A New Heaven Paperback ? December 14, 2021

As The Sixteen celebrates its 40th birthday, Harry Christophers and broadcaster and choral expert Sara Mohr-Pietsch embark on a series of conversations that look back over those four decades, and to the future.

The Sixteen have become a household name. They are the Voices of Classic FM, and stars of the BBC Four series Sacred Music, presented by Simon Russell Beale. Every year since the millennium, they have undertaken a Choral Pilgrimage, bringing a programme of a cappella vocal music to around thirty cathedrals the length and breadth of the country. They are prolific recording artists, and perform at festivals and venues all over the world. Harry Christophers is a unique figure in music. With The Sixteen, Christophers has succeeded in nurturing a choir of exceptional calibre, establishing a business model that includes a record label and extensive tours to capacity audiences, mining a rich variety of repertoire, and combining enormous popular appeal with the stamp of approval from experts.

This book will be accessible to everyone, regardless of musical experience or knowledge. It will appeal to anyone interested in classical music, to those who sing in amateur or professional choirs, and those who love the sound of the human voice.

Harry Christophers CBE is the conductor and artistic director of The Sixteen, which he founded forty years ago. He was a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral, a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, and sang professionally with the choir of Westminster Abbey and the BBC Singers before devoting himself full-time to conducting. He is a recipient of the prestigious Gramophone Artist of the Year Award.

Sara Mohr-Pietsch is a music broadcaster, writer and curator, and one of BBC Radio 3's best-known voices. As well as hosting the BBC Proms for BBC Four television, she presents Choir & Organ and live concerts from Wigmore Hall on Radio 3. She is also Artistic Director of Dartington Summer School & Festival. Sara was a choral scholar at Cambridge University.