A CHANTICLEER CHRISTMAS BEGINS DECEMBER 10th; 12 PERFORMANCES IN THE BAY AREA.

SAN FRANCISCO, October 31, 2015—The Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer keeps its oldest and best-loved tradition with 12 performances of A Chanticleer Christmas in the Bay Area between December 10th and 23rd. A Chanticleer Christmas offers profound, peaceful and joyous music in beautifully decorated missions, churches and cathedrals around the Bay Area.

Chanticleer’s Christmas season begins on November 28th in Fairfax, VA, with concerts in Manassas, VA, Chicago, IL, New York, NY, Purchase, NY, and Portland, OR, before continuing in California with performances in Berkeley, Carmel, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Stanford’s Memorial Chapel, Oakland and Petaluma. American Public Media will broadcast excerpts taped at New York's St. Ignatius Loyola on over 300 member stations nation-wide during the Christmas season. 

A Chanticleer Christmas tells the story of the nativity in music written from the 13th to 21st centuries. This year's program–the first under the direction of Chanticleer's newly appointed Music Director William Fred Scott–features music beloved by Christmas audiences by John Tavener, Gustav Holst and William Berg among others; arrangements by Robert Shaw, Alice Parker and others; as well as Chanticleer's signature gospel and spiritual arrangements. The 2015-16 season has seen Chanticleer on a whirlwind five-city tour of Asia, which included returns to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and a debut at Macau's International Music Festival.  A South American debut in Bolivia is in store for the spring when Chanticleer takes its Mission Road program to UNESCO world site missions in that country.  The season concludes with Washing of the Water­–a spiritually inspiring journey from Renaissance masters to great songwriters of the 20th century including Leonard Cohen and Paul Simon.

Chanticleer was awarded Chorus America’s prestigious Education and Outreach Award for 2010, and takes pride in its annual interaction with more than 5,000 students around the Bay Area and the U.S.  The Louis A. Botto (LAB) Choir–named in honor of Louis A Botto, the founder and original Artistic Director of Chanticleer–is a mixed honors choir for Bay Area high school students aged 14-20 and is currently in its sixth year.   The LAB Choir is frequently heard in performances in Bay Area schools, community centers, and other venues.

Called “America’s favorite choral ensemble,” by the New Yorker magazine, 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. Chanticleer Records releases live and studio recordings on CD and in digital formats; both may be found at: www.chanticleer.org.

For information regarding performance dates and tickets to A Chanticleer Christmas ($30-$75), visit: www.chanticleer.org. Tickets are also available by phone through City Box Office at 415-392-4400. Tickets for the December 10th performance at Stanford Memorial Church are available at live.stanford.edu.

Chanticleer Begins 38th Concert Season with Over the Moon 5 Bay Area Performances, September 19-26

SAN FRANCISCO, August 15, 2015 – The Grammy® award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer kicks off its 2015/16 Season–their 38th–with Over the Moon, under the direction of new Music Director, William Fred Scott.

 “Pierrot Lunaire,” newly written for Chanticleer, by internationally acclaimed composer Nico Muhly, highlights this trip Over The Moon where our strongest emotions take us. Chanticleer’s inimitable gift for finding the common human thread in centuries of music links Gustav Mahler, Mason Bates, Francis Poulenc, Claudio Monteverdi and Jaakko Mäntyjärvi; and celebrates the over the moon exuberance of popular composers such as Elbow, Bart Howard, and Henry Mancini in specially commissioned arrangements. 

 Over the Moon will be presented in four Bay Area cities as Chanticleer begins its season-long tour to 25 states. Chanticleer’s season appearances include an October tour to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei City, and Macau. Christmas will see the Ensemble back to the Bay Area for 13 performances of the group’s legendary A Chanticleer Christmas. In May 2016, Chanticleer returns to the Mission Road with a concert of Mexican Baroque music presented in California’s historic missions. The season will conclude with Washing of the Water, evoking the symbolic power of flowing water to cleanse, redeem and restore, extolled by composers since music began. 

 William Fred Scott was named Chanticleer's fifth Music Director in November 2014 and takes up his duties with this concert set.  A native of Georgia, he is a highly regarded organist and choir director as well as a longtime Associate Conductor to Robert Shaw at the Atlanta Symphony and Sarah Caldwell at the Opera Company of Boston and as the Founder and Artistic Director of the Atlanta Opera.  Most recently, he has been Director of Choral Music at The Westminster Schools in Atlanta.

For information regarding performance dates and tickets to Over the Moon ($10-$50), visit: www.chanticleer.org. Tickets are also available by phone through City Box Office at 415-392-4400.

