March 10, 2004 - Chanticleer, the multiple Grammy® Award-winning, 12-male vocal ensemble, will have a busy spring season that begins with a celebration. On Monday, March 15, Chanticleer will receive the 2004 Governors Award for creative excellence and outstanding achievement from the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy®, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary. Chanticleer joins heavy metal icons Metallica and former Grateful Dead drummer and ethnomusicologist Mickey Hart in receiving the Chapter's highest honor, awarded to Bay Area music professionals that "have crossed all musical boundaries and who have been recognized as an asset to the local music community."

One week later Chanticleer will join a cast of gospel music greats and celebrity host Danny Glover on Monday, March 22 at 8pm for One Voice - Gospel Artists Respond to Aids: A Gospel Music Concert. The event, benefiting the Refuge Ministries and the Yvette A. Flunder Foundation, takes place at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. Reverend Yvette Flunder is not only one of the Bay Area's most active ministers to the poor and needy: she also possesses a singing voice of exceptional power. In past seasons Chanticleer has performed gospel concerts with Reverend Flunder, and in September 2004 they will appear together on a new album on Warner Classics International's Teldec label.

In recent weeks, Chanticleer has been performing on "home territory" in its annual Bay Area subscription series. That series continues with concerts on March 29 in San Francisco and April 2 in Berkeley, offering a program entitled "New Voices". Although Chanticleer usually performs a cappella, the ensemble joins forces for this program with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players under the direction of David Milnes. Continuing Chanticleer's dedication to the music of today, the program features music by Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi and Betty Olivero, as well as a world premiere by UC Davis-based composer Pablo Ortiz.

April is one big road trip for Chanticleer, with eleven concerts in ten cities from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Hartford, Connecticut to Norfolk, Virginia. On Tuesday, April 20 Chanticleer returns for the second time this season to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. There, the ensemble will perform a program entitled "Sound in Spirit". Featuring music from the Middle Ages to the present time set to Byzantine, Latin, Spanish and English texts, the program - conceived by Chanticleer's music director, Joseph Jennings - demonstrates the profound connection between music and healing. "

A full list of Chanticleer's April tour dates follows below.

For further information visit www.chanticleer.org

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CHANTICLEER SPRING 2004: CONCERTS AND SPECIAL EVENTS

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