Chanticleer tours beloved Christmas program from coast to coast in the U.S. in December

(November 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” – performs its beloved holiday program, “A Chanticleer Christmas,” from coast to coast in the U.S. this season (Dec 1–23). 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 ensemble’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.

See Chanticleer performing Gene Puerling’s arrangement of “Deck the Hall”

Following the holiday season, Chanticleer continues to perform its new “Without a Song” program on tour across the U.S., exploring 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.”

Last season’s new program, titled “Music of a Silent World,” featured Ayanna Woods’s “I miss you like I miss the trees,” on the subject of wildfires, as a complement to Majel Connery’s The Rivers Are Our Brothers, a song cycle on ecological responsibility. A recording of Connery’s song cycle was released last month on Chanticleer Records, and the group gives two more performances of “Music of a Silent World” in the spring in the midst of their “Without a Song” performances.

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 (March 16–23). Finally, the group provides a soundtrack of Renaissance madrigals and motets for five Bay Area performances of Chanticleer and the Fox, based on the Caldecott-winning children’s book of the same name, illustrated by Barbara Cooney. Hearkening back to Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the story follows the rooster Chanticleer as he outwits the cunning fox to save his barnyard friends, and is 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.”

“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)

Winter-spring season

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 21: Orlando, FL (Dr. Phillips Center, Steinmetz Hall)
Jan 23: Columbus GA (RiverCenter for the Performing Arts)
Jan 24: Birmingham, AL (Samford University)
Jan 25: Huntsville, AL (Huntsville Chamber Music Guild)
Jan 26: Clarksville, TN (Clarksville Community Concerts)
Jan 28: Chattanooga, TN (St. Paul’s Episcopal Church)
Jan 30: Maryville, TN (Clayton Center for the Arts)
Jan 31: Asheville, NC (Wortham Center for the Performing Arts)
Feb 1: Johnson City, TN (East Tennessee State University)
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)
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)
April 3: Milwaukee, WI (Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist)
April 4: Wheaton, IL (Wheaton College)
April 5: Charleston, IL (Doudna Fine Arts Center)
April 8: Hanover, NH (Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College)
April 9: Storrs, CT (UConn Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts)
April 10: New York, NY (Kaufman Music Center)
April 11: Great Barrington, MA (Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center)
April 23: Kennett Square, PA (Unionville High School)
April 25: Baltimore, MD (First and Franklin Presbyterian Church)
April 26: Glassboro, NJ (Rowan University, Marie Rader Presenting Series)
April 27: Southport, CT (Trinity Episcopal Church)
May 10: Santa Monica, CA (BroadStage)
May 11: La Jolla, CA (St. James by-the-Sea)
May 12: Palm Desert, CA (St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church)
May 17: New York, NY (University Glee Club of NYC)
May 18: Washington, DC (National Cathedral Choral Society)
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)