Walt Whitman famously said “I hear America singing.” This month, hearing Chanticleer sing American songs might be just as memorable.
Ask anyone who has been to a Chanticleer concert over the last four decades, and they’ll tell you the 12-man a cappella chorus can sing anything. Renaissance polyphony, Mexican Baroque, American spirituals, Bach motets or contemporary songs — all have figured prominently in the San Francisco-based group’s repertoire over the years.
Founded in 1978 by tenor Louis Botto, Chanticleer has gone on to become one of the world’s premier men’s vocal ensembles. The group is now midway through its 40th season, and the roster has changed as longtime singers retired and new ones joined. But the group has managed to maintain the high standards it started with.
Chanticleer returns this week with four performances of a new program titled “Spacious Skies.” It’s a celebration of American music spanning three centuries — some of which the Grammy Award-winning group performed on its recent 11-concert European tour, which took the singers to eight countries.
Led by music director William Fred Scott, “Spacious Skies” begins with works by William Billings and Stephen Foster and comes forward to include 20th and 21st-century works by Ned Rorem, Samuel Barber, John Corigliano, Steven Stucky and Mason Bates. American pop, jazz and gospel songs complete the program.
If you go, pick up a copy of Chanticleer’s 40th anniversary CD, “Then and There, Here and Now.” Released last September, it features some of the group’s favorite music, including pieces they’ll sing on this program.
Details: 7:30 p.m. March 16 at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 5 p.m. March 17 at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Sacramento, 7:30 p.m. March 19 at Mission Santa Clara, 7:30 p.m. March 20 at St. Augustine Catholic Church, Pleasanton; $20-$60; 415-392-4400; www.chanticleer.org.
FOUR FOR THE WEEKEND: Island City Opera presents Puccini’s delectable “La Rondine, 7:30 p.m. March 15, and 2 p.m. March 17, at the Elks Lodge in Alameda; $36-$60, $10 kids; 510-263-8060, islandcityopera.org. Gold Coast Chamber Players presents an all-Mozart program featuring the Alexander String Quartet, with clarinetist Tony Striplen, violist Pamela Freund-Striplen and pianist Jeffrey LaDeur, 7:30 p.m. March 16 at the Lafayette Library and 5 p.m. March 17 at Piedmont Center for the Arts; $45 general, $40 seniors, $15 students; 925.283-3728, www.gcplayers.org. Schola Cantorum presents Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” 7:30 p.m. March 16 at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto and 3 p.m. March 17 at Los Altos United Methodist Church; $28; 650-254-1700, scholacantorum.org. And Livermore Valley Opera gives its final performances of Rossini’s rollicking “The Barber of Seville,” 7:30 p.m. March 16 and 2 p.m. March 17 at the Bankhead Theater; $40-$90, $20 kids; 925-373-6800, www.livermorevalleyopera.com.
LOOKING AHEAD: Music@Menlo, the South Bay chamber music festival and training institute, has announced details of its 2019 summer season. Opening July 12 in Menlo Park and Atherton, “Incredible Decades” will take a musical-historical journey tracing the evolution of Western classical music in seven chapters, each focusing on a specific decade. Under artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han, more than 50 events are on the schedule.
Mainstage concerts begin with “Bach Ascending, 1710-1720,” a program celebrating Baroque masters, and close with “Music @ the Millenium, 1990-2000.” In between are programs titled “Beethoven Launched, 1790-1800,” “Classical Twilight, 1820-1830,” “Romantic Revolution, 1840-1850,” “Moscow to Montmartre, 1890-1900,” and “The Roaring Twenties, 1920-1930.”
In addition to cellist Finckel and pianist Wu Han — each a stellar performer — the festival, as always, will bring a large slate of top chamber artists to these programs. Included are appearances by baritone Nikolay Borchev, pianists Juho Pohjonen, Stephen Prutsman and Gilles Vonsattel; violinists Ivan Chan, Soovin Kim and Paul Neubauer; clarinetist Tommaso Lonquich, cellist Keith Robinson and the Escher String Quartet. In addition to the mainstage programs, the lineup includes Carte Blanche Concerts, Encounter symposia, Café Conversations and master classes.
Details: July 12-Aug. 3, various venues; tickets, priced at $34-$84 adults, $15-$35 under age 30, are on sale now; 650-331-0202, musicatmenlo.org.
Contact Georgia Rowe at growe@pacbell.net.
