William Fred Scott has been named Chanticleer's fifth Music Director. Scott was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Atlanta Opera from 1985 to 2005, and the Associate Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1981 to 1988–a post offered to him by legendary conductor, chorus director, and arranger Robert Shaw. After Shaw's passing, Scott presided for six years over Christmas with the Atlanta Symphony, carrying on the tradition of Robert Shaw's beloved Christmas concerts.
As Associate Conductor and Artistic Administrator of the Opera Company of Boston, he worked alongside that company’s pioneering founder Sarah Caldwell from 1975 to 1981 and conducted over 200 performances. He comes to Chanticleer after a five-year tenure as Director of Choral Music at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. Scott is also well known in Atlanta as an organist.
William Fred Scott is a native of Thomasville, Georgia and a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He has received considerable recognition in Atlanta for his deep personal commitment to the arts, the community and education, including awards from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Public Broadcasting Atlanta.
Scott has conducted with opera companies and symphony orchestras throughout the country, including the Opera Company of Boston, the Hawaii Opera Theater, Wolf Trap, the New York City Opera, and the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Alabama, Colorado, and Greenville, as well as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He conducted for the Kennedy Center Honors in 1991, and the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. With the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus he led the American premiere of Philip Glass' The Canyon. He made his European debut conducting Le Nozze di Figaro at Prague's Theater of the Estates in the Czech Republic.
Scott's first encounter with Chanticleer was in 1994, when he conducted Chanticleer and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a program of music of the Mexican Baroque. In Chanticleer's 2014-15 season he is Guest Music Director of The Gypsy in My Soul and Spanish Gold. He will take up his duties as Music Director in August of 2015.
Chanticleer is a professional Grammy Award-winning 12-man a cappella vocal ensemble founded by Louis A. Botto in San Francisco in 1978. Known as "An Orchestra of Voices," Chanticleer performs up to 100 concerts a year in the United States, Europe and Asia. Chanticleer has released over 40 recordings, sold over a million copies, and is famed for its seasonal program A Chanticleer Christmas, broadcast on over 300 public radio stations each year. In 2008, Chanticleer was named Musical America's Ensemble of the Year. Chanticleer is also known for its award-winning education and commissioning programs. Previous Music Directors have been Chanticleer's founder Louis A. Botto, Craig Hella Johnson, Joseph H. Jennings, and Matthew D. Oltman. Jace Wittig served as Interim Music Director from 2011 to 2014.