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FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:

OVER THE MOON

September 19-26, 2015

SANTA CLARA, CA
Mission Santa Clara
500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA
Saturday, September 19 at 8pm

SACRAMENTO, CA
St. Francis of Assisi Church
1066 - 26th Street, Sacramento, CA
Sunday, September 20 at 5pm

BERKELEY, CA
St Mark's Episcopal Church
2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA
Wednesday, September 23 at 8pm

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
50 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA
Saturday, September 25 at 8pm
Sunday, September 26 at 8pm

OLIVETO TO HOST DINNER AND PERFORMANCE TO BENEFIT CHANTICLEER ON MAY 12

Renowned Oakland restaurant will host a benefit evening featuring multi-course dinner and live performance by GRAMMY® award-winning male chorus as part of its Oliveto Commons event series.

March 31, 2015 – Oakland, Calif. – Oliveto Restaurant and Cafe is taking advantage of its recent renovation featuring Meyer Sound’s Constellation and Libra sound systems to host a special benefit dinner and live performance by Chanticleer, the GRAMMY® award-winning male chorus renowned as “an orchestra of voices.” Epitomizing the intersection of culture, food, and science, the evening offers an opportunity to demonstrate and appreciate the capabilities of the innovative sound system with an internationally lauded choral ensemble.

For 37 years, the 12-member Chanticleer has performed in exceptional acoustical spaces. The evening at Oliveto represents the group’s vision of the future that includes utilizing appropriate alternative spaces that embrace modern technology.

The Oliveto concert is a retrospective that looks to the future, highlighting selections from the Chanticleer repertoire that have been performed in various traditional acoustical spaces worldwide, from cathedrals to symphony halls. Pieces will be performed utilizing different acoustical settings in the Constellation system to replicate the acoustics of the spaces in which Chanticleer normally sings.

This evening marks another step in the development of Oliveto Commons, a series of lectures, classes, workshops, discussions, and performances designed to explore the restaurant’s relationship with the community. Driving Co-owners Bob and Maggie Klein’s decision to launch the Commons was their desire to create an environment that showcases not only exceptional food, wine and cocktails, but one that nurtures a relationship-based approach to celebrating, exploring, and questioning food to connect more deeply with the agricultural community as well as the local community at large. Though the Commons focuses primarily on agriculture, food systems and education, the Chanticleer benefit affords Oliveto another opportunity to connect with the community.

“A great restaurant should offer more than just extraordinary food: it should be a setting that is all about connecting the community,” said Bob Klein.

The one-night only event begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, and includes a 4-course dinner by Oliveto Executive Chef Jonah Rhodehamel and a 30-minute performance by Chanticleer. Tickets are $250 per person, exclusive of beverage, tax and service charges. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Chanticleer’s ongoing award-winning education program, which includes 30 East Bay schools. Tickets may be purchased directly through Chanticleer’s website at http://www.chanticleer.org/concerts-and-tickets.

About Chanticleer

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 and its original interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music.

Now in its 37th season, Chanticleer has been recognized by numerous awards including:  multiple Grammy’s®, Musical America Ensemble of the Year, Chorus America’s Education Outreach Award and induction in to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

About Oliveto Restaurant & Cafe

Oliveto is a renowned restaurant and cafe in the heart of the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland, serving innovative, Italian- and northern Mediterranean-influenced California cuisine. Founded by Bob and Maggie Klein in 1986 with the simple intention to bring the distinctive flavors of the northern Mediterranean to California, Oliveto has been a Bay Area leader in sourcing the best seasonal, sustainable, and local ingredients through a network of passionate purveyors, and was an original restaurant pioneer of the whole animal movement for the region. Under the direction of Executive Chef Jonah Rhodehamel, Oliveto offers house-cured salumi, handmade pastas created with specially milled Community Grains flours, and unique heirloom tomatoes grown specifically for Oliveto’s kitchen. Since Chef Rhodehamel’s arrival in 2010, Oliveto’s special dinners, like the Tomato, Truffle, Oceanic, and Whole Hog dinners, have taken on new character and elevated quality.

In November 2014, Oliveto partnered with Berkeley-based Meyer Sound to create a high-tech, multi-sensory experience that was the centerpiece of the restaurant’s first major renovation in 18 years, utilizing both passive and active acoustic sound technology treatments to create an impeccable listening environment. With both the 104-seat upstairs dining room which offers exquisitely prepared food in a fine-dining atmosphere, as well as the warm and busting 36-seat café downstairs, Oliveto is at once a special occasion destination and a neighborhood spot that appeals to a local, sophisticated, and well-traveled Bay Area audience.

Oliveto Restaurant & Cafe is located at 5655 College Ave., Oakland. The upstairs restaurant offers lunch and dinner, while the cafe downstairs offers breakfast, lunch and dinner, daily. For reservations in the restaurant, please visit OpenTable or call 510-547-5356.

