Chanticleer kicks off 2024–25 season with premiere of new “Without a Song” program

(August 2024) — Multiple Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer – lauded by the
Boston Globe as “breathtaking in its accuracy of intonation, purity of blend, of color and swagger
of style” – kicks off its new season of performances at home in the Bay Area and on tour across
the U.S. with the new “Without a Song” program, which explores music’s power throughout the
ages. Repertoire includes Medieval and Renaissance motets by Francesco Landini and Orlando
di Lasso, a new work by Grammy-nominated composer Ayanna Woods, the group’s 2023–24
composer-in-residence, and a new version of the jazz standard “Without a Song,” arranged by
Stacey V. Gibbs. Music Director Tim Keeler elaborates:

“Part of what makes our job so beautiful and invigorating is getting to share the joy and power of
music with audiences around the world. We feel their excitement from the stage. In ‘Without a
Song,’ we lean into that joy and consider just how essential music is to our everyday life. It
provides us with inspiration, comfort, tears, and smiles.”

Ayanna Woods’s music was also featured last season in a new program called “Music of a Silent
World,” which centered on Majel Connery’s The Rivers are our Brothers, a song cycle on
ecological responsibility. Woods’s “I miss you like I miss the trees” dealt with the subject of
wildfires. A video excerpt from that program can be seen here.

Two other unique programs – the Indian music-focused “Choodandi” and “Chanticleer and the
Fox: An Evening of Renaissance Music Theater” – will be performed in Bay Area venues in the
spring, and the group’s iconic holiday program, “A Chanticleer Christmas,” will tour from coast
to coast. As Gramophone declared in its five-star review of Chanticleer’s latest album, On a Clear
Day: “The group’s make up has changed often in the almost half-century of its existence, but the
quality and commitment they bring to this recording must have been present from the
beginning. … The entire programme is delivered with the skilful aplomb one expects from
these voices.”

“A Chanticleer Christmas”

Chanticleer performs its beloved holiday program, “A Chanticleer Christmas,” throughout the
month of December. Featured on a PBS special and multiple appearances on NBC’s Today show,
the program – from its opening candlelit chant procession to its triumphant gospel conclusion –
hearkens back to some of the group’s most cherished traditions and the original vision of its
founder, Louis Botto. Tour highlights include performances at New York City’s Church of St.
Ignatius Loyola (Dec 6 & 8), Chicago’s Symphony Center (Dec 10), and Los Angeles’s Walt
Disney Concert Hall (Dec 17), as well as concerts throughout the choir’s Bay Area home. At the
height of the pandemic, when live performances were out of the question, the group released the
Christmas program on the album Chanticleer Sings Christmas, which was lauded by Classics
Today for “the beauty and sumptuous blend the choir achieves … and the seasoned performance
style that brings each selection to its fullest expression.” It joins a catalogue of more than 40
albums, released over four decades, which have sold well over a million copies and won multiple
Grammy awards.

“Choodandi”

Later in the season, Chanticleer performs a program titled “Choodandi,” curated by Chanticleer
tenor Vineel Garisa Mahal. Featuring music by composers ranging from Thyagaraja – a
composer of classical Carnatic music – to contemporary songwriter Sid Sriram, the program will
explore not only how Indian music has changed and evolved, but also how perceptions of this
“perfect” and “true” art form can change. Keeler comments:

“’Choodandi’ will be Chanticleer’s first foray into Indian music. We are excited and grateful to have
Vineel leading us through this beautiful and wide-ranging repertoire, and helping us hone the
genre’s unique subtleties of vocal production, ornamentation, and style.”

“Chanticleer and the Fox: An Evening of Renaissance Music Theater”

Based on the Caldecott-winning children’s book Chanticleer and the Fox, illustrated by Barbara
Cooney, and hearkening back to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the story of the rooster
Chanticleer outwitting the cunning fox to save his barnyard friends will be accompanied by the
ensemble Chanticleer performing a soundtrack of Renaissance madrigals and motets. Performed
in five cities surrounding Chanticleer’s Bay Area home, the concert will be suitable for children of
all ages (June 7–13).

About Chanticleer

The Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world as “an
orchestra of voices” for its wide-ranging repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San
Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one
of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, selling more than one million
recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the globe.

Rooted in the Renaissance, Chanticleer’s repertoire has been expanded to include a wide range of
classical, gospel, jazz and popular music and to reflect a deep commitment to the commissioning
of new compositions and arrangements. The ensemble has dedicated much of its vast recording
catalogue to these commissions, garnering Grammy Awards for its recordings of Sir John
Tavener’s Lamentations & Praises and the ambitious collection of commissioned works entitled
Colors of Love. Chanticleer is the recipient of Chorus America’s Dale Warland Singers Commission
Award and the Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. During his tenure
with Chanticleer, Music Director Emeritus Joseph H. Jennings received the Chorus America
Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award for his contribution to the African American choral tradition.

Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer
continues to maintain ambitious programming in its hometown of San Francisco, including a large
education and outreach program, and an annual concert series that includes its legendary holiday
tradition, “A Chanticleer Christmas.”

High-resolution photos can be found here.

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Chanticleer 2024–25 season

“Without a Song”
Sep 14: San Francisco, CA (San Francisco Conservatory of Music – Hume Hall)
Sep 15: Sacramento, CA (St. John’s Lutheran)
Sep 17: Berkeley, CA (First Church)
Sep 19: Santa Clara, CA (Mission Santa Clara)
Sep 20: Mill Valley, CA (Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church)

“Music of a Silent World”
Sep 24: Cleveland, OH (Cleveland Chamber Music Society)
Oct 2: Madison, WI (Wisconsin Union Theater at the University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Oct 19: Atlanta, GA (Cathedral of St. Philip)

“Sing Joyfully”
Sep 25 & 26: State College, PA (Penn State)

“Without a Song”
Sep 28: Birmingham, MI (Birmingham First United Methodist Church)
Sep 29: Toledo, OH (Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral)
Oct 1: Green Bay, WI (Brown County Civic Music Association
Oct 9: Concordia, KS (Cook Series – Cloud County Community College)
Oct 11: Pittsburg, KS (Pittsburg State University)
Oct 22: Belton, TX (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor)
Oct 24 & 25: Dallas, TX (University of Texas Dallas)
Oct 26: Ardmore, OK (Goddard Center for Visual and Performing Arts)

“Echoes”
Oct 4: Indianapolis, IN (Second Presbyterian Church Indianapolis)

“A Chanticleer Christmas”
Dec 1: Manassas, VA (George Mason University)
Dec 3: Sarasota, FL (Sarasota Concert Association)
Dec 4: Palm Beach, FL (The Society of the Four Arts)
Dec 6 & 8: New York, NY (Church of St. Ignatius Loyola)
Dec 7: Princeton, NJ (Princeton University Concerts)
Dec 10: Chicago, IL (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Center)
Dec 12: Stanford, CA (Stanford Live)
Dec 13: Petaluma, CA (St. Vincent de Paul, two shows)
Dec 15: Oakland, CA (Cathedral of Christ the Light)
Dec 16: Sacramento, CA (Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament)
Dec 17: Los Angeles, CA (LA Phil, Disney Hall)
Dec 19: Mill Valley, CA (Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church)
Dec 20: Santa Clara, CA (Mission Santa Clara, two shows)
Dec 21: Berkeley, CA (First Church)
Dec 22: San Francisco, CA (St. Ignatius)
Dec 23: Carmel, CA (Carmel Mission, 2 shows)

“Without a Song”
Jan 17: Clemson, SC (Clemson University – Brooks Center for the Performing Arts)
Jan 19: Savannah, GA (Friends Of Cathedral Music Concert Series)
Jan 20: Jacksonville, FL (Palms Presbyterian Church)
Jan 23: Columbus GA (RiverCenter for the Performing Arts)
Jan 25: Huntsville, AL (Huntsville Chamber Music Guild)
Jan 26: Clarksville, TN (Clarksville Community Concerts)
Jan 31: Asheville, NC (Wortham Center for the Performing Arts)
Feb 20: Seattle, WA (Seattle Symphony/Benaroya Hall Presents)
Feb 21: Portland, OR (Friends of Chamber Music)
Feb 22: Portland, OR (Youth Choral Festival, Friends of Chamber Music)
Feb 25: Logan, UT (Chamber Music Society of Logan)
More dates TBA

“Choodandi”
March 16: Sacramento, CA (St. John’s Lutheran)
March 20: Santa Clara, CA (Mission Santa Clara)
March 21: Mill Valley, CA (Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church)
March 22: San Francisco, CA (San Francisco Conservatory of Music – Hume Hall)
March 23: Berkeley, CA (First Church)

“Without a Song”
April 4: Wheaton, IL (Wheaton College)
April 5: Charleston, IL (Doudna Fine Arts Center)

“Sing Joyfully”
April 8: Hanover, NH (Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College)

“Without a Song”
April 11: New York, NY (Kaufman Music Center)
April 26: Glassboro, NJ (Rowan University, Marie Rader Presenting Series)
April 27: Southport, CT (Trinity Episcopal Church)
May 10: Santa Monica, CA (BroadStage)
May 18: Washington, DC (National Cathedral Choral Society)
More dates TBA

“Chanticleer and the Fox”
June 7: San Francisco, CA (Noe Valley Ministry, 2 shows)
June 8: Sacramento, CA (St. John’s Lutheran)
June 10: Santa Clara, CA (Mission Santa Clara)
June 12: Mill Valley, CA (Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church)
June 13: Berkeley, CA (First Church)

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© 21C Media Group, August 2024