Chanticleer Announces 46th Bay Area Season

The Chanticleer vocalists (courtesy of Chanticleer)

Next month Chanticleer will launch its 46th season of four programs that will be performed at multiple venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. As in the past, there will be four offerings with concerts taking place at three different sites. Both subscriptions and single tickets are currently on sale. Subscriptions are available for all four programs, and there are also reduced subscriptions for either three or two of the programs. Chanticleer has created a single Web page for ordering all levels of subscriptions, with reduced prices for students and seniors. Similarly, City Box Office has created a single Web page with hyperlinks for all single-performance tickets. Program details have not yet been finalized, but currently available information is as follows:

Sunday, September 24, 2 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall (50 Oak Street): Music of a Silent World is a program of songs inspired by the sounds of the natural world. It will feature a newly commissioned work by the current composer-in-residence, Ayanna Woods. There will also be a new arrangement of “The Rivers are our Brothers,” by Majel Connery. The more traditional composers on the program will include William Byrd, Heinrich Isaac, and Max Reger. There will also be new arrangements of more recent popular tunes.

Saturday, December 23, 8 p.m., St. Ignatius Church (650 Parker Avenue): This year San Francisco will host the final performance pf A Chanticleer Christmas. This will follow the usual abundance of performances taking place in and around the Bay Area. As usual, the program will honor founder Louis Botto’s original vision of joy and transcendence through beautifully sung music of all centuries, beginning with a candlelit chant procession and culminating in a triumphant gospel conclusion.

Saturday, March 23, 7:30 p.m., San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall (50 Oak Street): Breathe together, sing together will be a program of meditation and mindfulness. The program will be richly eclectic, inspiring new perspectives on the world. The selections will include prayerful Gregorian and Buddhist chant, meditative Renaissance polyphony, and soothing contemporary compositions.

Friday, June 7, 7:30 p.m., Grace Cathedral Quire (1100 California Street): This program will be organized around a performance of the Messe de Nostre Dame of Guillaume de Machaut. This is the earliest of the composer’s few surviving sacred works. The program will also include the secular songs of minstrels and bards from the Middle Ages.