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A Chanticleer Christmas

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Dec. 6, 2024 - 8pm & Dec. 8, 2024 - 4pm

"A Chanticleer Christmas" brings with it warmth, light, familiar carols, and joy. This year's program is full of new arrangements of well-known tunes, presented with impeccable style and virtuosity by San Francisco's "Orchestra of Voices." Equally at home in the worlds of Classical, Jazz, or Pop, Chanticleer weaves back and forth between styles to present an evening of wonder and merriment. The group begins with their traditional candlelight processional, and concludes with a litany of crowd-pleasers, coming to a raucous close with Joseph Jennings's classic Spirituals. We can't wait to celebrate the season with you!

Photo by Stephen K. Mack.

The GRAMMY® Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer has been hailed as “the world’s reigning male chorus” by The New Yorker, and is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for its wide-ranging repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, selling over one million recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the world.

Chanticleer’s repertoire is rooted in the renaissance, and has continued to expand to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz, popular music, and a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements. The ensemble has committed much of its vast recording catalogue to these commissions, garnering GRAMMY® Awards for its recording of Sir John Tavener’s “Lamentations & Praises”, and the ambitious collection of commissioned works entitled “Colors of Love”. Chanticleer is the recipient of the Dale Warland/Chorus America Commissioning Award and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming, and its Music Director Emeritus Joseph H. Jennings received the Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award for his contribution to the African-American choral tradition during his tenure with Chanticleer.

Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer continues to maintain ambitious programming in its hometown of San Francisco, including a large education and outreach program that recently reached over 8,000 people, and an annual concert series that includes its legendary holiday tradition “A Chanticleer Christmas”.

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Program Notes

A Chanticleer Christmas

 

Tavian Cox, Luke Elmer*, Cortez Mitchell*, 

Bradley Sharpe, Logan Shields, Adam Brett Ward – countertenor

Vineel Garisa Mahal*, Matthew Mazzola, Andrew Van Allsburg – tenor

Andy Berry*, Jared Graveley, Matthew Knickman – baritone and bass

 

Tim Keeler – Music Director

 

I

Ave maris stella Guillaume Du Fay (1397–1474),

John Dunstaple (c.1390–1453), 

Alexander Agricola (c.1445–1506),

Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548–1611) 

Ave Maria, mater Dei† William Cornysh (d.1523)

 

II

This endris night Sarah Quartel (b.1982)

Now make we joy† English, 15th c.

Make we joy now in this fest William Walton (1902–1983)

 

III

Ther is no rose of swych vertu† English, 15th c.

There is no rose from A Ceremony of Carols Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)

Balulalow from A Ceremony of Carols Britten

The Oxen Jonathan Rathbone (b.1957)

Suo Gân† Traditional Welsh, arr. Lance Wiliford

 

IV

Nowell sing we English, 15th c.

Noel Canon† Steven Sametz (b.1954)

A Christmas Fanfare (Angelus ad Virginem) Anonymous, 13th c., arr. Steven Sametz

 

V

O come, all ye faithful John Francis Wade (1711–1786), 

arr. Amanda Taylor

Arrangement commissioned by Chanticleer in 2022

Ave Maria† Franz Biebl (1906–2001)

 

VI

Wassail Song Traditional English, arr. Gladys Pitcher

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day† Traditional English, arr. Dale Grotenhuis

Good King Wenceslas Traditional English, arr. Jared Graveley

Joy to the world Lowell Mason (1792–1872), arr. Adam Ward

 

VII

I Am Snow† from The Rivers Are Our Brothers Majel Connery (b.1979), arr. Majel Connery 

and Doug Balliett

Arrangement commissioned by Chanticleer and Musica Sierra in 2023 with support from Ken Grant

And the trees do moan Traditional Appalachian, arr. Tim Keeler

Silent night Franz Xaver Gruber (1787–1863), 

arr. Graveley

 

VIII

(Everywhere I go) Somebody talkin’ ‘bout Jesus† Traditional Spiritual, arr. Joseph H. Jennings

Oh, Jerusalem in the mornin’† Traditional Spiritual, arr. Jennings

 

†These pieces have been recorded by Chanticleer.

 

*Andy Berry occupies the Eric Alatorre Chair, given by Peggy Skornia. Luke Elmer occupies the Ning G. Mercer Chair for the Preservation of the Chanticleer Legacy, given by Ning and Stephen Mercer. Vineel Garisa Mahal occupies the Tenor Chair, given by an Anonymous Donor. Cortez Mitchell occupies the Cortez Mitchell Chair, given by James R. Meehan. 

Concerts at St. Ignatius