Chanticleer
Performance

A Chanticleer Christmas

December 03, 2020

This event occurred as part of the 20/21 Member Event season. This is an archived view.

Ring in the holiday season with this glowing a cappella "orchestra of voices."

20/21 Member Event

Founded in San Francisco in 1978, Grammy-winning Chanticleer seamlessly blends its twelve male voices ranging from countertenor to bass. Its mission is to present exceptional choral music and to encourage worldwide appreciation for the art of ensemble singing through live performances, education, recording and the creation of new choral work. Chanticleer's expert adaptation to the changing music industry offers fresh interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music.

About Chanticleer and Its History 

As a graduate student in musicology, Chanticleer founder Louis Botto found it odd that much of the repertoire he was studying — vocal music of the medieval and Renaissance periods — was not being performed. Botto decided to form a group to sing this neglected repertoire, preserving the tradition in most churches during the Renaissance by using only male voices. To name the group, Botto was inspired by the "clear singing" rooster in The Nun's Priest's Tale, using a combination of the French words chanter ("to sing") and clair ("clear"). 

Chanticleer has since become a "polished performing machine that … could fairly be called Botto's miracle" (The Wall Street Journal). The ensemble has toured every state as well as international venues including Europe's most prestigious concert halls such as the Musikverein in Vienna, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Prague's Rudolfinum, Budapest's Bela Bartok Hall, among others. Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. 

In 1987, Chanticleer decided to create an independent label, Chanticleer Records, to release its first CD. Colors of Love, Chanticleer's 1999 release devoted to contemporary choral works, won the GRAMMY® Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance (With or Without a Conductor.) Lamentations and Praises won two GRAMMY® awards in 2001. Chanticleer's education program was recognized in 2010 with the Chorus America Education and Outreach Award, and serves over 5000 students every year in a sequence of programs supervised by a full-time Education Director.

Funded in part by the William B. Hart Memorial Fund

Photos: courtesy of the artists

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