One of the world’s greatest period ensembles came to New Zealand for the first time to present two very special concerts.

Driven by the passions of eminent conductor and founder Harry Christophers, The Sixteen has been a regular at major concert halls and festivals worldwide for over 30 years. Comprising choir and period-instrument orchestra, The Sixteen has a reputation for performing early English polyphony and the masterpieces of the Renaissance, as well as bringing fresh insights into Baroque and early Classical music.

For the Festival, The Sixteen presented two incredible concerts. In the first, the choir was joined by the orchestra in celebrating the genius of Handel, concluding with perhaps his best-loved choral work, the uplifting Dixit Dominus. For the second concert An Immortal Legacy, The Sixteen choir performed some of the best-loved classics of Tudor and Jacobean church music and madrigals together with popular pieces by Britten and Tippett.

THE SIXTEEN CHOIR

An Immortal Legacy

Thomas Tallis

Tunes for Archbishop

Parker’s Psalter

Salvator mundi

O nata lux

O sacrum convivium

Loquebantur variis linguis

Orlando Gibbons 

The Silver Swan

James MacMillan

Sedebit Dominus Rex

Mitte manum tuam

Michael Tippett

Five Spirituals from

A Child of Our Time

Thomas Morley

April is in my mistress’ face

William Byrd

Laudibus in sanctis

This sweet and merry month of May

Benjamin Britten

Gloriana Dances