Festival of Voice: The Sixteen - A Choral Pilgrimage

Angel of Peace

“For 40 years… The Sixteen, has set the gold standard” The Times

“The Sixteen are brilliant at lifting us up to another world.” The Telegraph

Festival of Voice is a weekend festival celebrating the power, beauty and universality of the human voice.

The Sixteen, one of the world’s finest and most renowned choral ensembles, returns to the National Concert Hall with its pioneering founder/conductor, Harry Christophers with their Choral Pilgrimage.

Hallmarked by its tonal richness, expressive intensity and compelling collective artistry, The Sixteen has been acclaimed worldwide for performances drawn from well over five centuries of sacred and secular repertoire delivered with precision, power and passion. Their innovative and imaginative work, which speaks to so many, has made a profound impact on the performance of choral music and attracted a large new audience.

What is music without words? The 12th-century Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen, was one of a handful of composers through the centuries who not only composed her own poetry but also her own music. Hers is a voice that through her music and poetry sees glory. Four centuries later John Taverner’s large scale devotional antiphons, Gaude plurimum and O splendor gloriae, abound in joy, glory, emotion and acceptance. Leap to more recent times and we find in Cardinal Newman’s meditation I shall be an angel of peace (Will Todd) the courage to accept whatever life brings to us and in Rainer Maria Rilke’s Book of Songs, his belief that “religion is something infinitely simple…it is a direction of the heart” (Anna Clyne – Orbits). Add to this the passionate tranquillity of Arvo Part’s music and we see a constant theme over some nine centuries that poetry in all its forms sings to us.

Hildegard of Bingen Ave, generosa I - IV
Arvo Part Tribute to Caesar
Will Todd I shall be an angel of peace
John Taverner Gaude plurimum
interval
Hildegard of Bingen Ave, generosa V - VII
Arvo Part Da pacem Domine
Anna Clyne Orbits (new commission for choir and solo violin) 7’
Arvo Part Magnificat
John Taverner O splendor gloriae

Festival of Voice will include a series of pop-up events
· Morning Songs – a song to start the day
· Songs of the Liberties – a collective participative choir event celebrating the songs of the city
· Puccini in the Pub – Puccini over a pint…
We will announce details of pop-up events in the run-up to the festival

Presented by NCH and supported by IPUT Real Estate Dublin