evening for Purcell's Indian Queen tomorrow at the Usher Hall, with a great team of soloists: Gillian Keith, Katherine Manley, Robin Blaze, John Mark Ainsley, Allan Clayton and Roderick Williams.

Not sure what it is about The Sixteen and walking, but, having only recently completed the Choral Pilgrimage, several of the choir plan to tackle Arthur's Seat in the monring.

Puebla meets Edinburgh

Not blogged from the BlackBerry before, so I hope this works. Just an hour until our first concert at this year's Edinburgh International Festival. Padilla and Victoria. Long sold out, but there are still a few seats left for our Purcell Indian Queen here next Tuesday. We have a 5-strong continuo section today with two theorbos, harp, dulcian and organ. So, a spectacular hour coming up in, as it were, Puebla Cathedral!

A final word..........

A final word from the Wife of Bath (himself) on the BBC Music Magazine's blog.

Wife of Bath completes Walk

And so, The Sixteen's Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk comes to an end. Welcomed by the Dean of Canterbury and with a short ceremony at Thomas à Becket's memorial, followed by a splendid lunch, the core team of walkers were joined yesterday by some 12 other supporters of The Sixteen. Countertenor Ian Aitkenhead had canvassed opinion on which of the Chaucer's pilgrims he should dress up as for the final leg, and, perhaps not surprisingly, the Wife of Bath won the vote.

Yuo can still donate to the two charities The Sixteen has been supporting: World Vision and the Save Canterbury Cathedral appeal. If you would like to sponsor the walk go to our special Just Giving pages: World Vision and Canterbury Cathedral.

Tribute to Alfred Deller

The Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk paused at All Saints' Church in Boughton Aluph yesterday, where the walkers were greeted by Mark Deller, son of the great countertenor Alfred Deller, who is buried in the churchyard. Three of The Sixteen's regular countertenors were there (Christopher Royall, Ian Aitkenhead and David Clegg) and, for them in particular, there was a poignant moment when the assembled company sang Purcell's Thou Knowest Lord around Deller's grave. The Walk reaches its destination at Canterbury Cathedral early this afternoon: we in the office will be heading off soon to greet them.

Walk passes Chevening

The walkers have just passed the village of Chevening: you can see the church amongst the trees, and just pick out Chevening House which is the traditional grace-and-favour residence of the Foreign Secretary. This, however, being a Coalition, it's now a house-share - William Hague and the Deputy Prime Minister..... Onwards.

Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk - Day Two

The Sixteen's Choral Pilgrimage Charity Walk enters its second day today. Harry and the other walkers left Box Hill this morning, heading along the North Downs Way towards Mertsham. They started from Guildford Cathedral yesterday and will reach Canterbury Cathedral in a week's time. The Sixteen is raising money for two charities (not itself!): World Vision and the Save Canterbury Cathedral appeal. If you would like to sponsor the walk go to our special Just Giving pages: World Vision and Canterbury Cathedral.

The Arts should give up whingeing and start singing for its supper

Interesting (provocative?) article in yesterday's Evening Standard by one of our Development Board members, Chris Blackhurst. All performing arts organisations in the UK are urgently reviewing their funding models. We at The Sixteen are lucky already to attract a considerable amount of private support from individuals, but the challenge is always on to encourage more.

Sunday Times free iTunes downloads this and next weekend

A track from our Messiah recording features in a special Sunday Times iTunes free promotion this weekend, when 15 of the top UK orchestras display their recorded wares in an attempt to encourage people to explore music they might not be familiar with. The following week's promotion will include a track from our Samson recording. The Sixteen are joined by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, and The London Philharmonic Orchestra amongst others.

