San Francisco, CA –August 14, 2019– GRAMMY Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer opens its 2019-2020 Bay Area subscription season with “Trade Winds” in five locations, September 15 through 29. Appropriately saluting their upcoming world travels, the twelve-man vocal ensemble will present the music of sea-faring people and tropical climates in a program that includes the U.S. premiere of a commissioned work, also entitled Trade Winds, by Chinese composer Zhou Tian. Works range from Monteverdi to Grieg, as well as a selection of traditional folk songs and sea shanties from all over the world.
The program will be presented as part of Chanticleer’s Bay Area subscription in venues around the Bay Area: Wednesday, September 18 at 7:30 p.m., Santa Clara Mission; Sunday, September 22 at 5 p.m., Osher Marin Jewish Community Center, San Rafael; Thursday, September 26 at 7:30 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music; Saturday, September 28, 8 p.m. at St. Augustine Church, Pleasanton; and Sunday September 29 at 5 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Sacramento. A special “Salon Series” Performance will be presented on Sunday, September 15 at 4 p.m. in the nautical setting of the Spaulding Marine Center, Sausalito. This intimate event begins with an aperitif on the Bay, a performance featuring selected music from the “Trade Winds” program and concludes with a reception with the ensemble.
Chanticleer’s long and illustrious history of commissioning new choral work continues with the U.S. premiere of Trade Winds by Chinese composer Zhou Tian. Based on the poetry of John Masefield (Trade Winds), Zhimo Xu (Fortuitousness) and Seth Michelson (Strange How We Can Walk), this commissioned work will receive its world premiere in in Kaufungen, Germany during Chanticleer’s upcoming European tour (August 19 through September 18). Zhou’s music has been performed throughout the world including orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic as well as such artists as Yuja Wang. His Concerto for Orchestra, commissioned and recorded by the Cincinnati Symphony, was nominated for a GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2018. During the past four decades, Chanticleer has commissioned and premiered more than 60 works by over 45 composers including Sir John Tavener, John Harbison, Chen Yi, Steven Stucky and Mason Mates.
“Trade Winds” reflects the eclectic and far-reaching repertoire which has made Chanticleer a world-wide audience favorite for over forty years. Early music, with which the group first distinguished itself, will be represented by songs about the sea and the spheres by Monteverdi and Gesualdo. Portuguese music from the same era will be sung by Chanticleer for the first time with Filipe de Magalhaes’ Mass, O Soberana Luz. A selection of Sea Shanties from the British Isles, and folk songs from China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand will complete the program.
Chanticleer’s 42nd season begins in August with performances in France, Germany, Italy and Poland. Upcoming world travels include debuts in Puerto Rico in January 2020 and in New Zealand after a return to Australia in July 2020. Throughout the season, the ensemble will perform and present workshops and masterclasses in 27 of the United States and Puerto Rico. In December, their popular annual holiday tradition “A Chanticleer Christmas” will return to New York, New Jersey, Virginia Chicago, Los Angeles and the Bay Area and will be broadcast on American Public Media.
Single tickets for “Trade Winds” range in price from $20 to $60 and can be purchased through City Box Office: http://www.cityboxoffice.com and (415) 392-4400.
For further information, please visit http://www.chanticleer.org. Media contacts are listed at the end of the release.
Chanticleer Presents “Trade Winds”
June 15-29, 2019
Wednesday September 18, 7.30 p.m., Santa Clara Mission,
Sunday September 22, 5:00 p.m., Osher Marin JCC, San Rafael
Thursday September 26, 7.30 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music,
Saturday September 28, 8:00 p.m., St. Augustine Church, Pleasanton,
Sunday September 29, 5:00 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Sacramento
Claudio Monteverdi: Zefiro torna, e’l bel tempo rimena
Carlo Gesualdo: Bella Angioletta
Monteverdi: Ecco mormorar l’onde
Monteverdi: Sfogava con le stelle
Gesualdo: Del bel de’bei vostri occhi
Edvard Grieg: Ave Maris Stella
Tomás Luis de Victoria: Ave Maris Stella
Francisco de Peñalosa: O Domina sanctissima
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry: Never Weather-beaten Sail
Filipe de Magalhães: Missa O Soberana Luz
Zhou Tian: Trade Winds (Commissioned by Chanticleer in 2018)
Traditional: Folksongs from China, Japan, Korea, Philipenes, Samoa and Australia.
Traditional: Sea Shanties from the British Isles.