Chanticleer: The Inside View

Good Bye Blogger.com.... Come see our new site and blog

2010-09-27T11:53:00.001-07:00

We've launched our new site, complete with a new blog.
We will no longer be posting here at Blogger.com.

Visit us @ www.chanticleer.org

"Suavity and Transparence" says the SF Chron!!!!

2010-09-21T10:09:00.001-07:00

Here are the first two reviews from last week's "Out of this World" concerts here in the Bay Area. You can still see it - or come again - tonight, Tuesday in Walnut Creek, Thursday in Santa Clara, Saturday in Napa, Sunday in Sacramento.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/21/DDRT1FGNC3.DTL

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_16127286?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com

Ben Johns talks about Lab Choir in week 3

2010-09-20T12:07:00.001-07:00

First, we thought you'd like to know which schools are represented in Lab Choir 2, our after school honors choir:

Albany High School (2)
Berkeley High School
Maybeck High School (Berkeley)
Oakland Technical High School
Jewish Community High School of the Bay (SF)
Lick-Wilmerding High School (SF)
Lowell High School (SF)
Davis Sr. High School (3)
UC Davis (2)
Santa Rosa High School
Santa Rosa Jr. College
Tamalpais High School
Athenian School (Danville)
Mt. Diablo High School
Concord High School (3)

The theme for this weekend's rehearsal was "Ensemble." Now that most of the notes are learned, the LAB singers were able to turn their attention to some of the finer elements of singing together. Again, I'm struck by how quickly these students can focus and adapt to singing with each other when a week has passed without contact. Whether it's tackling new vocal techniques (like harmonic overtone singing for Past Life Melodies), learning about homophony, imitation, and inversion, or attending to business (like voting on T-shirt designs), the LAB Choir plows forward with enthusiasm. At this halfway point we're on track for our debut at the Youth Choral Festival on Oct. 22...there's more work and fun ahead!

Break times are good too!

BIG DAY: our new website/digital storefront goes live TONIGHT - MONDAY!

2010-09-20T10:20:00.003-07:00

At the second San Francisco performance of "Out of this World" yesterday, Matt talked to the audience about all the music we'll be making newly available on our new digital storefront by the end of this month. Singles of "Cells Planets," "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud" and "Sirens," whole live concerts from the past ( Comedian Harmonists from 2002, this year's National Youth Choral Festival and "For Thy Soul's Salvation,"just for starters) our brand new Christmas recording "A Chanticleer Christmas" AND pretty soon, highlights from "Out of this World." Come visit us on the website; your patronage of our store is a big help to us!

Many longtime faithful fans were there yesterday, plus some students from School of the Arts, AND our youngest fan, Sophia, who's been coming for a few years since her father joined our Board of Trustees. We're always interested to hear her opinions. She's been deeply devoted to Eric

and now there's also Casey (soloist in "Cells Planets") who was a member of the Duke's Men at Yale University, just like Sophia's father.

There are four Bay Area performances of "Out of this World" this week - tomorrow at the Lesher Center at Walnut Creek, Thursday at the Mission Santa Clara, Saturday at the Napa Opera House,
and Sunday at St. Francis of Assissi in Sacramento. Hope to see you.

September: sad news to report

2010-09-19T12:14:00.001-07:00

We have learned of the passing of Ken Fitch, counter tenor in the ensemble from 1988-1997. Eric Alatorre remembers him:

Ken was an alum of the Royal College in London, sang with the Boston Camerata in Boston, eventually with Frank Albinder in that group. He came to Chanticleer as one of its core members when there was still a split between the 8 full time members who toured and the 4 part time who did local / large projects and recording. He was hired as a soprano, but really loved the top alto chair, and was a soloist in several Chanticleer recordings including: Virgen Sancta, A un niño llorando, Stormy Weather, and other solos in the Mexican Baroque series we did. He was a loyal husband, loving father, and not only a good friend, but a patient mentor to me in my early years. He lived in Napa, and commuted to SF every day, but always was a cheerful and upbeat despite being away from his family so much. He was also the last person in the group who had a child, until last year. He is survived by his wife, Kathleen, and his son John.
-Eric

September: Lab Choir 2 has its 5th session.

2010-09-18T14:55:00.001-07:00

With this, its 5th rehearsal, Lab Choir 2 is amazingly already half way through its 10 week session. As you can see on the board, there's an ambitious list of repertoire to work on, voting on the t-shirt design, getting to know each other on breaks, and talking with Ben about a lot of different topics. Today - among many other things- they practiced making overtones in "Past Life Melodies" which is on our program at the moment, and had a discussion led by Ben about all the characteristics required of a good ensemble member.

September: "Out of this World" in San Francisco

2010-09-18T14:49:00.001-07:00

Here's our little corner of San Francisco - the San Francisco Conservatory a block away from our office and rehearsal facilities and diagonally across the street from the Chinese restaurant where we are to be found on many many of our lunch hours. San Francisco performances are always attended by a lot of long-time fans who never hesitate to tell us what they think. They were extremely enthusiastic about everything - even those who think that Guerrero and/or Monteverdi madrigals are the highlight of the program enjoyed our crossover into indie rock with "Cells Planets," and really appreciated both of Mason Bates' pieces. We were glad to see students in the audience from Palo Alto High School and School of the Arts and their choir director Todd Wedge (former Chanticleer tenor.) Both those schools participated in our National Youth Choral Festival last March.

Mason and his wife seemed to be happy about it - which makes us happy too!We repeat the program Sunday the l9th at 5pm, same place.

September: "Out of this World" in Carmel

2010-09-16T11:56:00.001-07:00

We're lucky to be Californians while we're in Chanticleer (Eric's almost always the only native Californian) and to perform often in the glorious California missions. They have an intimate and profound atmosphere, and fantastic acoustics. Last night we were in Carmel whose acoustics are really out of this world. It's the only mission with an arched roof(see below.) There are always a lot of extremely loyal audience members who have been coming to Chanticleer concerts here for decades. Presenting our new programs under these conditions before we take them out on the road is such a luxury. We have many miles to go before we get back to Carmel for Christmas on December 21, but we already look forward to it.

This was our second performance of "Out of this World." Our two new pieces "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud" by Mason Bates, and "Cells Planets" by Erika LLoyd (this latter something really new and different in our repertoire) seemed to resonate just as much with the Carmel audience as with San Luis Obispo the night before. We're really pleased about that. Our new digital storefront will launch on Monday -soon you will be able to download both new pieces - and, we hope, much of this concert!

Behind the scenes in Carmel: one of the mission bells from inside the bell tower, and the famous crooked window (which is over the front door) from the inside. Nobody really knows why it was made crooked, although they do know that it was intentional, and could have had to do with refraining from pride by refraining from perfection.

Matt Oltman on last night's performance in San Luis Obispo

2010-09-16T11:49:00.001-07:00

The performance last night in San Luis Obispo was exciting in so many ways. First, it is always a thrill to perform a new program in front of an audience for the first time. After so many weeks of rehearsal, seeing the audience react and respond to our artistic goals is incredibly rewarding. Second, last night saw the world premiere of two songs. This gives the entire ensemble and audience the sense of having been part of a "creation"; a singular moment in time which can only ever be shared by the people in that room (but which we will recreate at every performance this season, I promise!). Third, even though last night was only the first of some 80 performances we will do of this program, we can all feel a certain sense of accomplishment. From here on out, our efforts can be directed towards polishing and honing, but the product, the work of art which is the "program", has been brought to living, breathing life. All we have to do now is care for it and share it with all of you! (Oh yeah, and start learning the Christmas program! There is always another little program bun in the oven!)

September: our first 'Out of this World'- 2 world premieres

2010-09-14T23:08:00.001-07:00

Here we go! A few hundred miles south to San Luis Obispo on the Central Coast for the first concert of this season - Casey and Michael Axtell's debut and the beginning of Eric's third decade with Chanticleer. We performed the world premieres of Mason Bates' "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud" and Vince Peterson's arrangement of Erika Lloyd's "Cells Planets" both of which seemed to be huge hits. It was a beautiful sunny day, we love the mission at San Luis Obispo and the friendly crowd we see there. There were lots of students from Paso Robles and Templeton High Schools, both of which had participated in our National Youth Choral Festival last March. As always, it's good to have their energy. It's an interesting program, we think, lots of big pieces around our theme of what is beyond our planet and beyond our knowledge. Our new Christmas CD started moving off the table, and downloads of highlights from this program will be available soon. Back up Highway 101 to Carmel tomorrow.

September: Ben reports on the Lab Choir's first weekend

2010-09-08T09:49:00.001-07:00

Hi - Ben Johns, Chanticleer Education Director, here - that's me in the red shirt on the left of Lab Choir 2's first official portrait, taken on Labor Day. We're off to a really good start! It's amazing to me that 22 students from 14 different schools can gel so quickly as an ensemble.

We spent a large portion of the weekend in sectional rehearsals securing notes and cultivating our new identity as LAB 2. Dominick's [Ben's assistant, a composition student at U.C. Davis] role as Assistant Director has been key to the success so far - much time saved by running concurrent sectionals. When we weren't musicking, we were either eating, studying, or playing hacky sack. Already we're producing moments of real music, beyond printed notes....better than the average high school choir. It's especially exciting to realize that this is the beginning. I haven't been this exhilarated and exhausted since the National Festival in March.

The energy and enthusiasm we all share is great. We've been bounding up and down the stairwell for sectionals to save the elevator from breaking. That's one way to stay vocally warmed up and exercise breathing muscles!

Here's a clip of us singing the end of Kirke Mechem's "Island in Space"-pretty awesome for four days work!

