NEW RECORDING, BAY AREA CONCERTS HIGHLIGHT

CHANTICLEER’S BUSY SEPTEMBER

SOUND IN SPIRIT CD Embraces Sacred Chant from Many Cultures,

While EARTHSONGS Concert Celebrates the Beauty and Power of Nature

San Francisco, September 1, 2005—Chanticleer, the internationally-acclaimed, 12-man vocal ensemble, will perform EarthSongs, a program featuring music drawn from poetry inspired by nature, as the first concert in the 2005-06 Bay Area season. To kick off the season, Tuesday, September 13 sees the release of the ensemble’s 29th CD, Sound in Spirit, an exploration of the traditions of sacred chant across eras and cultures.

EARTHSONGS Concerts

With EarthSongs, Chanticleer pairs poets’ words with music to celebrate nature. Pieces encompass delicate madrigals, contemporary settings and evocations of native cultures by composers including Palestrina, Monteverdi, Saint-Saëns, Mahler, Hindemith, and others; along with folk songs, spirituals and popular songs.  EarthSongs premieres on September 16 in Petaluma with performances in San Francisco on September 17 and 25; Berkeley on September 18 and Santa Clara on September 24.  An additional matinee performance next spring takes place in Davis on March 26, 2006 at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Chanticleer Music Director Joseph Jennings assembled the program, which will also tour across the country during the season.  Tickets ($25 - $42) are available through City Box Office (415-392-4400) or online at www.chanticleer.org.

New CD: SOUND IN SPIRIT

Chanticleer’s 29th CD, Sound in Spirit, debuts on the Warner Classics label on September 13, 2005. Sound in Spirit is a groundbreaking mosaic of sacred chant, drawing from traditions as diverse as Native American and Japanese, Byzantine and Tibetan, Gallo-Portuguese and native Australian. The program began as an evening-long concert exploring the links between music and healing, and expanded to embrace those traditions in diverse cultures. The CD includes works by an anonymous medieval master, contemporary women composers such as Jan Gilbert, Patricia Van Ness and Sarah Hopkins, Chanticleer favorites such as the Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria and Alabama-born Jackson Hill, a hymn-inspired work by Romanian monk Nectarie Vlahul and even improvisation amid the sounds of nature. 

Steve Barnett, Chanticleer’s long-time recording producer, describes some of the unique aspects of this CD:

“This is the first Chanticleer recording totally conceived for recording and remixing in a studio environment. It is the first Chanticleer recording to be conceived as a total experience—ideally it should be listened to from beginning to end without pause—thus there is no silence or space between tracks. It is the first to add outdoor ambient sounds. It is the first Chanticleer recording to incorporate “overtone singing”, both intentional and accidental, the result of their immaculate intonation. The music contained herein extends from ancient sacred chants to music composed at the recording sessions themselves; all as seen through the creative ‘lenses’ of Joseph Jennings and his ‘Orchestra of Voices’: the men of Chanticleer.”

Sound in Spirit is available now in stores or online at www.chanticleer.org.

Sound in Spirit – Track List

Available Tuesday, September 13, 2005 on Warner Classics

Incantation from NightChants                    Jan Gilbert

Axion estin                                                                 Nectarie Vlahul

Sound In Spirit                                                        Joseph Jennings

Motet for 12 Singers                                                        Carlos Rafael Rivera

Beata viscera                                                             Plainsong, arr. Jennings

O sacrum convivium                                                    Tomás Luis de Victoria

Como pod’ a grioriosa                                       Alfonso X de Castille

Night Spirit Song                                            Joseph Jennings

NightChant from NightChants                    Jan Gilbert

In Winter’s Keeping                                                       Jackson Hill

Gloria in Excelsis Deo from Tre canti sacri              Giacinto Scelsi

Past Life Melodies                                                      Sarah Hopkins

Cor meum est templum sacrum                            Patricia Van Ness

Grace to You from NightChants                    Jan Gilbert

EDITORS: To request a review copy of Sound in Spirit, please email nroberts@chanticleer.org.

PRESS CONTACT: Nancy Roberts, 415-252-8589 ext.306, nroberts@chanticleer.org

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