Performing Arts Spotlight: Grammy-Winning Vocal Group Chanticleer to Perform at Mead Chapel Sept. 29

COURTESY PHOTO
Known the world over for “precise, pure, and deeply felt singing” (The New York Times), the multiple Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer makes its Middlebury debut on Saturday, Sept. 29 at Mead Memorial Chapel. Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its 12 male voices ranging from countertenor to bass and its original interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz and from gospel to venturesome new music.

The concert will feature a special program called “Then and There, Here and Now” that will span musical history in honor of the group’s 40th-anniversary season. This panoramic look back at Chanticleer’s favorite composers and repertoires will include selections by Giovanni da Palestrina, William Bird, Richard Strauss, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and many more. Eleven of the works to be performed were written or arranged specifically for Chanticleer.

Called “the world’s reigning male chorus” by the New Yorker, and praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for “tonal luxuriance and crisply etched clarity,” Chanticleer celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2018. The group has sold well over a million albums and won two Grammy awards. The popular “A Chanticleer Christmas” is broadcast annually on over 300 affiliated public radio stations nationwide.

Chanticleer was founded in San Francisco in 1978 by tenor Louis A. Botto, who sang in the ensemble until 1989 and served as Artistic Director until his death in 1997. Chanticleer first became known for its interpretations of Renaissance music, and was later a pioneer in the revival of the South American baroque, recording several award-winning titles in that repertoire. Chanticleer was named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America in 2008 and inducted in the American Classical Music Hall of Fame the same year. William Fred Scott was named music director in 2014. A native of Georgia, Scott is the former assistant conductor to Robert Shaw at the Atlanta Symphony, former artistic director of the Atlanta Opera, an organist, and a choir director.

Among Chanticleer’s many honors are major grants from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation, The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and The Bob Ross Foundation. Chanticleer’s long-standing commitment to commissioning and performing new works was honored in 2008 by the inaugural Dale Warland/Chorus America Commissioning Award and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming.

Chanticleer’s education programs engage over 5,000 young people annually. For these efforts, the group was recognized with the 2010 Chorus America Education Outreach Award.

The group was named for the clear-singing rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

This concert is part of the Middlebury Performing Arts Series’ Nelson Series.