The Chanticleers will perform Friday, April 28 at St. Matthews.
Photo: Stephen K. Mack
The Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer will perform “Labyrinths” at St. Matthew’s Music Guild at 8 p.m. Friday, April 28.
Chanticleer’s Music Guild program will bring a rich and varied line-up of more than 500 years of music, from Josquin des Prez to Stephen Paulus to Caroline Shaw. The 12-member group, called “an orchestra of voices,” consists of basses, baritones, tenors and countertenors.
About the upcoming Palisades program, Chanticleer writes, “Labyrinths twist and turn. They wind and wend, meander and mosey. Exploring a labyrinth can be scary, but it can also be meditative, and sometimes even healing. To walk a labyrinth is to admire the journey. Left and right, forward and backward, how did you end up here today? And what lies around the next corner? Life is one long labyrinth. Let’s explore it together.”
The group was founded in San Francisco in 1978 and named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Since its founding, Chanticleer has sold more than a million recordings and performed thousands of live concerts. The group’s repertoire is rooted in the Renaissance, but has continued to expand to include classical, gospel, jazz and popular music.
It also has a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements, as well as and large education and outreach program.
Annually the ensemble performs 20-25 concerts in the Bar Area and spends 25 weeks on the road in the U.S. Europe and Asia.
Chanticleer tours biannually to Europe’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Musikverein in Vienna, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Prague’s Rudolfinum and Budapest’s Bela Bartok Hall. Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan have offered concerts regularly, and in 2009 Chanticleer made its debut in the People’s Republic of China.
A pre-concert presentation, “Liner Notes with Tom Neenan,” begins at 7:10 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Neenan will be joined by members of Chanticleer for the pre-concert event.
All Music Guild concerts are held at St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bienveneda Ave. Tickets are $35 or Music Guild Season pass. Season passes for remaining 2022 – 2023 concerts are available for as little as $75. For complete information, tickets and season passes, visit MusicGuildOnline.org or call (310) 573-7422.