SIXTINI CANTORES

The Sistine Chapel Choir, as it is generally called in English, or officially the Coro della Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina in Italian, is the pope’s personal choir. It performs at papal functions in the Sistine Chapel and in any other church in Rome where the pope is officiating, including St. Peter’s Basilica. One of the oldest choirs in the world, it was constituted as the pope’s personal choir by Pope Sixtus IV (from whom both the choir and the chapel in which it performs take their names). Although it was established in the late fifteenth century, its roots go back to the fourth century and the reign of Pope Sylvester I.