Out of this World! Cells Planets

2010-09-07T10:26:00.001-07:00

We did finish recording Vince Peterson's arrangement of Erika Lloyd's "Cells Planets" on Saturday night. Casey Breves sings the solo (originally sung by Erika Lloyd with Little Grey Girlfriend). If you're coming to our concert series in the Bay Area next week, you'll be the first to hear it on our program "Out of this World" exploring what may be beyond our earth. Here's Erika's website, with a shout out for us.

http://www.erikalloydmusic.com/

And here's a nice preview write-up about "Out of this World."

http://www.sfcv.org/preview/chanticleer/chanticleer-out-of-this-world

Chanticleer's busy Labor Day

2010-09-06T14:11:00.001-07:00

Although we have a day off between finishing the recording and re-starting rehearsals for our new season (starting on the 14th in San Luis Obispo,) there's lots going on today in Chanticleer-land.
Matt Oltman and Don Fraser are at Fantasy Studios finishing up the editing of our new recordings. Lab Choir 2 is at our place in San Francisco, under the direction of Education Director Ben Johns, hard at work for the fourth consecutive day! They're continuing working on Sumaya and Mechem, with lots of sectionals, punctuated by some listening breaks, for example hearing Jessye Norman singing Schubert's Ave Maria. Pretty much the first time for everybody hearing that great voice.

Above, Lab Choir 2 at our office and rehearsal space. Below, Matt Oltman at Fantasy Studios, working on editing Erika Lloyd's "Cells Planets," the last piece we recorded last week. You can hear it soon!

Chanticleer's Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-04T18:57:00.001-07:00

We're busy on several fronts this Labor Day Weekend. Lab Choir 2 convened for its second day which included sectionals on Kirke Mechem's "Island in Space" (which is on Chanticleer's touring program this year,) rhythm exercises invented by Ben on the spot, reading of a Gregorian Chant under the direction of Dominic (Ben's assistant and a singer in LC2, who also knows about Chant) further work on Ave Regina Coelorum by Sumaya which was started yesterday....and so on.
More tomorrow and Monday - we have to hand it to those young singers - they're working hard!!!

We were on the other side of the Bay at Fantasy Studio in Berkeley, continuing our work on Steven Sametz' pieces which required a fair amount of experimentation with our standing positions in relation to the mics. Tonight we'll do Erika Lloyd's "Cells Planets" and that's it for the studio for a while.

On our dinner break we took a look at our new web-site, which will be going up very soon and which will make it REALLY easy for you to download music - like these new tracks we're making right now!!

September: LAB Choir 2 starts today!

2010-09-03T18:22:00.001-07:00

Today was the first session this season of Chanticleer's Louis A. Botto (LAB) Choir, led by our Education Director Ben Johns. We started this idea last year, forming the 14 member LAB CHOIR 1 to be the instrument for the sessions we offered the choir directors at our National Youth Choral Festival. For LAB CHOIR 2, Ben recruited 22 student singers from as far away as Santa Rosa and Davis, as well as San Francisco and the East Bay. It's something we've thought about for a long time; it's seems a natural for us to expand upon our education offerings with an after-school program for advanced singers. There will be three 10 week sessions during the school year, each with up to 25 singers participating. They will rehearse every weekend and perform at schools, community centers -wherever they decide to. They will be able to attend a Chanticleer rehearsal, have input from the ensemble, and see Chanticleer in concert. LAB CHOIR 2 will make its debut at our Youth Choral Festival on October 22. We thank all the parents who came along for their support, and we thank the singers for singing up for this adventure with Chanticleer.

Today's session started with a sing through of "Sure on this shining night" - as Ben said -"just to see what we sound like." The four hour session included a greeting from Chanticleer Board Chair Kathy Henschel, warm-ups, snacks, discussing the schedule, getting acquainted, and a lot of serious singing. They'll meet again Saturday and Sunday and Monday for 6 hours each day. That's the whole Labor Day weekend - a very impressive commitment! We can't wait to hear them.

September: back in the dark with Sametz and Sandstrom

2010-09-03T15:34:00.001-07:00

Our two day break in the recording schedule coincided with a heat wave in San Francisco - that was excellent! We haven't worn shorts in San Francisco all summer until now. We are thinking of our East Coast friends who are as we write in the path of Hurricane Earl. Hope it goes OK!!! While you're waiting for Earl we're back at Fantasy Studio in Berkeley to continue on with the Sandstrom piece, as well as starting on Steven Sametz' two new songs to texts by Walt Whitman. Steven's beautiful pieces "I have had Singing" and "In time of.." have been a big part of Chanticleer's life forever; we looking forward to adding these new ones. Because of the amazing Convolution system, we are doing Steven's pieces in the acoustic of the Chorus Room of the Netherlands Radio - a legendary recording space. You can choose from 40-50 actual acoustics, making it possible to record all styles of music in the same studio here at Fantasy.

Casey, like Michael Axtell, is recording with Chanticleer before ever singing a concert with Chanticleer. This often happens as August is sometimes a good time in the schedule to record, even though new singers have just joined us. Casey says it's really instructive to be able to hear back what we've done and his part in it. We all got to hear the results of our pretty arduous sessions on Mason Bates' "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud" - very very cool!

One more day tomorrow to do Vince Peterson's arrangement of Erica Lloyd's "Cells Planets" (Chanticleer meets indie pop) then we'll be back to rehearsal for our first concerts of the season here in the Bay Area.
Back at our place in San Francisco, the LAB Choir will have its first rehearsal tonight.

August: engineering in the Magellanic Cloud

2010-09-02T15:20:00.001-07:00

Today we're having a break from recording. Meanwhile however in the studio Producer Don Fraser, engineer Chris Manning, and Matt are mastering what we did over the last few days - Mason Bates' "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud" and Jan Sandstrom's "And the Word became flesh."

Here's a 'picture' of Mason's piece on Chris' monitor...

And here's a picture of the real Magellanic Cloud, imagined by Mason to house satellites capable of picking up ancient sounds. It's a great piece which we will sing oh, 50 or so times, in the course of this season. You should come hear it live, but if not, you can hear it on recording (downloadable from our site pretty soon.)

August: Here we are in the Magellanic Cloud

2010-09-01T08:57:00.001-07:00

Back in the studio to record some more. It's taking a long time to get Mason Bates" "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud" down. It's difficult, but we think you'll think it was worth it! Very interesting piece on a Maori chant for which we got help with our pronunciation - kindly provided by Robert Wiremu over the phone from Auckland, New Zealand. In addition to being a native speaker of Maori, he knows the IPA and how singers go about achieving 'diction.' We thank him a lot, and hope the result will be worthy of his efforts!
After the Bates piece, about satellites in the Magellanic Cloud picking up the chant of ancient Maoris, we moved on to Jan Sandstrom's "And the word became flesh" which you will hear at Christmas-time. Chanticleer commissioned both of these pieces, the latter with the help of the Osher Pro Suecia Fund.
We're enjoying Fantasy Studios and the patience and good humor of producer Don Fraser.

August: Satellite Sounds

2010-08-18T14:47:00.001-07:00

We were in the stars with Monteverdi when Mason Bates arrived and hauled us from the l7th to the 21st century and into the Magellanic Cloud. He had come to have his first hearing of his piece in which ancient maoris are picked up by a satellite in the cloud. Some of us are the maoris and some of us are the satellite. A lot of discussion was had about the right sound for the satellite's beeps - finding a vowel for it that isn't like a maori vowel or a regular a e i o u vowel. Adam came up with one which we thought sounded more like a submarine than a satellite. We'll be experimenting for a while.
Cool piece. It was good to have Mason back and he said he had really enjoyed writing for us - this time knowing exactly how everybody sounds (or everybody but 2) and being able to write music in 12 parts knowing that we will sort it out and make a fabulous texture of it. We hope we do. Last season our program "in time of..." included "Stelle" and "Sirinu" from his cycle "Sirens" written for us in 2008. Another movement from that cycle will be included in our April 2010 Bay Area program "The Boy Whose Father Was God." This year "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud" will have 50 or so peformances in our season program "Out of this World!" in which we're also repeating "Stelle" - which we've also recorded. It's a big Mason Bates year!

Here on earth in San Francisco we are in our own cloud - of fog and overcast, and we have to wear jackets to rehearsal! But we know many of you would trade places with us...

August: What we're up to!

2010-08-17T10:41:00.005-07:00

Here's the new soprano section ( Michael McNeil, our twittermeister Gregory Peebles, Casey Breves) + Jace + Cortez, starting the day as usual viewing something on the I-phone.

Same activity over in the bass section, where Michael Axtell has taken up residence.

Today we're working on Britten's "Hymn to Saint Cecilia." Tomorrow Mason Bates will come along to help us on the new piece we commissioned for "Out of this World!" the new program we'll be singing for you soon. Mason's piece is called "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud," in which the voices of ancient maoris are heard in said cloud. We're looking for a native maori speaker to make sure we get the text right.

Last week we got our new photos done. Eric's done this a lot.

Christmas will come sooner than we all think! We have a new Christmas album for you - "A Chanticleer Christmas" put out by us and National Public Radio - featuring your favorites from our most recent Christmas broadcasts. Available mid-September at our concerts and our web-site. Then there's our burning log which maybe you didn't pick up last year.. and the premiere of a new piece for Christmas we commissioned from Jan Sandstrom and...ho, ho, ho...

August: "Out of this World!" - the 2010-11 season is here

2010-08-06T10:42:00.003-07:00

The last concert of last season was Monday night in Ravinia which was a hot and buggy change from freezing cold San Francisco and where there seemed to be a record number of live cell phones going off at curiously strategic musical moments. It was also our last performance with Dylan and Gabe, who have now gone on to their post-Chanticleer lives, Gabe in Kansas City, and Dylan here in San Francisco.

