Forty years ago Louis Botto brought together a group of men to sing the little known music of the European Renaissance. This happened in San Francisco during a time of remarkable cultural development, which coincided with, and became part of the Early Music revival of the late 1970s. Chanticleer, named for the clear-singing rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, first performed in San Francisco’s Mission Dolores, featuring works by medieval and renaissance composers, the foundation of the ensemble’s repertoire. Soon enough, Chanticleer was on the road, embarking on a journey that explored its way through big cities and small towns, churches and concert halls, introducing an innovative and demanding repertoire covering nine centuries of music while connecting music lovers to the Chanticleer sound and to one another. It has been and continues to be an inspired journey, sustained by extraordinary musicality, superior performance, enduring and distinctive impact and the shared vision of singers and audiences that this music must continue.