BBC Proms Archive

Check out the newly launched Proms Archive, which you can search by composer, work or artist. My first discovery is that an aria from the work we are doing in Edinburgh next month was first performed in the Proms in 1897:

Wednesday 29 September 1897, 8:00PM

Henry Purcell Indian Queen, Z 630

- Aria 'I attempt from Love's sickness to fly in vain' Act 3

Hirwen Jones tenor


New Queen's Hall Orchestra (1895-1914, Queen's Hall Orchestra)
Henry Wood conductor

Monteverdi

Just back from the last recording session for our Monteverdi CD at St John's Smith Square in London - sat in on the ravishing soprano duet Salve Regina, with Elin Manahan Thomas and Grace Davidson and a battery of continuo instruments. The complete Telegraph review of our recent Monteverdi concert performances has just appeared online.

Great Buxtehude CD review in July Classic FM Magazine

Magic numbers and some reminders

There is an interesting piece in Tom Service's Guardian blog today on composers and their clandestine codes. Read what he has to say about composers from Bach to John Zorn.

Tonight the Choral Pilgrimage reaches Milton Keynes. The concert is technically sold out but there might be a few returns on the door.

If you are nowhere near Milton Keynes you can hear our Monteverdi concerts from Spitalfields on BBC Radio 3 tonight at 7pm. Petroc Trelawny presents.

Jazz meets Monteverdi on Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 recorded our two Monteverdi concerts at the Spitalfields Festival last night for broadcast on Performance on 3 next Friday 2 July at 7.00pm. Reaction to our collaboration with Julian Joseph was excellent, and there was a stimulating discussion afterwards with members of the audience who wanted to unpick the perennial problem of how jazz musicians 'do jazz' and how you go on to combine its freedom and improvisiation with structured, notated music. What was remarkable was how our continuo section relished the occasion!

Julian Joseph joins The Sixteen

Two more concerts at the Spitalfields Festival tonight: pure Monteverdi at 6.30pm (sold out) and then at 8.30pm our Monteverdi collaboration with jazz pianist Julian Joseph, who has also established himself as a jazz pioneer in the classical world. He was the first jazz musician to be invited to give a series of all-acoustic concerts at London's most prestigious classical venue, the Wigmore Hall. He has recorded duets by Milhaud, Stravinsky and Poulenc with Brazilian pianist Marcelo Bratke, combining them with his own arrangements of music by Duke Ellington, Chick Corea and Bill Evans, and collaborated with concert violinist Viktoria Mullova on her fusion project, 'Through the Looking Glass'. As a soloist, he has given recitals of Bartók and Prokofiev sonatas and performed Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F and the Rhapsody in Blue with some of the most renowned symphony orchestras in Europe. At the same time, Julian's own classically-oriented work never ventures too far away from his jazz focus. This is particularly evident in his writing for big band and strings or full symphony orchestra, in which he demonstrates an exceptional ability to orchestrate complex textures of rhythm and sound without losing the essential groove that is at the heart of jazz.

In this way he is ever pushing the boundaries, whilst building on the legacy of the great jazz composers ~ Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, Herbie Hancock and Jaco. The bass player tonight is Mark Hodgson. Details here (a few tickets still available as I write).

'Hello, Harry'

Hotfoot back from Christ Church Spitalfields where, as part of festival residency, The Sixteen has been giving a specially designed introduction to Monteverdi's music to 400+ primary schoolchildren from Tower Hamlets. It is not every audience which greets the conductor with a yell of 'Hello, Harry', and then gets on with singing Monteverdi.

City Church of Christ the Cornerstone

The Choral Pilgrimage pays its first visit to Milton Keynes on 2 July, with a concert at the City Church of Christ the Cornerstone. We are getting lots of calls about this concert, but I am afraid it is already sold-out. An intriguing building, it is an ecumenical church, opened in 1992 and dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend and Right Honourable George Carey (Anglican); His Eminence Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster (Roman Catholic); the Reverend Desmond Pemberton, Assistant National Superintendent, Wesleyan Holiness Church; and the Reverend Dr John Newton, Chairman, Liverpool District Methodist Church (the Presidents of Churches Together in England). The Queen attended the Dedication service: a Roman Catholic Cardinal gave the sermon before the reigning monarch - the first time this had happened in over 400 years. An interesting anecdote given the history behind our Tudor repertoire this year.