After thirty years of world-wide performance and recording, The Sixteen is recognised as one of the world’s greatest vocal ensembles. Its special reputation for performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance and a diversity of 20th century music is drawn from the passions of conductor and founder, Harry Christophers. Over ninety recordings reflect The Sixteen’s quality in a range of work spanning the music of five hundred years, winning many awards including Grand Prix du Disque for Handel's Messiah, numerous Schallplattenkritik, the coveted Gramophone Award for Early Music, and most recently the prestigious Classical Brit ...

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Born in Beijing in 1987, Yuja Wang began studying piano at age six, with her earliest public performances taking place in China, Australia and Germany, and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under Ling Yuan and Zhou Guangren. Following three years, from 1999 to 2001, at the Morningside Music summer program at Calgary’s Mount Royal College, an artistic and cultural exchange program between Canada and China, Yuja moved to Canada and began studying with Hung Kuan Chen and Tema Blackstone at the Mount Royal College Conservatory. In 2002, when Yuja was 15, she won Aspen Music Festival’s concerto competition and moved to the U.S. to study with Gary Graffman at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she graduated in 2008. In 2006 Yuja received the Gilmore Young Artist Award.

Yuja is widely recognized for playing that combines the spontaneity and fearless imagination of youth with the discipline and precision of a mature artist. Regularly lauded for her controlled, prodigious technique, her command of the piano has been described as "astounding" and "superhuman" and she has been praised for her authority over the most complex ...

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Bernard Coutaz, the founder and still president of Harmonia Mundi, launched the label in 1958 following a bet over a bottle of champagne. The first release was a spoken-word disc of contemporary French writers interspersed with organ music. It sold surprisingly well and before long he had begun a collection of organ music focussing on historical organs all over Europe. They travelled the continent in a Citroen 2CV that carried all the equipment, a sound engineer and sometimes the organist as well! This series expanded to over 50 recordings and they also published magazines to accompany them.

The next major turning point for the label came in 1965 when Coutaz went to hear the countertenor Alfred Deller in concert and instantly fell for his wonderful 'new' sound. They went backstage afterwards and invited him for dinner. Deller thought they were the concert promoters and so accepted and, 80 odd miles and several hours later, they arrived back at Coutaz's house. Coutaz produced some eggs and some goats cheese (and no doubt a few good bottles) and, by 5 o’clock in the morning his enthusiasm had persuaded Deller to make records for Harmonia Mundi.

Since then they have never looked back, and while more and more majors are parting company with artists, Harmonia Mundi seems to attract them - offering a safe haven and a climate of genuine artistic creativity to musicians who simply want to get on with what they do best: making great music.