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Chanticleer’s Second The Singing Life - National Youth Choral Festival™ Takes Place in San Francisco, March 26-30, bringing Ten High-School Choirs to Bay Area for Clinics, Intensive Coaching Sessions, and Performances with Multiple Grammy Award-Winning Ensemble

Closing Concert on March 30th will feature Chanticleer and 300 student singers from all over the country singing Lars-Erik Larsson's "God in Disguise" conducted by Ragnar Bohlin, and world premiere of "Birdsong" by world-renowned mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick.

Called “stunningly expert” by the New Yorker, Chanticleer took its extensive nationwide education program to new heights with its first The Signing Life - National Youth Choral Festival™ in 2010 in San Francisco. The second festival, March 26-30, 2015, brings together ten high-school choirs, comprising 300 student singers from across the country: five choirs from the Bay Area and five traveling from as far away as Westport, CT; Knoxville, TN; and Aurora, IL. The four-day choral immersion will place the visiting choirs and directors in close, intensive interaction with members of Chanticleer, who will coach them in all areas critical to choral art.

The Singing Life is under the artistic direction of Ragnar Bohlin, Chanticleer's 2014-15 Guest Music Director and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and Chanticleer's Education Director Ben Johns. It also features the participation of world-renowned operatic mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick, as soloist, composer and clinician.

The March 30th culmination will feature Chanticleer and the choirs in a day-long residency giving the choirs the opportunity to perform individually on the stage, and to attend master-classes led by Bohlin and Zajick. That evening, all ten choirs will come together with Chanticleer for a concert conducted by Bohlin, and instrumentalists from the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra in a program featuring the west coast premiere of Lars-Erik Larsson's “God in Disguise”, and the world premiere of “Birdsong” by Dolora Zajick, composed specially for the occasion.

The participating choirs were selected by invitation, all of them having some prior experience in Chanticleer’s international education programs. The gala concert program for The Singing Life will also include winning compositions from Chanticleer’s Student Composition Competition: “Shalom!” by SF School of the Arts High School student, Elio Bucky, and “Journey” by the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater student, Karin Kuulpak. In addition to the world premiere of her composition, “Birdsong,” Ms. Zajick will join Chanticleer in singing Schubert’s “Ständchen, D. 920”, and the festival chorus in selections from Rossini’s “Petite Messe solennelle”. The program also features the combined choir performance of another Chanticleer staple: “Ave Maria” by Franz Biebl.

Ben Johns, Chanticleer’s Director of Education and a member of the ensemble between 2003 and 2006, comments:

“The Singing Life, Chanticleer’s National Youth Choral Festival™, is the most comprehensive and specialized education event hosted by Chanticleer. It commemorates the 15th year of our Bay Area Youth Choral Festival and expands that festival from one day and six participating schools to four days and twelve participating schools. The Singing Life layers activities that are designed for students, teachers, conductors, composers, small ensembles, large ensembles, and honor choirs with interaction with the Chanticleer ensemble. We’re thrilled to be working with special teaching guests including San Francisco Symphony Chorus Music Director Ragnar Bohlin and legendary mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick. We are also excited to include student instrumentalists from the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra.

“Considering how much energy flows through our normal Bay Area festival, this weekend in March is going to be absolutely atomic. It is my hope that this festival will reinforce indelibly the relevance of music education in our schools.”

Chanticleer’s second National Youth Choral Festival™ marks the 15th anniversary of the creation of Chanticleer’s Youth Choral Festivals™, a central component of Chanticleer’s wide-ranging and multi-faceted education program. In addition to Chanticleer Youth Choral Festivals™, which the group has offered in the Bay Area and around the U.S. the ensemble regularly gives in-school clinics and workshops, master-classes for university students, and the Chanticleer in Sonoma summer workshop for adult choral singers. Community Sings for adult choral singers have been given in Singapore, Italy, Austria, and Ireland during the group's tours. Additional Regional Youth Choral Festivals™ will also be held this season in Darien, CT (March 4) and Palm Desert, CA (April 7).

Chanticleer’s remarkable ability to inspire young singers was documented in 2009's The Singing Life – the inspiration for the title of the gala concert at Davies – that has aired extensively on public television stations and is now available on DVD. The ensemble began its education program–originally called Singing in the Schools–in 1986, and with the help of individual contributions and foundation and corporate support, the program has evolved and grown substantially, now including the Louis A. Botto (LAB) Choir, an after school honors program for Bay Area youth between 14-20.

The Singing Life also honors Chanticleer’s legendary bass, Eric Alatorre, on his 25th anniversary with the Ensemble.

The National Youth Choral Festival™ is being funded by generous grants from the Carol F. Buck Foundation; the Osher Pro Suecia Foundation; and Ken Grant and Ed Miner matched by other generous donors.

