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Revision as of 11:54, 23 April 2009 by 88.25.109.31 (talk) (→External links)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Harry Christophers (born 26 December 1953, Goudhurst, Kent) is an English conductor. He attended the King's School, Canterbury, working as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral under choirmaster Allan Wicks and playing clarinet in the school orchestra alongside Andrew Marriner. He became an Academical Clerk at Magdalen College, Oxford, studying Classics for two years before embarking on a musical career. He has cited as his childhood musical influences The Rolling Stones, Brahms, Mahler, Stravinsky and Jethro Tull.
Christophers spent 6 years as as Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey, and then time as a member of the Clerks of Oxenford and 3 years in the BBC Singers. He founded the vocal ensemble The Sixteen during this time, in 1979. He has directed The Sixteen and its orchestra throughout Europe, America and the Far East gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in Renaissance, Baroque and twentieth century music. He has made a significant contribution to the recording catalogue (already comprising some ninety titles) for which he has won numerous awards including a Grand Prix du Disque for Handel’s Messiah, numerous Schallplattenkritik, the coveted Gramophone Award for Early Music and most recently, the prestigious Classical Brit Award 2005 for his disc entitled Renaissance. His CD IKON was nominated for a 2007 Grammy. In 2000 he instituted the ‘Choral Pilgrimage’, a national tour of English cathedrals from York to Canterbury in music from the pre-Reformation, as The Sixteen’s contribution to the millennium celebrations. It raised awareness of this historic repertoire so successfully that the Choral Pilgrimage in the UK is now central to the annual artistic programme. The eighth Choral Pilgrimage in 2008 featured ‘Treasures of Tudor England’ and to celebrate The Sixteen’s thirtieth anniversary in 2009, the ninth Choral Pilgrimage will be dedicated to the anniversaries of three unique composers whose legacy to British music is simply astounding: Henry Purcell, James MacMillan and George Frideric Handel.
In September 2008, Christophers was named the Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston, beginning in the 2009-2010 season, for an initial contract of 3 seasons through 2011-2012.
References
- Aled Jones (2008-09-28). "The Choir: Interview with Harry Christophers". BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
- Geoff Edgers (2008-09-26). "New leader at Handel and Haydn". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-10-11.
External links
- Harry Christophers at IMDb
- Interview with Paris Konstantinidis, earlymusicguide.com (July 19, 2007)
- The Sixteen Web site
- Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie Web site
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