Eric, whose 21st year in Chanticleer officially begins on August 20, welcomes counter-tenor Casey Breves and bass-baritone Michael Axtell. With first-day donuts supplied by Ben Jones, and piles of music for the 25 or so numbers we will learn for this year's touring program "Out of this World!" our work is cut out for us.

Meanwhile upstairs Ben Johns is auditioning high school singers for the Louis A. Botto (LAB) Choir. As you may remember, the pilot for this idea happened during our National Youth Choral Festival in March. With their first session on September 3, we will be realizing a long-held dream to start an honors ensemble for the best Bay Area high school singers, working with us after school and on weekends having a very intensive choral experience, and performing at schools and community centers. There will be three sessions a year lasting 10 weeks each. The big debut of the LAB Choir will be on October 22 at our Youth Choral Festival in San Francisco.
There are close to 20 singers signed up already, with room for 5-10 more!

We hope you're going to love "Out of this World!" There will be music by composers from Monteverdi to Mahler and Britten and Sarah Hopkins and two world premieres - an original piece and an arrangement- commissioned by us: "Observer in the Magellanic Cloud" by Mason Bates which is about a satellite in that cloud picking up Maori chants. We will be adding Maori to the long list of languages in which we have to try to be authentic. Then Chanticleer meets indie-pop in an arrangement by Vince Petersen of Erica Lloyd's "Cells Planets." You can see the original on Youtube performed by Erica and Little Grey Girlfriend, then you can decide how you like our arrangement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORWIZlQWJ7k
So here we'll be with piles of music in front of us until we open our season on September 14 in San Luis Obispo. See you soon.

July: Recording Chen Yi

2010-07-24T15:30:00.005-07:00

Another fantastic day in the recording studio. The biggest project for the last day was Chen Yi's "Spring Dreams" which we have sung all over the world in the last year or so and which now occupies a permanent place in our ongoing repertoire ( like Biebl Ave Maria and Shenandoah) because people like it so much. It's a soundscape evoking the sight and sounds of a beautiful garden which has been has been destroyed in a storm. We recorded a concert version - as it would be heard in concert, that is- and then an enhanced version which will be an even more fascinating soundscape. We recorded a "bug bed" of the insect sounds which are part of the score, and then the multi-talented Ben Johns (our Education Director) came in and did 10 minutes of bird calls.

We do bugs.

Ben does birds.

We eat, we rest, we play. Don and Matt work things out in the booth.

It's a wrap! Until September when we'll do it again. Eric pours some very very good scotch to celebrate. Watch the website for announcements of when you can put these tunes on your playlist. We hope you will!!

July: we're recording your requests

2010-07-23T09:53:00.001-07:00

Back at Fantasy Studios for a second day. We've done Lesur, Whitacre, Byrd, Bates, and Cui because you've asked for them. We'll be releasing them as singles for download starting in the fall. As you may have noticed, we have also started releasing live performances - right now you can download "For Thy Soul's Salvation" which we did in June. To record "Stelle" by Mason Bates (part of the cycle "Sirens" which he wrote for us in 2008) we decided to move into the adjacent studio. It doesn't have a resident piano, so Jace and Gregory experimented with getting pitches from the I-Phone. In the end, the electronic piano was moved out of the control booth.

There are short breaks every few hours, and an hour for dinner, calling upon our inner resources to pass the time. We all have hidden talents. One of Adam's is the ability to create the map of the US and all the states from memory. Something about time spent at his grandmother's house as a child. Given the amount of time we spend together, we've all seen this trick before, but Don Fraser, our recording producer, hadn't.

Cui's Magnificat was the longest and most complicated piece of the day - challenging for most everybody, particularly the sopranos - we did that after a lovely dinner of Mediterranean food. Matt and Don came up with a way of achieving balance between the soloists and the choir which is going to sound awesome!!! You'll see.

July: We're back, and we're recording!

2010-07-22T13:14:00.003-07:00

Back from vacation and right into the recording studio (this time Fantasy Studios in Berkeley)
so that by September we will have lots of good things for you to download and buy at the CD table! We're starting recording some of your most requested favorites - today our 'mashup' of
the chant and Palestrina versions of Veni Sponsa Christi and Daniel-Lesur's Epithalame - probably the most complicated piece we're recording, so we did it first.

Our fantasy is that you'll download all our new stuff onto your I-Pods SOON.

2010-07-22T13:14:00.001-07:00

Since Fantasy is a recording studio in California, the outside is very pretty. The inside is much like other studios - we're liking the intimacy of the sound stage. The short distance between the stage and the booth make it easy for Matt and recording producer Don Fraser to confer.

How many recordings has Eric made?? We'll ask him. It is obvious that his long experience with long recording sessions has taught him how to relax during the breaks...This is dinner on Day 1.
We'll be back tomorrow and Friday.

June: While we were in China

2010-07-01T15:50:00.001-07:00

Education Director Ben Johns went to the Chorus America annual conference in Atlanta to receive the 2010 Chorus America Education Outreach Award from Mary Lyons. Thanks, Chorus America!

This video was shown to illustrate Chanticleer's commitment to education.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEILj9LtJ80

Since next year's annual conference will be in San Francisco, Ben was asked, along with Melanie Smith ( ED of the SF Girls' Chorus) and Vance George ( Music Director Emeritus of the San Francisco Symphony) to do a little patter encouraging people to come here next year. Ben displayed one of his extraordinary skills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-xIw0PpZNE

Vacation!

2010-06-30T15:53:00.001-07:00

As you may have guessed by the absence of posts - we're on vacation in locations ranging from Europe to right here at home in San Francisco. If you miss us while we're gone, you COULD go the store on the website, and download the live performance of "For Thy Soul's Salvation" (music by Fayrfax, Wyklynson, Cornysh, Tie, Tallis, Sheppard, Byrd, Tomkins, Gibbons) which we sang on June 5 in the Mission Dolores in San Francisco. This is the first in our new CLIC series - Chanticleer Live in Concert. We will be releasing current concerts and concerts from our 'vaults.' Hope you enjoy them!

June: our patrons stay in China

2010-06-23T03:25:00.001-07:00

Every so often, when we have a destination we think might appeal, we ask La Fugue - a Parisian agency specializing in musical travel- to put together a tour for our supporters, patrons, and board members. The last trip was to China for our debut tour in May. This year two of our Board members ( Kathy Henschel, soon to be Chair of our Board, and Ann Goodbody - a board member from New York, one of their friends, and a group of French customers of La Fugue joined us in Shanghai - where we had two nice dinners together. They came to our exchange at the Conservatory of Music, and then cheered us on through the unique experience of the San Francisco Gala on Saturday night ( see below.) We then went on to Shenzen, and they went on to Shangri -La to stay here in the Banyan Tree Resort, at 11,000 feet. The unusual weather this year - it doesn't usually rain up there- made for a trip which had to adapt to the conditions, but which ended with a spectacular dinner last night.

The itinerary had had to be changed today because the incessant rains had caused the Tiger Gorge to be closed. The patrons went instead to visit a Tibetan family and see a little of how they live, and to a famous temple in Shangri-La. The altitude makes a set of steps like this a challenge.

Ann took a turn helping to turn the gigantic temple prayer wheel. 3 turns (and it's heavy) will bring you good luck.

Ann, Kathy and Fa at lunch after the Temple visit at a restaurant in the town of Shangri-La.
The vegetable dishes were delicious as was yak meat with mint!

La Fugue specializes in surprises. For the patron group's last evening, dinner was served in a private Tibetan house - this was the dinner table. Fruit juice and real French Champagne ( brought from Paris by La Fugue's Olivier Luciani - there were French people involved so he had to) preceded the meal, as everyone sat around the fire, then 8 or so courses were served including, again, yak, which is very good. The yak's belonging to this family live - as yaks do in this part of the world- right below, but they had apparently gone out during dinner. A group of 5 young women (joined by one of their children) danced a dance of welcome.

The surprise ending of this magical candlelit evening in which the patrons were enveloped in the extraordinary hospitality of the occupants of the house was Chanticleer singing "Summertime." Way up in Shangri-La in a Tibetan house, Ann Goodbody's I-Pod was rigged up to the speaker on which the dance music has been played to enable this experience of two worlds.

Ann Goodbody and Florence Liddell are warmly welcomed.

Kathy Henschel enjoys the fire. It was a little cool in Shangri-La.

June: Shenzen Concert Hall

2010-06-20T09:54:00.001-07:00

We were thrilled, with the help of Chinese friends, to be able to do a full-length concert in China, as well as the San Francisco Week events in Shanghai. We were here in Shenzen last May on our debut tour, and loved the hall, and the Cantonese food and the tropical climate - even more so this year. Even after the post-concert dinner, the temperature didn't seem to have declined from the 88F announced when we arrived. The concert was sponsored by China Merchants Bank as a gift to their customers who almost filled the hall and were a curious and warm audience.

Michelle Hu, Director of the Lily Children's Chorus - a very well known group in Shenzen- had contacted us in advance through a friend to propose that the children ( actually young women) might sing Molihua with us as a surprise encore. They not only agreed to sing it the way we do, but added some wonderful touches of their own, including movement.

Not having seen them until warmup at 6pm, we had no idea how really fine they are. It was a real pleasure singing through the song a few times together - we wish we had had longer with them. They then waited backstage through the concert. We've done a few notable collaborations this year - this will be a memorable one!

The audience seemed pleased, and, as last year when we were in this hall for the first time, we were given absolutely magnificent bouquets - no two alike.

We finished our concert and left the stage. When we came back the girls came with us and we sang Molihua together. The audience absolutely loved it, and so did we!

Lots of audience members stopped after the concert to contemplate the Mt. Rushmore-like frieze of us in the lobby.

