A CHANTICLEER CHRISTMAS 23 PERFORMANCES ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND 12 IN THE BAY AREA
Program features a World Premiere by Swedish composer, Jan Sandström
SAN FRANCISCO, October 22, 2010—The Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer will give 23 holiday concerts across America this season, continuing a tradition that has made “A Chanticleer Christmas,” the group’s most beloved program. Chanticleer will give twelve concerts in the Bay Area from December 10 – 22, beginning in Oakland at the magnificent Cathedral of Christ the Light, and continue in Napa, Petaluma, Sacramento, Berkeley, San Francisco, Carmel and Santa Clara. This popular Bay Area tradition continues to bring the power and mystery, warmth and intimacy of the season to capacity audiences in beautifully decorated churches, cathedrals, and missions.
The evening’s inspiring music for the season will include the world premiere of celebrated Swedish composer Jan Sandström’s “The Word Became Flesh,” which Chanticleer has recorded and will be available for download. The program will have a decidedly early English flavor, but will also feature songs by contemporary composers and Chanticleer favorites, Steven Sametz and Ivan Moody, as well as a selection of glorious carols and traditional Christmas spirituals.
The season will continue in 2011 with The Boy Whose Father was God (Five Concerts, March 26 – April 1), amusical re-telling of the whole life of Jesus, beginning with his childhood, and will end with Romantic Chanticleer (Eight concerts, June 3 – 12), with songsfrom the heart about passion and pain, joy and eternity – in other words – about love.
The Grammy Award-winning ensemble is now releasing a number of new recordings beginning with “A Chanticleer Christmas” a new collection of holiday favorites from live performances in Stanford’s Memorial Church. as a CD and for downloads. Studio-recorded singles accompanying the ensemble’s 2010-11 repertoire will begin regular release.
Chanticleer is also pleased to announce the new “CLIC | Chanticleer Live in Concert” download series. The ensemble is opening its vault of live concert recordings from the present and back through Chanticleer’s history, giving fans access to recorded performances.
The first of these is “For Thy Soul's Salvation: Music for England's Monarchs” recorded June 5, 2010 at Mission Dolores in San Francisco, featuring magnificent music composed for the Royal Chapels by Cornysh, Fayrfax, Tye, Tallis, Sheppard, Byrd, Gibbons, Mundy, Wylkynson & Parsons. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman wrote: "... the ensemble's 12 singers, led by Music Director Matthew Oltman, rose superbly to the challenge in one of the most alluring performances of recent seasons.” This full concert is available now at www.Chanticleer.org.
Two other “Live in Concert” downloads are The National Youth Festival’s highly acclaimed performance “The Singing Life,” which took place at Symphony Hall earlier this year in March featuring Chanticleer with 12 high school choruses from around the country, and “Comedian Harmonists: BETWEEN TWO WARS,” Chanticleer’s 2002 tribute to the internationally famous, all-male German close harmony ensemble that performed between 1928 and 1934 as one of the most successful musical groups in Europe before World War II.
Individual works culled from the 2010-11 season are currently being recorded for download online as singles, with the intention of collating the best of these into an album at a later date.
Chanticleer’s many past recordings are available on Chanticleer’s website. Favorites include “Let it Snow,” a collection of Christmas music released in 2007, was on the Billboard charts for twelve weeks; “Best of Chanticleer,” a compilation with three new tracks including Mahler’s “Ich bin der welt” and Gershwin’s “Summertime;” and “Colors of Love” that won the GRAMMY® Award in 2000 for Best Small Ensemble Performance (with or without Conductor) and the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award for Best Classical Album.
Called “the world’s reigning male chorus,” by the New Yorker magazine, and named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America in 2008, Chanticleer will give more than 100 concerts in 2010-11, the GRAMMY Award-winning ensemble’s 33rd Season.
Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its twelve male voices ranging from countertenor to bass. Founded in San Francisco in 1978, Chanticleer has developed a worldwide reputation for its impeccable musicianship, beauty of sound, and wide-ranging repertoire from Renaissance and Mexican Baroque to jazz, gospel, folk, and adventurous new music.
For information on recordings and downloads, as well as performance dates and tickets to A Chanticleer Christmas ($30 - $52), visit the website: www.chanticleer.org. Tickets are also available by phone at 800/407-1400.
A Chanticleer Christmas
Friday, Dec. 10, 8 pm
Oakland Cathedral of Christ the Light
Sunday, Dec. 12, 5 pm
Napa Valley Opera House
Monday, Dec. 13, 6 pm & 8:30 pm
St. Vincent, Petaluma
Tuesday, Dec. 14, 8 pm
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Sacramento
Friday, Dec. 17, 8 pm
First Congregational Church, Berkeley
Saturday, Dec. 18, 8 pm
Sunday, Dec. 19, 8 pm
St. Ignatius, San Francisco
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 6 pm & 8:30 pm
Carmel Mission
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 6 pm & 8:30 pm
Mission Santa Clara
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