Christmas is a time for families and old friends – for well-loved tunes and good cheer. But it’s also a time of mystery and wonder: of silent nights, and sounds that echo across centuries. We’re delighted to be back at Cadogan Hall this Yuletide for two nights of beauty, wonder and seasonal joy. From medieval carols to visionary modern masterpieces, it all takes its inspiration from the story at the heart of the season: a baby in a stable, surrounded by simply heavenly singing.

The Sixteen at Christmas: Cambridge

Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge

Experience the magic of Christmas with one of the world’s finest choral ensembles. Harry Christophers and The Sixteen return to Cadogan Hall for their highly anticipated annual yuletide concert. From medieval melodies to modern compositions, this musical journey celebrates the heart of Christmas – a humble birth surrounded by heavenly song.

It isn’t Christmas at Cadogan Hall without The Sixteen’s extraordinary, atmospheric seasonal celebration and we look forward to welcoming all ages for an unforgettable evening of beauty and joy.

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The Sixteen

Cadogan Hall 

Since 2016, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has hosted an ”Orchestra Academy”. The international RSPO Orchestra Academy is a one-year, advanced academic programme for young musicians. Under the guidance of the section leaders from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Piteå School of Music, the musicians receive intensive training individually, in chamber music, and orchestral playing.

RSPO Orchestra Academy & Falun Conservatory of Music

Stockholm Concert Hall

Pro Arte Sings Songs of Destiny

West Side Presbyterian Church

Before becoming Head of Music at Westminster Cathedral in London in 2021, Simon Johnson was organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, where he performed at a variety of royal events, including the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and the celebrations for her 90th birthday. The Eule organ in the Philharmonie Mercatorhalle, with its four manuals and 72 stops, is also very British and majestic. Its four manuals and 72 stops are modeled on the late-Romantic English town hall organs—in the first Toccata of the season, the Duisburg Philharmonic Choir will provide powerful support. Choir director Marcus Strümpe has included Anton Bruckner, among others, on the program, as the late-Romantic composer, as a virtuoso organist and composer of sacred music, was well versed in the combination of choir and organ. In Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's "Hear My Prayer," a soprano joins the organ and choir: the frequent alternations between solo voice and choir are reminiscent of the "anthem" tradition of the Anglican liturgy. William Harris and Herbert Howells, two prominent representatives of Anglican church music, are also on the program, while Louis Vierne, long-time chief organist at Notre-Dame de Paris, represents the rich organ scene in France. An exuberant romantic richness of sound characterizes his organ symphonies, a genre he himself invented.

Organ & Choir

CityPalais

Enjoy an ‘as live’ performance of our 2022 Choral Pilgrimage programme An Old Belief, from the comfort of your own home. Filmed in the intimate surroundings of London’s St Martin-in-the-Fields, this emotional programme centres around Parry’s heartfelt Songs of Farewell.

An Old Belief

The UK’s most popular classical music station returns to the Royal Albert Hall for a 25th anniversary musical extravaganza – Classic FM Live at 25!

Classic FM Live with Viking

Royal Albert Hall

The biggest night in classical music is back! After eight weeks and over 80 concerts, the 2025 BBC Proms celebrates with a Last Night spectacular, packed with musical surprises and star turns. Elim Chan conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in all the traditional favourites – anthems, folk songs and singalongs – with solo performances by ‘captivating’ soprano Louise Alder and ‘sensational’ trumpeter Alison Balsom. There’s a nod to this season’s Bernard Herrmann celebration, a mischevous sorcerer’s apprentice from Dukas, and premieres by Camille Pépin and Rachel Portman.

Last Night of the Proms 2025

What would the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival be without "its" castles and manor houses, which the team explores and performs in throughout the country? For its 20th anniversary, the festival launched the "Sleeping Beauties" series to highlight historical monuments that were in decline and urgently needed to be saved. The series was held for a second time in 2020, and now, for its 35th anniversary, we're picking up the thread again.

YOUNG ELITE Vocal Circle

Udars Manor

Unlike the 1968 space mission of the same name, this rocket is not unmanned, but rather manned by powerful singers who show the world what vocal music can do. Jubilation, hope, but also humility and sadness—the highly personal program of the five Brits is full of conflicting emotions and knows no genre boundaries.

Apollo5

Kulturkirche St. Jakobi - Kreisdiakonisches Werk Stralsund e.V.

“… the waves of sound produced by the Hallé Choir instilled a sense of uplift that can only be produced by an exceptional chorus at the peak of its form”. The Guardian

Step into a world of musical masterpieces as Matthew Hamilton leads the combined forces of the Hallé orchestra and Choir in an evening of choral and orchestral brilliance.

Feel the power of Handel’s Zadok the Priest, the soaring melodies of Parry’s I Was Glad, the drama of Mozart’s Magic Flute Overture and the sweeping intensity of Verdi’s Force of Destiny Overture.

Summer Concert: Choral Classics

The Bridgewater Hall

In a performance inspired by her 2023 Grammy-Award winning album, experience the turbulence and resilience of Mother Nature's life as Renée Fleming performs music by Handel, Nico Muhly, Björk and Lord of The Rings' Howard Shore—all set against a backdrop of stunning film from the National Geographic Society.