Kids could have their pictures taken with the evening's entertainers!

Backstage after the show, the Lily Children's Chorus sang us three numbers before they left. They are terrific! We congratulate their Director Michelle Hu for her very fine work, and thank her for having the idea to join our concert. The participation of the girls really made it an evening to remember.

A delicious Cantonese dinner offered by the sponsors topped off the evening which was the last performance of this quick dash to China and back, and the last performance of the season before we go on vacation. Tomorrow - back to Shanghai, meetings with tailors, attempts to see some of Expo, then home on Tuesday. While it was a very quick trip here, we were happy to be back, and will be thrilled to be invited again. Thanks again to the San Francisco Shanghai Sister City Committee for including us, and all the people who helped us while we were here.

June; China day 4, we arrive in Shenzen.

2010-06-20T02:26:00.001-07:00

The temp as we got off the plane was announced as 88F. We're not far from Hong Kong, and it's very tropical. We were here last May on our inaugural China tour, and loved the city and the food, and the concert hall. In order to be able to accept the invitation of China Merchant Bank to perform tonight, we had to fly from Shanghai this morning.

Brian spent a lot of time on the phone over our run-out to Shenzen since it was an independent arrangement for us with new partners. Everything was very smooth, considering that Shenzen is in the south of China which continues to be afflicted with very heavy rains and flooding. If you look at that big circle over China indicating the affected area - that's what we flew over. Our other cultural delegate colleagues from San Francisco were set to perform outdoors at the Expo grounds today. Hopefully the rain seemed to be impending as we left will hold off.

A nice young guy called Bo Lu - a friend of a friend- guided us into the airport and into the right line. It's always good to have help when you understand nothing at all of what's going on around you.

Watching world cup while waiting for news of our flight. It was announced to have a half hour delay, then an indefinite delay (nervewracking when there's a concert tonight.) Then right on the original schedule everybody got up and rushed to the gate, we followed them and boarded, then we waited about half an hour to take off, which put us into Shenzen about an hour late, time to rest for an hour or so before going over to the Shenzen Concert Hall.

June: Day 3 Shanghai; the Sister City Celebration Gala

2010-06-19T07:35:00.001-07:00

We left the hotel at about 2.30pm to go over to the Shangri-La for rehearsal for the banquet and performance.

The banquet was to celebrate 30 years of Friendship between San Francisco and Shanghai. The Glide Memorial ensemble, Northern Lights (a children's chorus from Oakland) and two instrumental groups from the San Francisco Conservatory represented our city. There were several pop acts contributed by Shanghai, as well as a charming finale (including Aulde Lang Syne) sung by a large chorus of Chinese children. We were honored to be part of it and thank the Sister City committee for inviting us.

We paused upon leaving our hotel to pay attention to the orchestra which had started playing in the lobby bar - perhaps thinking that in a few hours it would be our turn to perform for people doing other things.

Arriving at the Shangri-La in Pudong we contemplated new information about what the rehearsal and performance schedule would be and took a vote about everyone’s dinner desires... before the show? after the show?

We arrived and awaited further instructions...

Brian is feeling pretty good about having an iPad right about now.

A bit more waiting & we arrived in the banquet hall to see the hi-tech stage.

Rehearsal consisted mostly of adjustments in the sound system. We were hoping there would be bubbles - since we saw the bubbles released during our rehearsal, but alas - no bubbles for us.

A bit more waiting was followed by dinner. The evening started with a number by a Chinese pop star, followed by quite a lot of speeches and greetings and exchanges of gifts. The Vice Mayor of Shanghai presented Mayor Newsom with a sculpture representing hands holding a magnolia. Mayor Newsom reciprocated with a sculpture of a foot. We came on as dinner was being served.

We sent a sort of medley of Summertime and Straight Street out into the room.... and imagine... a few people caught it!

Our board member Kathy Henschel and our friend Florence Lidell send out good vibes and give us a standing ovation at the end.

Goodbye to glamorous Shanghai for the moment. We go to Shenzhen tomorrow - hopefully all will run smoothly since the concert is tomorrow evening.

June: end of day 2 in Shanghai

2010-06-18T19:15:00.001-07:00

This is sort of the feeling of modern Shanghai during Expo - a blaze and a blur of light. This is the famous bridge - which changes color which goes by the Expo site. Our patron group had enjoyed our session at the Conservatory, and had dinner at the intimate Foo Yong Elite Club. On the way back they drove by the Expo site to look at the pavilions which are lit. Many other buildings are lit as well.

Our Board members Ann Goodbody and Kathy Henschel, Ann's friend Florence Lidell, La Fugue's Olivier Lucciani, Zheng Zhou, professor from the Shanghai Conservatory and the Conservatory's choir conductor enjoy outdoor dinner at the Foo Yong Elite Club a beautiful and historic setting in which one feels far away from modern Shanghai.

Matt entertains our French friends (he speaks French.

June: 2nd day, Shanghai Conservatory of Music

2010-06-18T03:30:00.001-07:00

In our mission to represent San Francisco and the Sister City Committee - which brought us here as part of the city's delegation to Expo 2010- we continued on to the Shanghai Conservatory where we had spent a wonderful few hours on our inaugural China tour last year. We sang a few numbers - including Chen Yi's Spring Dreams - then the conservatory chorus sang Beethoven and Chinese songs, representing the two different axes of its vocal program - bel canto and Chinese.

Matt expressed his thoughts about the Beethoven sung by the conservatory chorus.

Legendary Conservatory professor Mme. Zhou Xiao Yen greeted us as warmly as she had the year before and participated in the session - observed by our travelling patron group. The conservatory group had sung a Chinese song wishing that strangers would come back and stay. Mme. Zhou said that that should be our case as well - and she and Professor Zheng Zhou said that they would like us back every year. It might not be possible every year, but we feel a strong attachment here and we certainly won't wait too long.

After we worked together on the Conservatory choruses Beethoven oratorio peace, Matt asked the students and director to help us with Chen Yi's Spring Dreams by singing it with us - in the hopes it might become more Chinese.

Last year when we were here, we finished with an impromptu performance of the Chinese folk song Molihua with a mezzo soprano from the Conservatory. We decided to make it a tradition, and Matt invited everyone to join in.

Madame Zhou bids us goodbye.

June: second day: Shanghai Normal University

2010-06-18T03:11:00.001-07:00

The San Francisco-Shanghai Sister City Committee wanted its cultural delegates to spread out a bit into the community. We thought our best contribution would be to go and work with some choirs. We went this morning to Shanghai Normal University where choir director Wang Jin greeted us. Four choral groups sang for us, starting with the Xinsgshi women's chorus and continuing with three small a cappella groups. They invited our comments, and we gave them - mostly about performance style. After this vigorous session, observed by many members of the university's music department, we were invited to a really really delicious lunch of Shanghai specialties.

June: Shanghai

2010-06-17T16:24:00.001-07:00

Hot muggy gray. Very hot. Gregory contributes this as probably the best way of dealing with Shanghai in June... if we could, we would. Leaving soon for our event at Shanghai Normal University followed by Conservatory. Patrons leaving at 7.45am for ribbon cutting with Mayor Newsom at Urban Best Practices Pavilion, followed by China and US Pavilions, then they will join us at the Conservatory. They have dinner at the Yung Foo Elite Club ( where we went last year) with Matt and some faculty members from the Conservatory, while we have the evening off! Perhaps somebody will brave Expo in the evening. Ben and Adam were

very enterprising yesterday and walked to the Bund, went up the radio tower, did tourist things. . As it was a Chinese holiday it was packed - and full of energy. Eric fulfilled his long cherished mission of having a tailor replace the winter coat which has accompanied him for 20 years of Chanticleer tours - they went and picked out some nice cashmere and a double happiness lining. We'll show it to you when he gets it.

June: first day in Shanghai

2010-06-17T08:16:00.001-07:00

We took walks, had appointments with tailors ( the Shanghai Quartet had kindly turned over the name of theirs) and rested - nobody seems to have taken on Expo yet. Adam happened to be in the lobby to greet Mayor Newsom of San Francisco as he arrived for the receptions, lunches, dinners and ribbon cuttings of San Francisco week.

Shanghai's bright lights are fun to see from a fast taxi ride to the Bund for dinner. We had dinner of caesar salad, lobster bisque, chateaubriand and desert in the Vue restaurant at the Hyatt on the Bund with our patron group who are staying there. The restaurant is so named for its spectacular view of the River and the Bund and Pudong sides.

June: Shanghai

2010-06-16T15:39:00.001-07:00

Our hotel ( the Ritz Portman where the SF delegation to San Francisco week at Expo 2010 is staying) is across from the 50's Russian style Exposition Center - a vivid illustration in the world of Expo 2010 of how much has changed in China. We have today to go and see a bit of Expo - we'll keep you informed as best we can, which is not SO easy.

Chanticleer's little corner of the blogosphere ( us and 275 million others around the world) is blogger.com/blogspot - that's how we post our blog. Come to find out that it is blocked in China now. It wasn't when we were here last year. Which means that we can still post to it by email, but means also that we can't go look at it to correct, add, edit, see if that's what we meant etc. - so we'll have to get it right in the original email. That lack of convenience is not the point though; It's a very strange feeling to be blocked from seeing your own blog! And that's why yesterday's post was incomplete - we sent it over to blogger, where, we hear, it was posted, but we couldn't go there and add text.

