Chanticleer celebrates the 2008 holiday season
“No one does a better choral Christmas than the virtuoso male voices of Chanticleer.” – The New Yorker
The Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer will give 25 holiday concerts across America this season, a tradition that has made “A Chanticleer Christmas”
one of the group’s most beloved programs. Beginning in Fairfax,
Virginia on November 29 and ending on “home territory” in Carmel,
California on December 22, the San Francisco-based ensemble will give
multiple performances in the Medieval Sculpture Hall at New York’s
Metropolitan Museum of Art (December 3 – 7), as well as concerts in
Chicago (December 1, presented by the Chicago Symphony) and at Los
Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (December 16).
Friday, December 5 will be a particularly busy and festive day for Chanticleer, as it returns to NBC TV’s popular Today show
for its fourth consecutive season. The group will perform two holiday
favorites, beginning in the 9 o’clock hour (eastern time; check local
listings), including Christmas Time is Here, the popular song heard in the Charlie Brown Christmas special and featured on Chanticleer’s Portrait album. They will also discuss the ensemble’s newest release, the CD+DVD Mission Road, described by the All Music Guide
as “one of Chanticleer’s most interesting albums for years, and a
worthwhile addition to collections of New World Spanish music.” The DVD
from the album can be viewed free line on-line at www.medici.tv
through December. Also on December 5, Chanticleer will give a special
in-store performance at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store (beginning
at approximately 2pm). On December 10 at 9:30AM, Chanticleer will
perform a holiday segment on WQXR-FM (96.3 FM), the classical music
station of the New York Times.
Last season, Chanticleer’s new holiday album, Let It Snow, was a Top 5 Billboard bestseller, prompting the San Francisco Chronicle
to report, “The vocals are pristine and the instrumentals by the
Chanticleer Holiday Orchestra are sublime. But what really makes the
album stand out are the arrangements, many by the group’s music
director, Joseph Jennings.”
Chanticleer’s reputation for
top-quality holiday music-making has been widely manifested in several
best-selling recordings, a long-running public television special, and
in hundreds of concerts across the country during its 30+ seasons. The New Yorker
recently observed, “to hear a Christmas concert in the majestic
intimacy of the museum’s Medieval Sculpture Hall is an essential New
York experience. Chanticleer, the ebullient (and stunningly expert) San
Francisco men’s chamber choir, has been drawing eager crowds for
several years by offering a tempting mix of carols, spirituals, and
sacred polyphony from the medieval and Renaissance periods.” That
“tempting mix” this season will include surprising new repertoire
(including Armenian music by Vartabed, Russian music by Chesnokov and
music by Mexican baroque composers such as Victoria and Gonzales), as
well as beloved favorites such as Tavener’s Village Wedding and Biebl’s Ave Maria.
A list of Chanticleer’s holiday concert dates follows. For additional information visit www.chanticleer.org
Chanticleer Holiday Tour 2008
November ‘08
29 Fairfax, VA: George Mason University, 8:00PM
30 Fairfax, VA: George Mason University, 2:00PM
December ’08
01 Chicago, IL: 4th Presbyterian Church, 8:00PM
03 New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 212-570-3949, 6:30PM
03 New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 212-570-3949, 8:30PM
04 New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 212-570-3949, 6:30PM
04 New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 212-570-3949, 8:30PM
05 Live performances on NBC-TV’s TODAY show (check local listings)
06 Greenvale, NY: Tiles Center, 8:00PM
07 New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 212-570-3949, 6:30PM
07 New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 212-570-3949, 8:30PM
10 Stanford, CA: Stanford Memorial Church, 8:00PM
11 Stanford, CA: Stanford Memorial Church, 8:00PM
12 Berkeley, CA: First Congregational Church, 8:00PM
13 San Francisco, CA: St. Ignatius Church, 8:00PM
14 San Francisco, CA: Special Event Concert, 5:00PM
15 Santa Clara, CA: Mission Santa Clara, 6:00PM
15 Santa Clara, CA: Mission Santa Clara, 8:30PM
16 Los Angeles, CA: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 8:00PM
16 Los Angeles, CA: Special Event, 10:00PM
19 Petaluma, CA: St. Vincent Church, 6:00PM
19 Petaluma, CA: St. Vincent Church, 8:30PM
20 San Francisco, CA: St. Ignatius Church, 8:00PM
21 Davis, CA: Mondavi Center for the Arts, 5:00PM
22 Carmel, CA: Carmel Mission, 6:00PM
22 Carmel, CA: Carmel Mission, 8:30PM