Chanticleer’s full season calendar and other information are available at www.chanticleer.org.

Chanticleer’s Second National Youth Choral Festival™ – the ten participating choirs:

Acalanes High School Chamber Singers

(Bruce Lengacher, Director)

Lafayette, CA

Albany High School Chamber Singers

(Mary Stocker, Director)

Albany, CA

Bishop Amat Memorial High School Chamber Singers

(Jennifer Srisamai, Director)

La Puente, CA

Cibola High School Performing Choir

(Mary Eckert, Director)

Yuma, AZ

Lowell High School Chamber Choir

(Jason Chan, Director)

San Francisco, CA

Mt. Eden High School Chamber Singers

(Ken Rawdon, Director)

Hayward, CA

Powell High School Singers

(Jim Kennedy, Director)

Knoxville, TN

Santa Rosa High School Chamber Singers

(Kira Bombace, Director)

Santa Rosa, CA

Staples High School Orphenians

(Luke Rosenberg, Director)

Westport, CT

Waubonsie Valley High School “Varsity Chamber”

(Mark Myers, Director)

Aurora, IL

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FOR CALENDAR EDITORS

The Signing Life – Chanticleer’s National Youth Choral Festival - Closing Concert

March 30, 2015

8PM

Davies Symphony Hall

San Francisco, CA

Tickets: $10-$50

City Box Office

www.cityboxoffice.com

415-392-4400

CHANTICLEER ANNOUNCES STUDENT COMPOSER COMPETITION WINNERS

WINNING COMPOSITIONS TO BE PREMIERED AT NATIONAL YOUTH CHORAL FESTIVAL™ IN MARCH 2015

SAN FRANCISCO – December 5, 2014 – The winners of Chanticleer’s fifth Student Composer Competition are San Francisco School of the Arts high schooler Elio Bucky for “Shalom!” and Estonian Academy of Music and Theater student Karin Kuulpak for “Journey.” The competition is designed to encourage current composition students to write quality works for high school-level choirs.   The winning compositions will be premiered at Chanticleer’s second National Youth Choral Festival on March 30, 2015 at Davies Symphony Hall by more than 300 high schoolers from across the United States.   

Winner Elio Bucky is a senior at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts.  He was introduced to choral music as a member of the San Francisco Boys Chorus and continues to sing as a member of the Asawa SOTA Vocal Department.  He is currently the Vocal Department’s Student Conductor.  “Shalom!” is a setting of two Jewish folksongs, quoting both “Shalom Chaverim” and “Hevenu Shalom Aleichem.”

Winner Karin Kuulpak is majoring in choral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in Tallinn.  Among other groups, she sings with the Estonian TV Girls’ Choir and is president of their singers’ board.  About her winning composition, “Journey,” she says, “It’s a song about making your own decisions and following your dreams.  In today’s busy world full of confusion and violence, it’s important to stay on your path and not let anyone take you down.”

The competition drew 70 submissions from international and domestic students, representing 12 countries and 19 states.  Due to the quantity and quality of submissions, the following 8 competitors are named as finalists:

• Kari Betton, from Columbia College Chicago for “Morning Psalm”
• Yie-Eun Chun from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music for “Misty Sunrise”
• Ed Frazier Davis from Chicago College of Performing Arts for “My Beloved Spoke”
• Ronald Harris from University of North Texas at Denton for “O, My Soul”
• Jihyun Kim from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music for “Lullaby for Sleepless Nights”
• Julie LeDuc from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music for “Kyrie”
• Spencer Robelen from University of Miami’s Frost School of Music for “Like an Eagle”
• Daniel Sabzghabaeil from University of North Texas at Denton for “Delbaré”

Requirements for the competition are that compositions must be for a cappella SATB High School level choir and three to five minutes in duration. The submitted work must not have had prior public performances or recordings. Only one work per composer was allowed.  Composers were currently enrolled as students at time of submission.  Works representing cultural heritage were encouraged.

Select finalists were offered a workshop opportunity with the Louis A. Botto (LAB) Choir, Chanticleer’s honors small ensemble for Bay Area singers ages 14-20.  The LAB Choir was able to make recordings of these works for the composers to use in furthering their careers.

Eric Barnum’s 2004 winning entry “She Walks in Beauty” was so successful that Chanticleer incorporated it into its touring program the following year.  The work is now published by Hinshaw Music.

Other winners and honorable mentions from past competitions include: Yi-Wen Chang (2009), Steve Kim (2008), Vicente Chavarria (2006), Erica Glenn (2006), Blake R. Henson (2006), Matthew Peterson (2006), Philip Rice (2006), Jorge Sosa (2006), and Dale Trumbore (2006), Mark Fromm (HM, 2006), Samuel Hunter (HM, 2006), Kelly Crandell (2001).

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