September: Lab Choir 2 has its 5th session.

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

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

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

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

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.