SO - yesterday - we flew here with 140 other members of the San Francisco cultural delegation to San Francisco week. Mayor Newsom, presumably Senator Feinstein, former Mayors Brown and Jordan, and others are arriving today for events at which we won't be present. On our plane were Samoan and Irish dance groups, the Northern Lights children's choir from Oakland, 40 members of Glide Memorial's Choir, the Bridge instrumental chamber group and us. All the other groups will be performing at a community center tomorrow and at the Expo on Sunday. Our itinerary is a bit different ( which means that we won't have the pleasure of seeing the dancers dance) - we will do two exchanges with choirs tomorrow - at Shanghai Normal University and at the Shanghai Conservatory. Then on Saturday the non-dancing people perform at the big SF Gala - we just found out yesterday that we will sing one song on that occasion. Then Sunday we go to Shenzen for a concert in the concert hall.

Our travel agent La Fugue ( in Paris) organized a patron tour to China which takes in our visit to the Conservatory and the Gala and then goes on to Shangri-La and Guilin. A number of French people will be joining our board members Kathy Henschel and Ann Goodbody, and Florence Lidell. We'll see them for dinner tonight at the Hyatt on the Bund.

More soon. It's HOT here!

June: we've arrived in Shanghai

2010-06-16T07:27:00.001-07:00

We look pretty good, don't you think, after a 2 hour delay and a 12 hour flight. It's evening in Shanghai. We passed the Expo site on the way in from the airport; we'll be heading over there tomorrow, for sure.

June: China - this week

2010-06-13T12:53:00.001-07:00

We leave Tuesday for Shanghai. After our official commitments in Shanghai, we will fly to Shenzen for a concert in their beautiful concert hall (where we performed last May.)The China Merchant bank is presenting us - these are the posters they have made.

June: sneak preview of Ethnic Dance Festival tonight

2010-06-11T15:00:00.001-07:00

We're rehearsing now for our performance of Chen Yi's "Spring Dreams" with the China Dance ensemble. The song is about a poet who wakens and looks out at his precious garden to find that it has been destroyed in an overnight storm.

We are the garden, the dancers are the storm, and the soloist, Crytal Lee, is the poet. It's at the Palace of Fine Arts tonight, 8.30pm - you could probably still get tickets to see us dance!

June: Dancing to Chen Yi for the Ethnic Dance Festival

2010-06-09T16:08:00.003-07:00

When Chen Yi comes into our lives - there's usually adventure. In 2008 we commissioned and premiered her long work "From the Path of Beauty" for vocal ensemble and string quartet with The Shanghai Quartet. That led to our first trip to China in May of 2009. This year her "Spring Dreams" has been an all-time favorite with our audiences from here to Lithuania and back (and we'll perform it in Shenzen, China next week.) So when the Ethnic Dance Festival invited us to perform on their Gala Benefit this Friday night, it was natural that "Spring Dreams" be the song to offer up for choreography. We rehearsed today with the China Dance School featuring Crystal Lee, and were turned into dancers (a little) by choreographer Cai Wen. Of course the dancers did most of the dancing, but we did have to make some unaccustomed moves.

June: "For Thy Soul's Salvation" at the Mission Dolores - the Bay Area season ends

2010-06-06T10:25:00.001-07:00

We end the season at the Mission Dolores in San Francisco. It's a real homecoming, since the first ever Chanticleer concert was held in the old mission ( the white building beyond the Basilica.) AND a homecoming to our roots in early music. There are quite a few people who still think of us as an early music group - or who, at least, like it lots better when we sing early music. The basis of our technique and our ability to sing all styles is really rooted there. The place was packed with a highly enthusiastic audience. Although we've got a few miles to go before the season really ends (the Ethnic Dance Festival here on Friday, then China next week), this was, in a way, the end of the road for Dylan and Gabe, both of them retiring this year.

We'll miss the particular soprano sound Dylan contributed to the ensemble. Alan will need a new cribbage/chess/biking partner on the road. Kathy Henschel-who has known Chanticleer since the beginning and will soon be our Board Chairman and a companion on our trip to China- wishes him well.

Gabe and his wife are going back to Kansas. Everyone in the company will miss his funny faces, and his merchandise mastery, and "Journey to Recife" will never be the same!

June: Meanwhile in Shanghai

2010-06-05T10:21:00.001-07:00

In Shanghai they're preparing for us. We arrive on the 16th. On the 17th we join our patron group for dinner, then on the l8th we do two musical exchanges - in the morning with Shanghai Normal University, and in the afternoon with the San Francisco Conservatory.

Saturday is the day of the big Gala - we don't know much, but we'll certainly be keeping you up to date! Sunday we perform in Shenzen at the magnificent concert hall there, Tuesday we come home! Join us vicariously on the blog - there are sure to be stories.

June: the year in Education comes to an end.

2010-06-05T10:16:00.005-07:00

As long as there's a school still open and a choir still rehearsing, Education Director Ben Johns will be there. The morning after we sang "For Thy Soul's Salvation" at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Sacramento

2010-06-05T10:16:00.003-07:00

Ben went to Davis Senior High School, where Karen Gardias is the director of the Madrigal Singers. Davis has been involved in our award-winning (we may now proudly say, thanks to Chorus America) education programs for 17 years. This summer the Madrigal Singers will travel to Europe and perform in the Vatican as well as compete in the Eisteddfod in Wales which they won in l986. Ben took the occasion to talk to them about the Victoria Ave Maria which they will sing in Rome and the particularities of Spanish baroque - particularly pronunciation. He then gave a class on English Renaissance music ( since that's what we're singing now) with the objective of giving them, as he said, 'musical superpowers.' By that he meant the ability to distinguish between the phases of the English renaissance by the traits of the music.

2010-06-05T10:16:00.001-07:00

The end of the session on the English Renaissance featured a sight reading of Tallis' "If ye love me' and an exercise in which small groups tried to identify the period and even the composer by looking at the music. Ben pronounced this quite successful.

2010-06-05T10:15:00.001-07:00

2010-06-05T10:14:00.003-07:00

At the end of the two hour session, Ben held auditions for our new honor choir program which will start in September. Ben was thrilled to have nine singers trying out. Called the Louis A. Botto (LAB) Choir, the ensemble will draw from all Bay Area High schools which participate in our programs. There will be three 10-week sessions during the year, with rehearsals every Saturday and some community performances on weekdays. The LAB Choir was inaugurated during our recent National Youth Choral Festival and was, in that case, the 'guinea pig' for LAB Choir Advisor Vance George's sessions with the choir directors. LAB Choir II will make its debut at our Bay Area Youth Choral Festival in October.

June: a hot night in San Jose - "For Thy Soul's Salvation"

2010-06-05T10:13:00.003-07:00

It's been hard to know what season we're having lately - we've had the rainiest May in recorded history or something. Last night at St. Joseph's Cathedral left no doubt that it was summer.
It was hot! The audience response to our performance of "For Thy Soul's Salvation" was also very warm.

Eric attends 6 month old Mia's bedtime by phone beside the jasmine. Eric is very pleased that this program includes music by Christopher Tye - a composer who, says Eric, really knows how to write for the bass voice. You can deduce from that statement that he thinks many composers don't.

2010-06-05T10:12:00.002-07:00

Matt waits for his surprise entrance as Jesus in the second piece in the program, Robert Wyklynson's amazing 13 part Credo in Deum.

Tomorrow night, Saturday, we perform "For Thy Soul's Salvation" for the last time in this run. This will be Dylan and Gabe's farewell to the Bay Area before they both retire.

June: the SF Chronicle likes For Thy Soul's Salvation

2010-06-04T15:25:00.001-07:00

Music review: Chanticleer sacred and sumptuous
San Francisco Chronicle
The men's chorus Chanticleer, in the final program of its season, sang sacred music written for the Chapel Royal through the 16th and early 17th centuries. ...

June: ""For Thy Soul's Salvation"

2010-06-03T11:38:00.001-07:00

Last night in Berkeley we began our four concert run of "For thy soul's salvation" a really remarkable program of music written for England's monarchs from Henry VII through Charles I. Lots of bloody and fascinating history there - gorgeous music written while people's heads were being chopped off. Matt Oltman studied at the University of York and has a particular passion for English music; he's been really looking forward to this program which he spent a lot of time researching.

Lately our early music has been Italian, Spanish and Mexican. In this program we go back to the Renaissance and English music and try to recreate the particular atmosphere of those times. Like incense in Westminster Abbey, the smell of marijuana hung heavily in the air at First Congregational Church. Seriously. It's Berkeley. We don't know where it was coming from.

Anyway, there is lots of really stunning music in this program, notably in the first half the 13 part canon Credo in Deum by Wyklynson. The 13 voices are the 12 apostles and Jesus (sung by Matt.) The 39 measures encompass a range of 13 notes. We're going to try to let you hear it - so come back next week!

We repeat the program tonight in Sacramento (not Friday night as the Sacto Bee would have it)
then in San Jose on Friday night and San Francisco on Saturday night (the last concert of this season - except for China in 10 days.)

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/03/2793806/vocal-music-by-chanticleer-on.html

May: a big weekend's news

2010-06-02T10:23:00.001-07:00

Over the Memorial Day weekend, when we took a bit of a rest before our 4 concert series in the Bay Area this week, this article appeared in the New York Times. As if that weren't enough, The Contemporary A Cappella Society named us runner up to The King's Singers for Favorite Classical Group this year. Thanks to everybody who voted for us! Of course we're always honored to be runners up to the King's Singers - who will be in China in two weeks at the same time as we are!

Embracing the Renaissance and YouTube, Too
New York Times
By CHLOE VELTMAN A few days after Jay Leno had seen the all-male a cappella ensemble Chanticleer singing Christmas songs on the "Today" show last December, ...

