Chanticleer’s First National Youth Choral Festival™ Takes Place in San Francisco, March 26-29

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Festival Culminates on March 29 with “The Singing Life”:
Chanticleer Performs with 416 High School Singers at Davies Symphony Hall

“This is the biggest thing we’ve ever done.” – Matthew Oltman, Chanticleer’s Music Director

Hot on the heels of a triumphant European tour, Chanticleer, Musical America’s 2008 Ensemble of the Year, takes its extensive nationwide education program to new heights this month with its first National Youth Choral Festival™. The festival, which takes place between March 26 and 29 in Chanticleer’s hometown, San Francisco, will bring together twelve high-school choirs comprising 416 student singers from across the country: five choirs from the Bay Area, and seven from as far east as Woodbridge VA and as far west as Honolulu HI.

During the four-day choral immersion, the visiting choirs will interact closely and intensively with the members of Chanticleer, who will coach them in all areas critical to the choral art. The climactic event on March 29, “The Singing Life”, will feature Chanticleer and the choirs in a day-long residency at San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, where the choirs will be given the opportunity to perform individually on the stage, and to attend vocal master-classes led by mezzo-sopranos Frederica von Stade and Zheng Cao. That evening, all twelve choirs will come together with Chanticleer and von Stade for a gala concert under the direction of the group’s music director, Matthew Oltman. The program includes the American premiere of Annonciation, a cantata by French composer Daniel-Lesur, and a not-to-be-missed monumental performance of the Ave Maria by Franz Biebl, one of the most popular choral pieces of the 20th century.

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