We are an ensemble that sings a cappella, blending twelve voices from contra-bass to the riveting sound of the American countertenor – distinctly recognizable, unchallenged in our niche and viewed as the gold standard in choral music. We sing to enchant, captivate and inspire, as we educate and create superb music for everyone to enjoy. Our virtuoso performance style is enriching, intellectually broadening and spiritually transporting. Our relationship to our audiences is profound and personal.

Our dedication to artistic integrity is constant and undiminished, as is our commitment to singing challenging music and a highly diverse and innovative repertoire that ranges from Gregorian chant to gospel, folk, jazz and contemporary classics. The music we sing regularly demonstrates our passion for newly composed works and our enthusiasm for encouraging new compositional talent. For many years we have been Warner Classics #1 seller of classical CDs.

Chanticleer is a full-time, professional vocal ensemble that in its 45-year lifetime has:

• Won three Grammy® Awards

• Made over 50 recordings, selling over a million copies worldwide

• Been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame

• Performed in 32 countries and in every state of the union

• Received multiple awards that include the ASCAP/Chorus America Adventurous Programming Award 2008, Musical America Ensemble of the Year (2008), Chorus America Education and Outreach Award (2010), Brazeal Wayne Dennard award for the advancement of African American music (2014).

We perform live in local, regional, national and international venues, large and small, including some of the world’s great concert halls like Vienna’s Musikverein, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Prague's Rudolfinum, Budapest's Lizst Academy, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and at major American music festivals such as Ravinia and Tanglewood as well as to many prestigious European festivals. Regular tours in Asia include returns to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, adding Macao in 2015.

Chanticleer is well known and highly regarded for our long-standing education programs, which started in 1986 with Singing in the Schools. The programs include Youth Choral Festivals in San Francisco and selected cities across the country, and a National Choral Festival for 350 participants from around the country every five years. Together with our International Young Composer Competition, National College and University Residency Workshops, the Louis A. Botto (LAB) Choir and Chanticleer in Sonoma: Summer Workshops for Adults, Chanticleer's programs provide education and opportunities to singers of all ages. Approximately 5,000 students each year are nurtured through Chanticleer’s investment in their musical education led by our Education Director, often with the participation of the performing ensemble. 

We are greatly admired for our unwavering commitment to and enthusiasm for new composers, especially American composers, whose works bring new depth and breadth to our already expansive repertoire. To date, we have commissioned more than 70 composers to write more than 100 original works and arrangements.

Chanticleer’s long-standing commitment to commissioning and performing new works was honored in 2008 by the inaugural Dale Warland/Chorus America Commissioning Award and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming. Among the over eighty composers commissioned in Chanticleer’s history are Mark Adamo, Mason Bates, Régis Campo, Chen Yi, David Conte, Shawn Crouch, Douglas J. Cuomo, Brent Michael Davids, Anthony Davis, Gabriela Lena Frank, Guido López-Gavilán, Stacy Garrop, William Hawley, Jake Heggie, Jackson Hill, Kamran Ince, Jeeyoung Kim, Tania León, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Michael McGlynn, Peter Michaelides, Nico Muhly, John Musto, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Stephen Paulus, Shulamit Ran, Bernard Rands, Carlos Rafael Rivera, Steven Sametz, Carlos Sanchez-Guttierez, Jan Sandström, Paul Schoenfield, Steven Stucky, John Tavener, Augusta Read Thomas and Janike Vandervelde, Ayanna Woods.

Americans love to sing! So much so that one in fifteen Americans belongs to a chorus and many belong to more than one, according to statistics compiled by the National Endowment for the Arts. Choral singing has the broadest participation of all the performing arts and this participation crosses all demographic and socio-economic lines, fostering real-time personal interaction. Amateur choral singers form a solid core of Chanticleer’s fan base, sharing with the ensemble their personal experience of the discipline and joy of singing with others.

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.

Chanticleer is in its 40th year of operation as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, raising from contributions half of the funds necessary to support our “orchestra of voices” and our core commitment to singing, educating and creating our alluring brand of sound well into the future in a sustainable, systematic and structurally sound way.

As a supporter you ensure that we can:

• Preserve and steward the “Chanticleer sound” by assuring full-time employment for Chanticleer's singers and Music Director

• Bolster our outreach to our local, regional, national and international audiences

• Continue to serve over 5,000 students per year in our award winning education program, includes through the Louis A. Botto (LAB) Choir and Bay Area and national Youth Choral Festivals.

• Maintain our established leadership in the creation of new works and arrangements that expand the choral repertoire.

• Leverage new and existing technologies to broaden our music distribution, increase earned revenue and enhance our brand eminence and philanthropic value.

With your generous support, we will sustain Chanticleer as the incandescent “Orchestra of Voices” that moves you and transports you.