Chanticleer. (credit: Stephen K. Mack)

True to their name, Chanticleer’s a cappella brilliance launches Cathedral Concert Series

CONCERT REVIEW:
Chanticleer
October 19, 2024
“Music of a Silent World”
Cathedral of St. Philip
Atlanta, GA – USA
Chanticleer: Tavian Cox, Luke Elmer, Cortez Mitchell, Bradley Sharpe, Logan Shields & Adam Brett Ward, countertenors; Vineel Garisa Mahal, Matthew Mazzola & Andrew Van Allsburg, tenors; Andy Berry, Jared Graveley & Matthew Knickman, baritone and bass; Tim Keeler, music director.
Kurt WEILL (*arr. Gene Puerling): Lost in the Stars
Heinrich ISAAC: Cibavit eos
Heinrich ISAAC: Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen
Stephen SONDHEIM (arr. J. Jennings): I Remember
Majel CONNERY (arr. M. Connery & D. Balliett): The Rivers are our Brothers
Ayanna WOODS: I miss you like I miss the trees
Max REGER: Abschied, op. 83 no. 9
Ann RONELL (arr. J Jennings): Willow Weep for Me
Max REGER: Hochsommernacht and Eine gantz neue Schelmweys, op. 83, no. 5 & 6
Joni MITCHELL (arr. V. Peterson): Both Sides Now
Hoagy CARMICHAEL (arr. J. Graveley): Stardust
TRADITIONAL (arr. M. Bartholomew & J. Erb): Shenandoah
Encore: TRADITIONAL (arr. J. Jennings): Rock a My Soul

Michael Moore | 25 OCT 2024

On Saturday, October 19, the Friends of Cathedral Music at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta launched its seven-concert 2024-2025 season to a near-full house with the “Distinguished Dozen,” better known as the Grammy-winning vocal ensemble, Chanticleer.

Founded in 1978 in San Francisco by singer/musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer’s roots were in Renaissance music, but over time expanded to include a wide range of classical, jazz, popular music, and gospel. They borrowed their name from the “clear-singing” rooster of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and “clear-singing” they are indeed. Over the years, they have demonstrated a deep commitment to living composers and arrangers to create more than 60 works particularly appropriate for their unique all-male sound. Throughout the ensemble’s history, over 120 men have sung with them, on some 50 recordings and 100 annual performances.


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Chanticleer is today known worldwide as “an Orchestra of Voices,” a moniker that truly describes the rich, varied colors they are capable of with only 12 expert male voices, singing complex harmonies of up to 12 notes and breath-taking unisons with equal ease. Chanticleer is even more remarkable in that everything is a cappella, most is from memory, and there is no conductor. Music Director Tim Keeler’s excellent work is all accomplished behind the scenes.

Standout soloists included countertenor Adam Brett Ward, as well as Vineel Garisa Mahal and Matthew Mazzola, tenors. Each segment was introduced by a different member, each of them utterly charming. The singers did not merely stand still. Indeed, they very naturally utilized their entire bodies to help sell each song, transporting the audience into the natural world that this “Music of a Silent World” program engendered. One could truly experience the wind, the trees, the clouds, and the stars through these extraordinary renditions of such fabulous compositions and arrangements.


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There are Atlanta connections to Chanticleer. In 1980, they worked with Robert Shaw. And during Saturday’s performance they honored another Atlanta favorite, William Fred Scott, who first encountered Chanticleer as a conductor of the ASO in 1994 in a program featuring the Mexican Baroque. But he wasn’t done with them and went on to become the ensemble’s Music Director in 2015 until mid-2020. Fred, an active member of the congregation, was in the audience and took a well-deserved bow. It was a nice gesture by Chanticleer.

After the finale, “Shenandoah,” the audience’s enthusiasm was rewarded with a rousing rendition of “Rock a My Soul,” perfectly rendered by these charismatic masters of blend, sound, style, variety, musicianship, and showmanship. I cannot wait to hear them again soon.

The next performance in the Friends of Cathedral Music’s series is “Dance Fever”, with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra on November 15, followed two weeks later by the Annual Holiday Concert of the Atlanta Symphony Brass and Percussion Sections, Dale Adlemann conducting, on December 3. For more information on these and other St. Philip concerts, visit cathedralatl.org/worship/music/concerts.


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About the author:
Michael Moore has been Principal Tuba in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1968. When not playing, conducting, arranging, teaching, and coaching, he travels the world in search of the best music of the Renaissance and Baroque. His academic degree is in musicology.

Read more by Michael Moore.
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