Page 371 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

18 August 2019

Herald Angels awards: Spotlight on The

Sixteen choir's artistic director Harry

Christophers

By Mark Eadie

Winners of the Herald Angel awards with Camille O’Sullivan who presented the awards. Picture by
Stewart Attwood

Yesterday’s Herald Angels awards at the home of our partner, the city’s Festival

Theatre, recognised the roots of the city’s Festivals as well as their compelling
immediacy.

As the cast of the Traverse Theatre The Patient Gloria sped across town in a taxi to
join our company after the curtain came down on their Sunday morning performance,

the chief executive of The Sixteen was accepting this week’s Archangel award on
behalf of the choir’s artistic director Harry Christophers.

Marie-Sophie Willis spoke pertinently of how the singers’ contribution to the previous

evening’s premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Fifth Symphony had related directly to
the founding principles of the Edinburgh International Festival as a celebration of
the human spirit. Not only has The Sixteen been an essential part of this year’s

programme, its association with the Festival stretches back a decade and with the
musical life of Scotland far beyond the capital city.

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