VOICE OF NATURE: The Anthropocene

The Geraldine V. Chavez Center for the Choral Arts

Operatic tours de force featuring three internationally renowned singers and a chamber orchestra celebrating the legacy of support for the arts by Susie & Sam Macfarlane.

Honoring Susie & Sam Macfarlane

Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore

The stars gather for an end-of-season party like no other. Joining the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Singers are Grammy Award-winning American soprano Angel Blue and one of Britain’s best-loved pianists, Sir Stephen Hough. Sakari Oramo returns to the podium for the world’s biggest classical music party.

Prom 73: Last Night of the Proms 2024

BBC Prom Choral Day: London

One of Britain’s best-loved choirs, The Sixteen – under Harry Christophers – returns to the Proms on Choral Day for some of the most serene and spiritual choral works written in England during the Victorian period – music in line with this ensemble’s singular combination of style and beauty, blend and expression.

Prom 63: Choral Day - The Sixteen

The Civil Service Choir return to Smith Square for the third time this year, with a charity concert featuring Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen’s Holy Spirit Mass, in a programme celebrating the mixing of the Latin and English liturgies in sacred choral works.

Charity Concert: Holy Spirit Mass

Smith Square Hall

Awakening is a spiritual choral work based at Stonehenge near Salisbury. Setting 16 spiritual poems by Stephen Feltham,  Awakening portrays the cycle of hope experienced by humanity as it progresses through the celestial cycle exhibited by the equinoxes and solstices. The work is in four main sections: Spring Equinox; Summer Solstice; Autumn Equinox; Winter Solstice.

Awakening

Salisbury Cathedral

Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for the Arts

A performance by the Oberlin Chamber Singers under the direction of Gregory Ristow '01 in Fairchild Chapel.

Concert: Oberlin Chamber Singers

Oberlin College

Revel in the chance to hear a world premiere by our Composer-in-Association Gavin Higgins this new year.

Jaime Martin conducts...

Wales Millennium Centre

Brangwyn Hall

English Exhilaration

East Tennessee State University

Join us at Paisley Abbey for a truly uplifting concert featuring Saint-Saëns’s show-stopping Organ Symphony!

Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony at Paisley Abbey

Paisley Abbey

Two great names in classical music come together to host the biggest musical party of the year. Cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and soprano Lise Davidsen join conductor Marin Alsop and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for an evening of opera arias, songs, spirituals, choral anthems and world premieres, as well as all the traditional favourites by Arne, Elgar and Parry.

Prom 71: Last Night of the Proms 2023

Paul McCreesh joins the DSO to conduct a grand spiritual concert including vocal soloists, the Dallas Symphony Chorus and the Lay Family Organ. Also known as his Symphony No. 2, Mendelssohn described the work as a “symphonic cantata.” Bearing a superficial similarity to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, it begins with three instrumental movements although on a much smaller scale and closes with a cantata-like structure for chorus, solo voices and orchestra.

Blest Pair of Sirens is a short work for choir and orchestra by English composer Hubert Parry, who was commissioned to compose a piece for the Bach Choir of London to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The Glories of our Blood and State was to be used, but subsequently scrapped possibly due to lines including “Sceptre and crown must tumble down” not being the most suitable for the event.

Parry then decided to set Milton’s At a Solemn Music garnering immediate success and eventually being recognized as an outstanding English choral work.

Mendelssohn’s “A Symphony Cantata”

Meyerson Symphony Center

JS Bach’s monumental Fantasia and Fugue in C minor frames a contemplative landscape that includes Parry’s deeply moving Chorale Fantasia, Bach’s timeless O Mensch, the narrative reflections of Judith Bingham’s Emmaus-inspired pieces, and Tournemire’s soaring improvisation on Victimae Paschali laudes.



Maundy Thursday Organ Recital

England’s musical tradition is like a parchment on which voices have been superimposed over the centuries – from the Renaissance to the present day, from Thomas Tallis to Edward Elgar and Joanna Marsh. The RIAS Chamber Choir from Berlin and the Ensemble Resonanz make these layers resound and address the questions of farewell and transience as part of the International Music Festival »Ende«. An evening of requiem-like depth, in which the past resonates and the present pauses.

Ensemble Resonanz / RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin / Justin Doyle

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

A programme of 20th century British choral music, with works by Parry, Howells and Vaughan Williams performed in the beautiful surroundings of St John's Church, Wimbledon.

Hubert Parry

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 2, 2026

Maundy Thursday Organ Recital · Sinfonia Smith Square

May 30, 2026

Ensemble Resonanz / RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin / Justin Doyle · Elbphilharmonie

Jun 6, 2026

Britten Sinfonia With Academy Choir Wimbledon · Britten Sinfonia

Past events

Dec 19, 2025

The Sixteen at Christmas: Cambridge · The Sixteen

17 - 18 Dec, 2025

The Sixteen · Cadogan Hall

About

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