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World-renowned Chanticleer performing locally on Saturday

World-renowned Chanticleer performing locally on Saturday
World-renowned Chanticleer performing locally on Saturday | World-renowned Chanticleer performing locally on Saturday
Called “the world’s reigning male chorus” by the New Yorker magazine and named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America in 2008, Chanticleer will perform more than 100 concerts in 2011-12, including one in Union City on Saturday.
The concert is the second of five for the Community Concert Association of Union City/Obion County this season and will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Union City Civic Auditorium.
Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for their “tonal luxuriance and crisply etched clarity,” Chanticleer will tour to 21 states in this country, appearing in a wide variety of venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. A summer trip to Europe encompassed prestigious festivals such as Edinburgh, La Chaise Dieu, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Rheingau.
Chanticleer, based in San Francisco, is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its male voices ranging from countertenor to bass. The multiple Grammy Award-winning all-male vocal ensemble is comprised of 12 singers hailing from across the U.S. Chanticleer’s repertoire spans 10 centuries from Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony and Romantic art song to contemporary music, jazz, spirituals and world music.
Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer was founded in 1978 by tenor Louis Botto, who sang in the ensemble until 1989 and served as artistic director until his death in 1997. In 1999, Christine Bullin joined Chanticleer as president and general director. Joseph Jennings joined the ensemble as a countertenor in 1983, and, shortly thereafter, assumed the title of music director, which he held until his retirement in 2008. Jennings has arranged some of Chanticleer’s most popular repertoire, most notably spirituals, gospel music and jazz standards. Tenor Matthew D. Oltman succeeded Jennings in 2008 and retired in 2011.
Additional concerts being staged during the 2011-12 season are Restless Heart on Nov. 19, Carpe Diem String Quartet on March 31 and Billy Dean on April 28.
Community Concert memberships include family for $95, adult for $45, senior for $40 and student for $25. Memberships are available to anyone who wishes to purchase them.
Patron memberships are also available and include Whole Note for $1,000 or more, Half Note for $500-$999, Quarter Note for $250-$499 and Eighth Note for $100-$249.
To become a member, send your name, address, phone and email, along with the appropriate fee, to community Concert Association, P.O. Box 894, Union City TN  38281-0894.
The number of family members (limited to seven), along with their names, should be specified.
General admission tickets will be available at the door if seating allows.
Community Concert members also receive reciprocal performances to Dyersburg Live on Stage, formerly Dyersburg Community Concert Association. Remaining performances for the 2011-12 concert season include the Todd Hill Orchestra on Nov. 5, Kurt Stephenson and the Steve Patterson Quartet on Feb. 18, 2012, and The American Tenors April 21, 2012.
For more information or to become a corporate sponsor of Community Concert Association of Union City/Obion County, contact Mike Cox at 536-4569 or Chuck Doss at 886-1155 or visit www.communityconcertuc.org.
Published in The Messenger 10.24.11