May: we honor Eric's first 20 years in Chanticleer

2010-05-24T12:01:00.001-07:00

It was a fun party Friday night - our annual Gala with a couple hundred of our friends. This year, we honored Eric's 20th anniversary with Chanticleer with the help of Ann Meier Baker, Executive Director of Chorus America (pictured with Eric above) and Vance George - Music Director Emeritus of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. Ann very kindly said that while there are hundreds of thousands of choruses all over America, there is only one Chanticleer. Vance and Eric have known each other for over 20 years. When Eric auditioned for the Symphony Chorus, Vance didn't have a professional position available to offer him... and the rest is Chanticleer history. The Bently Reserve ( the former Federal Reserve Bank) is a good place for a party with those great old bank acoustics - we sang Straight Street to get things started, then the Lord's Prayer by John Shepapard from our new Tudor program "For Thy Soul's Salvation" (opening next week) then Wade in the Water ( one of Eric's great vocal moments.) We all put on mustaches for El Manisero, then we ended with Summertime... Before the encore Matt bid our official farewells to Dylan and Gabe who are both retiring from the ensemble at the end of the season, and we did Journey to Recife - in which Gabe has been solo-ing ..well.. since he got here. Now back to the Queens and Kings of England.

May: preparing for the Ethnic Dance Festival

2010-05-21T10:43:00.001-07:00

A way-station in our time travel from Queen Elizabeth I to modern Shanghai will be the Benefit Gala of the Ethnic Dance Festival on June 11. We were asked to perform Chen Yi's Spring Dreams with choreography. The dancers (China Dance school and Theatre - featuring Crystal Lee, Miss Chinatown USA) have been rehearsing to tape - yesterday they came and heard us live, showed us what they were thinking and what our choregraphy would be. It was REALLY exciting, and we look forward to doing it. Funny - the last time we became dancers ( sort of) was in connection to a Chen Yi project with

the Women's Philharmonic here -the Chinese Myths Cantata. We recorded that piece with the Women's Phil at the time on a CD called "The Music of Chen Yi."
There's rarely a dull moment -even, we're quite sure, on the 12 hour plane ride

on June 15 to Shanghai with all the performers (Samoan and Irish dancers, singers from Glide Memorial and others) for San Francisco Week. You'll want to stay tuned for that! We will sing Spring Dreams again at our concert in Shenzen, China on June 20. Wish we could take the dancers with us! Chen Yi and movement of all kinds seem to go together in our lives! If you want to see us 'dance' to Chen Yi on June 11, you can get a ticket by calling 415 474 3914 or visiting www.worldartswest.org.

May: announcement of our trip to Shanghai for San Francisco Week at Expo 2010

2010-05-20T11:43:00.001-07:00

CHANTICLEER PART OF OFFICIAL SAN FRANCISCO DELEGATION TO SHANGHAI WORLD EXPO;

TO PERFORM DURING

"SAN FRANCISCO WEEK" JUNE 17 – 25

San Francisco/Shanghai Sister City Relationship celebrates 30 Years

SAN FRANCISCO, May 20, 2010—Chanticleer, the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble, will make several appearances during "San Francisco Week" from June 17 - 25 at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Chanticleer is part of the official San Francisco delegation of political, business, tourism and cultural leaders representing the 30-year Sister City relationship between Shanghai and San Francisco. The delegation will be led by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Sister City Committee Chairman James Fang.

Chanticleer appeared in the People's Republic of China for the first time last year, when the ensemble was invited to give six concerts in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, and Shenzen, two of them with The Shanghai Quartet. That tour also included a return to Hong Kong. In Shanghai the ensemble visited the choral department at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Chanticleer was awarded two of the Best Concerts in Shanghai Awards in fall 2009: Best Choral Concert, and Most Innovative Concert for the joint concert with Shanghai Quartet.

"Chanticleer's involvement with China has its roots in the l993-96 residency with the ensemble of now internationally acclaimed composer Chen Yi. She taught us how to pronounce Chinese and left us with a number of arrangements of Chinese Folks Songs as well as original works, which are a permanent part of our repertoire. She also gave us the desire to go to China," stated General Director Christine Bullin, "and was instrumental in last year's tour finally becoming a reality."

As a member of the Sister City Committee during its early days, Bullin visited China many times, organizing exchanges between the San Francisco Opera Center and the Shanghai Conservatory and Opera Company. She was quick to point out that cultural exchanges helped paved the way for the huge commercial relationship that now exists between China and the U.S. "The visits of artists and musicians were a big part of the "opening" of China where cultural exchange is a vital accompaniment to diplomatic communication," she said.

The Chanticleer tour in June includes participation in the Expo's Gala banquet on June 19, a return to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music for additional exchange, and a return to the Shenzen Concert Hall in Shenzen, sponsored by China Merchant Bank.

The Shanghai World Expo with its theme "Better City, Better Life" opened on May 1 and continues through October 31, 2010. Some 60 million Chinese and 10 million international travelers are expected to visit the pavilions and presentations of more than 170 participating nations.

Prior to the trip to China, Chanticleer returns to the Bay Area for the final four concerts of the current season. For Thy Soul's Salvation: Music for England's Monarchs featuring the magnificent liturgical music of 16^th and 17th century England, will by performed in Berkeley, Sacramento, San Jose, and San Francisco from Wednesday, June 2 through Saturday June 5.

Memorable highlights of the current season include the ensemble's fifth appearance in as many years on NBC TV's popular Today show and on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor and Frederica von Stade; a European tour taking in many of the continent's legendary halls; and, most recently, the group's first National Youth Choral Festival. The festival featured Chanticleer hosting twelve high school choirs – 416 students in all – from across the country in a four-day choral immersion, including master classes, language coaching, and a host of interactive educational activities, culminating in a gala concert with the massed choirs, an orchestra comprised of Bay Area student instrumentalists, and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. Chanticleer was recently awarded Chorus America's prestigious Education and Outreach Award for 2010.

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.

May: getting ready for our Tudor program - concerts June 2-5

2010-05-18T18:08:00.001-07:00

A nice intro to the program and why we love to sing early music.

http://www.sfcv.org/preview/chanticleer/back-to-chanticleers-roots

May: Santa Barbara - "In time of..." one last time (almost)

2010-05-18T10:28:00.003-07:00

Lovely Santa Barbara California was the site of the last concert of our last U.S. tour this season. You can bet we were happy to be back in California, closer and closer to home. Before Santa Barbara was Malibu where we did a masterclass with three choirs, then a concert in the Smothers Theatre. Then on up the coast a little way to Santa Barbara which is ridiculously beautiful (like Malibu) and where everything smells like jasmine! Our before concert snacks were set up outside.

2010-05-18T10:28:00.002-07:00

Campbell Hall at the University of California at Santa Barbara. We hadn't been here for about 11 years -when the youngest among us was 14 years old.

It started out as usual. Then by intermission Jace, who had a 103 degree temperature, was feeling wobbly. One of the most FAQ's is - what happens when somebody is sick? The answer is - he carries on. We took a stool on stage and Jace sat for the second half. He was fine singing, just not standing up. He felt bad about it, but the audience was very supportive and solicitous!

It all ended well, and Jace was recovered by the next day. Perhaps because we hadn't been there in so long, people at the CD table had lots of questions.

Eric could let his daughter Mia know that he was coming home soon - and for a month, before we go to China. This Friday night we will have our annual Gala which this year honors Eric's first 20 years in Chanticleer.

The next day (Saturday) we did a master class with a Santa Barbara group called Quire of Voices, at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara.

We really liked the sound of the choir. They had a LOT of basses who really sounded like basses!

Quire of Voices had brought Biebl's "Ave Maria" (the song that follows us everywhere!) to work on.
We ended the session by singing it together.

We pause under a palm tree before running off to the airport, with Nathan J. Kreitzer the director of this wonderful chorus. A short flight to San Francisco, and then we're home to rehearse for our next Bay Area concert series: "For Thy Soul's Salvation: Music for England's Monarchs." We often return to early music at the end of the year, and it's always an inspiring way to end the season.

May: Chorus America recognizes our education program

2010-05-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

Chorus America today announced that we have won the 2010 Chorus America Education Outreach Award. As all of you who follow the blog know, we have had a big year in education, especially featuring our first ever National Youth Choral Festival attended by 416 high school choral singers in March. We estimate that we have worked with over 6,000 students this year. Our Education Director Ben Johns has worked very hard all year managing and coordinating everything we've been doing - and is, in fact, giving clinics in schools in the Bay Area all this week. Recognition from your peers is always the most rewarding; we thank Chorus America very much for this honor.

Chorus America gives a number of awards each year to member choruses. Two years ago we were honored by the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming, and the inaugural Dale Warland Singers Commission Award (with which we commissioned Shawn Crouch's wonderful piece "The Garden of Paradise.") Below is this year's list.

Congratulations to all of our colleagues who are recognized this year, and thanks to Chorus America for urging us all on to higher levels of achievement!

2010 Chorus America Award Winners Announced

We are delighted to announce the recipients of the 2010 Chorus America Awards! Please join us in congratulating these outstanding choruses and choral leaders. We invite you to celebrate with the entire Chorus America family at the Awards Banquet & Auction on June 18th at the Conference, where we'll present many of these awards in person.

2010 Chorus America Award Winners:

Chorus America Distinguished Service Award
H. Royce Saltzman (inaugural recipient), co-founder & director emeritus, Oregon Bach Festival; former president, International Federation for Choral Music; former national president, American Choral Directors Association; former faculty member and associate dean of the School of Music, University of Oregon; former board member, Chorus America.

Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming

Cantori New York (Mark Shapiro, artistic director)
Los Angeles Master Chorale (Grant Gershon, music director)
Young People's Chorus of New York City (Francisco Núñez, founder/artistic director)

Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award
WomenSing (Martin Benvenuto, artistic director)

Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal
Jordan Sramek, founder & artistic director, The Rose Ensemble

Dale Warland Singers Commission Award
(presented in partnership with the American Composers Forum)
Conspirare (Craig Hella Johnson, founder & artistic director) & composer Eric Banks

Chorus America Education Outreach Award
(honoring the best program from choruses with budgets over $200,000)
Chanticleer (Ben Johns, director of education)

Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence
(honoring a volunteer chorus)
Choral Arts (Robert Bode, artistic director)

Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art
Robert L. Simpson, founder & artistic director, Houston Chamber Choir

Michael Korn Founders Award for Philanthropic Contribution to the Arts
Mrs. Jean Riddell, arts patron, Washington, DC

Chorus America Philanthropy Award
(honoring supporters of our Conference host, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus)
The Halle Foundation

More information about their award-winning activities will be shared at the Conference and in the Fall 2010 issue of The Voice magazine.

May: Shanghai Expo 2010

2010-05-12T11:53:00.005-07:00

You've certainly seen the photos of the opening of Expo 2010 in Shanghai - pretty exciting and we can't wait to be there next month. San Francisco is the only city in the world with an official participation; "San Francisco Week" in Shanghai will be June 17-25. We'll be singing at the Gala San Francisco dinner, visiting the Conservatory, doing a performance in another city and seeing what we see! Our delegation will be headed by Senator (and former SF Mayor) Dianne Feinstein and Mayor Gavin Newsom. Other members of the performing delegation will be singers from Glide Memorial Church, dancers representing the Irish, Samoan, and Mexican cultures, and instrumentalists from the San Francisco Conservatory.

Here's a little video about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GsU1oBRa_Q

In honor of the 30 years of friendship between San Francisco and Shanghai, Mayor Newsom today 'unveiled' ( as it were - it's too big to get a veil over) a copper sculpture by Zhang Huan which will live here for l8 months. We'll see it when we get home next week. It's 26 feet tall, 15 tons, called Three Heads Six Arms and represents the arms legs feet hands and heads of Buddhist sculptures. An eclectic group of San Franciscans (there wouldn't be any other kind...) greeted the addition to City Hall Plaza. James Fang, Chairman of the Sister City Committee spoke about the coming S.F. week in Shanghai, and the participation of Chanticleer and others in the delegation. It all begins to be real... we have a few things to do first, but this time next month, we'll be flying to China!

May: St Cecilias in Omaha

2010-05-12T11:22:00.001-07:00

Here is we were last night, in Omaha. Today we're winging westward, in a California state of mind, for concerts in Malibu and Santa Barbara. You can imagine that we're looking forward to being home for a month before we leave for Shanghai.

May: review from Lincoln, Nebraska

2010-05-11T10:19:00.001-07:00

Review: Chanticleer returns to Lincoln for winning concert
Lincoln Journal Star
Say the name Chanticleer in performing arts circles, and the music world knows it's all about a dozen men who form one of America's top vocal ensembles. ...

May: Lincoln Nebraska

2010-05-11T03:32:00.001-07:00

Wonderful evening at the First-Plymouth Congregational Church in Lincoln, Nebraska - the audience loaded with friends and family and Students and teacher from Hesston College...faithful attendees at Chanticleer in Sonoma, our biannual summer workshop for adult choral singers.

Gabe's family

Michael's family and former teachers

We're nearing the end of our last stateside tour for this season. Tomorrow we drive over to Omaha for a concert in St. Cecilia Cathedral. The day after that will no doubt bend our minds as we travel from Omaha, Nebraska to Malibu, California for a performance and masterclass at Pepperdine University. Santa Barbara on Friday and Saturday will wrap it up for this year. Of course there's our annual Gala, our last Bay Area concert set "For Thy Soul's Salvation," and, oh yes, Shanghai coming up, but more about all that soon!

May:the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

2010-05-08T10:28:00.001-07:00

St. Louis is an annual and much anticipated stop for us. We always do a sacred program in the Basilica, and it's always a high point. This time it was "The Divine Orlando" - a beautiful program which seems to have been a hit from the Bay Area ( where we first did it last season,) to Paris to Portland, and now St. Louis.

2010-05-08T10:26:00.001-07:00

Orlando from up in the rafters at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

May: school's not out yet!

2010-05-07T15:28:00.001-07:00

And while there are still choirs rehearsing, Education Director Ben Johns is still giving clinics. Earlier this week he went to the North Bay (around Santa Rosa) to visit some schools we don't yet know very well. Today he went over the Bay Bridge to Acalanes High School. We have a long history with them and their Director Bruce Lengacher. Ben listened to three songs they were preparing for the Golden State competition soon, and shared some of his ideas, particularly about an Indonesian piece to which the choir had added some movement. Ben is a trained dancer, as well as a singer, so he's especially attentive to choreography when it's added.

May: heading for St. Louis

2010-05-07T10:47:00.001-07:00

We're on a bus from Madison to St. Louis - this review from last night caught up with us.
Glad the reviewer enjoyed seeing it as much as we enjoyed singing it!

Chanticleer presents unfamiliar music in an accessible, human way
Madison.com
They were primed and ready to welcome Chanticleer, the 12-person, all-male choir. In a program titled "In time of…," which one singer described as an ...
See all stories on this topic

May: Madison, Wisconsin

2010-05-07T10:44:00.001-07:00

Switzerland? The French Alps? No, it is beautiful Lake Mendota abutting the beautiful campus of The University of Wisconsin. The festive atmosphere surrounding the Wisconsin Union Theater certinly made us feel like summer had finally arrived, and we really enjoyed the concert.

2010-05-07T10:43:00.001-07:00

May: Portland, Oregon

2010-05-05T10:13:00.001-07:00

Today we're flying to Madison, Wisconsin after a two day residency in Portland, Oregon - a place we love to visit because we have some serious fans and connections here! Last night we sang our Orlando program at St. Philip Neri Church. We had last sung this program in Paris in January at L'Oratoire du Louvre at the very beginning of our winter European tour.

2010-05-05T10:12:00.001-07:00

The night before we sang "In time of..." at Reed College. An incredible crowd of people who have made our annual visit to Portland a tradition. Many students from several schools. Notice all the cell phones out for our twitterpause!

We loved seeing familiar faces from the Pacific Youth Chorus, members of which had been part of our National Youth Choral Festival in March.

Ben: Arriving in Portland, Alan, Dylan and I had lunch at Kenny and Zuke's delicatessen, then grabbed a coffee at the famous Stumptown Coffee Roasters, just next door. And did the photo booth thing. Great way to spend an afternoon before our first performance of the Divine Orlando of this tour tonight.

Matt reports from Des Moines

2010-05-05T09:57:00.001-07:00

Matt Oltman was in Des Moines last week (did you know that that's where he comes from?) On Friday he worked with Valley High School in preparation for a combined concert with the Des Moines Vocal Arts Ensemble on Sunday. The two choirs sang sets of music on their own as well as a combined "Chanticleer" set which included Gabrieli's "Deus Meus", Jennings' "Calling My Children Home" and "Keep Your Hand on the Plow", and, of course, Biebl's "Ave Maria".

Valley High School Singers under the direction of Linda Vanderpool.

April: our program for teachers - "Open Door."

2010-04-29T08:49:00.001-07:00

The Walter and Elise Haas Fund has been very supportive of Chanticleer's education programs as they have developed over the years. Long ago when we wanted to start an education program, they funded Singing in the Schools, and later helped us create the Middle School Choral Festival. This year they helped us with a new idea we had to offer special opportunities to choir directors and general music teachers. We have called it "Open Door." This season we've offered 7 such events - 4 here at the Kanbar Center, and 3 in the context of our youth choral festivals. All of these programs which were launched with the much appreciated support of the Haas Fund are now a regular part of our curriculum.

Today we have our last Open Door event of the season. 20 or so students and teachers will come to rehearsal this afternoon.

The idea of Open Door is to invite Bay Area teachers ( who may bring students) to observe Chanticleer in its working environment as well as to find out how we can be a further resource to them. This means interactive observation of a rehearsal; our guests ask questions, can move around the room - even between singers - to get a real sense of our process. Education Director Ben Johns, invites them upstairs to our conference room for discussion of any number of issues -repertoire is a big one- as well as asking them how we may tailor our efforts to help them. The Choir Directors and teachers, needless to say, are the key to the successful realization of our education program. They are the ones who make the scheduling possible, maneuver around the rules and requirements of their respective schools - especially when it comes to bringing kids to our festivals and other events. Open Door is one way of keeping in close contact with them - and hopefully giving them a hand.

We are joined by the choir director and a number of students from Washington High School in San Francisco, after rehearsing by ourselves for our forthcoming tour - yes another one!

Washington High School has long been a part of our education program and has sent choirs to our Youth Choral Festival several times. After the rehearsal downstairs, they came up and had a look at our office to get a bit of an idea about what it takes to keep us going. The map of everywhere we've been is always of interest. The students' time with us concluded with a conversation with Ben Johns about what they had heard in the rehearsal.

April: Lima and Cincinnati, Ohio

2010-04-25T07:58:00.001-07:00

We're nearing the end of a big spring tour. We have had great times and memorable concerts and master classes in New York State, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee. Now we're in the last state of our springtime tour of the eastern seabord + Ohio.
Yesterday a masterclass and concert in Lima, and today a concert in St. Peter in Chains in Cincinnati, a traditional stop for us to which we always look forward. Tomorrow, home to prepare for our next Bay Area concert series in June which will be a fantastically beautiful program of music written under England's Tudor monarchs. We want to see all you Bay Area people there! Before that we will take a quick swing to Malibu and Santa Barbara to the south of us, and after that - an appearance at the Ethnic Dance Festival in San Francisco and THEN, to bring this busy season to an exotic close - off to Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Details about the latter are changing by the hour - so there are sure to be exciting and unexpected things to report. What a season it will have been...

