Two SF Venues for Chanticleer’s Xmas Music

The members of Chanticleer (photograph by Lisa Kohler)

Next month Chanticleer will present is annual holiday concert, A Chanticleer Christmas, at eight different venues throughout the Bay Area. While this will involve only two performances in San Francisco, our city will also host a special preview event, entitled A Very Special Chanticleer Christmas, before the full run of eleven performances gets under way. As usual, the full program will provide reflections on the Nativity through music composed as early as the thirteenth century and as recently as the present day. Indeed, Peter Bloesch’s “Behold, a Simple, Tender Babe” will be receiving its first round of premiere performances over the course of the tour.

The earliest composed music will be the plainchant with which the program will begin. The earliest composed music will be represented by the “big three” composers from the end of the sixteenth century, Orlande de Lassus, his successor at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and Tomás Luis de Victoria in Spain. The transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque will be represented by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck; and, at the other end of the timeline will be one of the four Christmas motets composed by Francis Poulenc, “Quem vidistis, pastores dicite.” The program will also include arrangements of traditional English and Spanish carols.

The preview performance, A Very Special Chanticleer Christmas, will be presented as part of the Salon Series at Trinity+St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, located at 1620 Gough Street on the northeast corner of Bush Street. The performance will last for only an hour and will take place on Monday, December 10, beginning at 7 p.m. There will also be a post-concert reception. All tickets are being sold for $100 and may be purchased through the Salon Series Order Form on the Chanticleer Web site.

The two San Francisco performances of A Chanticleer Christmas will take place at 8 p.m., the first on Saturday, December 15, and the second on Sunday, December 23. The venue for both performances will be Saint Ignatius Church, which is located on the campus of the University of San Francisco at 650 Parker Avenue on the northeast corner of Fulton Street. Ticket prices will be $75 for Premiere seating, $64 for Preferred seating, $51 for Reserved seating in the Balcony, and $35 for general admission seating in the side sections of the sanctuary. All tickets are being sold online by City Box Office with separate event pages for December 15 and December 23.