Called “the world’s reigning male chorus” by The New Yorker magazine and Ensemble of the Year by Musical America, the GRAMMY award-winning ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its twelve male voices ranging from countertenor to bass. The group’s original interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to adventuresome new music has led them to sell well over a million albums and garnered two GRAMMY awards. Their latest album, Someone New, is a collection of jazz/pop tunes by composers from Brubeck to Freddy Mercury. Their album A Chanticleer Christmas is broadcast annually on over 300 affiliated public radio stations nationwide.
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. With commissions from over eighty composers, Chanticleer’s contribution to new a cappella choral works is unparalleled and includes works by John Musto, Stephen Paulus, John Tavener and Chen Yi.
The group provides extensive education programs, with after school honors programs and Youth Choral Clinics; and in 2010, Chanticleer’s education program received the Chorus America Education Outreach Award. Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer was founded in 1978 by tenor Louis Botto.