From this tour - here's a review from North Carolina - that was a whole week ago!
And Dylan settled in for a meal at Packard's in Lima.

Classical Voice of North Carolina
Chanticleer has been called an "orchestra of voices," and this concert of a cappella singing showed why. You would expect to hear a nice blend of voices ...

April: Tenn Tech

2010-04-21T18:12:00.001-07:00

A picture perfect sunset as backdrop for our concert on the beautiful Tenn Tech campus. The concert is free to the public. Scores of students were in attendance. Master Class earlier was fantastic; the Univ. sang works by Monteverdi and Lauridson with great skill. Have been enjoying the local delicacy fried green tomatoes whenever we can!

April: twitterpause at Shenandoah University

2010-04-21T15:06:00.002-07:00

Monday we were at the acoustically very nice Armstrong Hall at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA, where the audience was very enthusiastic. We invited them to tweet and photograph during the last number - something we did for the first time during our National Youth Choral Festival in Davies Hall last March.

On Tuesday we moved on to Cooksville, Tennesee where we patronized the Waffle House this morning before our mid day masterclass. Tonight we'll be performing in Wattenbarger Auditorium at Tennessee Technological University. Brian and Gregory - who come from these parts, more or less - will have family in attendance.

April: Premiere of Sametz work, standing ovation in Bethlehem, PA

2010-04-17T20:10:00.001-07:00

This performance at the Zoellner Center included the premiere of Steven Sametz' three-movement "Not an end of loving" to poetry by Walt Whitman. Chanticleer's repertoire has long included Sametz' "I have had singing" and "In time of..." (the latter having given its name to our tour program this year.) Steven's music has always been a huge audience-pleaser, and we are sure that "Not an end of loving" will have the same effect wherever it is heard. The audience in Bethlehem certainly seemed to appreciate it, and we loved singing it.

Matt Oltman and Steven Sametz

Review of National Youth Choral Festival in the Piedmost Post!

2010-04-16T17:08:00.001-07:00

http://www.repeatperformances.org/preview.php?catid=1&id=232 <http://www.repeatperformances.org/preview.php?catid=1&id=232>

April in New York, everything in blossom

2010-04-13T20:00:00.001-07:00

Back to New York for a lovely private event on Fifth Avenue this evening. Everyone loves New York in the spring, of course. This year the pollen count is off the charts -they don't even have a chart big enough! We all know about singers and allergies - they seem to have more than the general population. Your average opera singer in New York today would be residing in the drugstore or a windowless room. So what about us?

Gregory: I know a lot of singers who get really testy about flowers indoors, and I know people who wouldn't know the difference between Spring and Winter if it sneezed on them. Amateur singers and students tend to react negatively, but perhaps because Chanticleer sings practically every day, in sickness and in health, even the boys who may have some issues don't seem to be concerned. In answer to my question - do you suffer from allergies, and if so what do you do about it?

Adam Ward (with absolutely no expression): Nope. (This is to be expected, since nothing on Earth really seems to be able to affect Adam's voice.)

Ben Jones: Not really. If I do, I do, and there's not much anybody can do about it.

Jace Wittig: As soon as winter is over, I take a Claritin every day. (When asked if it was preventative in the way of keeping him from being ill he responded:) It's preventative, period. If there is pollen in the air, it's not that bad for me. I get itchy eyes, but it doesn't make it hard to sing. It's just easier.

Cortez Mitchell: No...not really. I mean, I'll sniffle if there's a bunch of flowers inside, but it's not that big of a deal.

Gregory again: I used to think that I had no allergies at all. My mom had horrible allergies, so the fact that there weren't portions of the year where it was difficult to breathe for me meant that I assumed I was free. Now, I know that when there's a lot of Spring in the air, I'll feel it, but that's about all. I try not to stress out over it.

So now you know - that's us and allergies, on a cloudy but beautiful blossom filled spring day in New York City.

Day off in Boston: Matt Curtis eats for charity

2010-04-12T16:24:00.001-07:00

Matt Curtis joined the Josh Beckett (of the Red Sox) challenge at McGreevy's sports bar. All you have to do is order it, pay $30 for it and eat it all. A portion of the price goes to the Josh Beckett Foundation. Here's what Matt ate (in a good cause:) the McGreevy's Beckett Burger, approximately the size of home plate, 100% beef, weighing a total of 1 pound 9 ounces with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and cheddar cheese. If you finish it you get a t-shirt, and if you don't, you get a t-shirt. Perhaps we'll have a picture of Matt in his...

April: Jordan Hall, Boston

2010-04-12T14:58:00.001-07:00

On the last day of our three day/three concert run around the Northeast, we left New York at 8am and arrived in Boston at 11.30am. The Celebrity Series kindly had lunch for us in the dressing room, and the concert started at 3pm. The Celebrity Series is another longtime presenter which has a faithful and wonderful audience for us. We take this opportunity to thank Marty Jones and her staff for their kind welcome. Since Marty will retire next year - we also thank her for many years of such hospitality in Jordan Hall and Symphony Hall in Boston.

2010-04-12T14:57:00.004-07:00

Jordan Hall is in the New England Conservatory of Music and has many solemn reminders of the great tradition of classical music in which we play our part.

2010-04-12T14:57:00.003-07:00

A beautiful hall, just the right size, with a warm acoustic.

2010-04-12T14:57:00.001-07:00

2010-04-12T14:56:00.001-07:00

It was a beautiful afternoon in Boston - many people stayed around to buy CD's and talk to us.
Hopefully it will be another warm and sunny day tomorrow for our DAY OFF here!!!

National Youth Choral Festival: thanks, Bishop Amat Memorial High School for this video!

2010-04-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzNfUjTgz4g

April: 48 hrs/3 states/3 concerts

2010-04-10T18:56:00.001-07:00

7 hours after leaving Keene,New Hampshire we arrive at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (having dropped our bags at the hotel and grabbed a snack at Fairway across the street)on a gorgeous spring day for a 7pm performance of "In time of.." Thanks to Hilde Limondjian, longtime head of the Met's Concerts and Lectures, we've been performing there for 20 years, over 50 performances - ever since Eric's been around - so it's our home in New York. We don't, however, remember ever performing in the Temple of Dendur with light pouring in the windows. It's always an audience full of friends and colleagues we're happy to see, and it was Cortez' birthday!
Tomorrow at 8am we get back in the bus for Boston, where our 3pm concert in Jordan Hall for the Celebrity Series will be the last in the weekend triple-header.

April: Fasten your seatbelts - 3 concerts in 3 states in 48 hours!

2010-04-09T20:21:00.003-07:00

The day after our debut in the wonderful and relatively new Verizon Hall in Philadelphia on a hot and sunny day spring day, we drove 5 1/2 hours to Keene, New Hampshire for the first of these three weekend concerts, happening hundreds of miles apart between 8pm Friday and 5pm Sunday. Life is never boring. The northeastern mini-heatwave which we enjoyed in Philadelphia seems to be over - it's cold and rainy in our little corner of New Hampshire.

2010-04-09T20:21:00.001-07:00

2010-04-09T20:20:00.003-07:00

Our concert was in the Colonial, built in l924 for vaudeville and movies - a very cozy theater with an incredibly receptive audience - possibly the most ecstatic response to Orlando Gibbons we've ever seen up close from the stage on the part of one audience member! Lots of choral people were there.

2010-04-09T20:20:00.001-07:00

$3 popcorn and all the candy you love to have at the movies were available in the lobby!!!

2010-04-09T20:19:00.001-07:00

We'll leave for New York at l0 tomorrow morning to for a 7pm concert in the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The last stop in the weekend whirlwind will be Jordan Hall in Boston on Sunday at 3pm. Usually we'd be driving, but we thought better of it, and will be letting the bus driver stress about getting us there.

2010-04-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, before Philadelphia we were in Buffalo. Here's a review.

Chanticleer's unorthodox lineup ranges from medieval to modern
Buffalo News
By Mary Kunz Goldman Chanticleer charmed the crowd Tuesday at the Ramsi P. Tick ... Chanticleer will be back, too. So if you missed this performance, ...

April: seeing America

2010-04-08T09:37:00.003-07:00

We're still basking in the fun and success of our first National Youth Choral Festival - you can read some of the feedback on Facebook. We'll be streaming some of the concert soon on Chanticleer Radio. Back down to earth after those four incredible days - and we're off again - already to Buffalo and now Philadelphia where we perform in Verizon Hall, and have some time for tourism.

2010-04-08T09:37:00.001-07:00

Time to see a little bit of Philadelphia, Gregory writes:
City Hall, blocks from the hotel and from the Kimmel Center, Verizon Hall, where we sang. This is still the largest municipal building in the US. Gorgeous. Philly today was summer hot and sunny, completely contrary to normal climate. I had a hard time getting enough building in frame because the sun kept ruining the picture from most angles. Our hotel is *steps* from the first library in the United States. Benjamin Franklin founded a subscription library (because books were not readily available in the colonies and were far too expensive and difficult to find for single owners). This building also served as the Library of Congress until the Capitol moved 1800 and was the largest library in the country until 1850

March: National Youth Choral Festival - our first review!!!

2010-03-31T10:39:00.003-07:00

2010-03-31T10:38:00.001-07:00

The San Jose Mercury News calls us a 'resounding success.'

http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_14788918

March: National Youth Choral Festival - The Singing Life - Gala Concert

2010-03-29T22:46:00.001-07:00

We did it! The concert was amazing - stereophonic energy going back and forth from the stage to the audience. We started with Jubilate Deo by Gabrieli and Ave Verum Corpus by Byrd. Then the honor choir sang Wilbye's Sweet Honey Sucking Bees.

2010-03-29T22:40:00.003-07:00