Byrd is the word: The old faith of England is this year’s focus of The Sixteen

The old faith of England is this year’s focus of The Sixteen, finds Serenhedd James.

A wise, sharp-eyed owl peers out from the programme of The Sixteen’s Choral Pilgrimage for 2023. Its title this year is “A Watchful Gaze” and it launched at SJE Arts in Oxford on March 11. It criss-crosses the country (with two journeys across the Irish Sea) until October 26, when it closes at Kings Place in London. 

The choir’s annual musical progress honours the prolific Elizabethan musician William Byrd, the 400th anniversary of whose death falls in July, and whom conductor Harry Christophers describes as “one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, widely admired both at home and abroad”.