Chanticleer’s 2009 Holiday Tour Features 25 Performances Across the US from Nov 28 – Dec 23, and a Return to Television’s Today Show

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“No one does a better choral Christmas than the virtuoso male voices of Chanticleer.” - The New Yorker

The Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer, now in its 32nd season, will give 25 holiday concerts across America this season, continuing a tradition that has made “A Chanticleer Christmas” one of the group’s most beloved programs. As well as its live concert performances, the group will also appear for the fifth consecutive year on NBC TV’s popular Today show, singing a traditional carols in both the 8 o’clock and 10 o’clock hours (eastern time; check local listings). While on the show the group will also talk about its two most recent recording projects: Fireside Christmas with Chanticleer, a DVD featuring a virtual Yule log and glorious selections of Christmas fare, from early music to traditional carols, drawn from Chanticleer’s distinguished discography (including Biebl’s Ave Maria, by far the group’s most beloved encore); and Best of Chanticleer, a greatest hits collection from Rhino that showcases the group’s trademark versatility. This album boasts three entirely new tracks: Gustav Mahler’s achingly beautiful song Ich bin der Welt Abhanden gekommen; the Chanticleer-commissioned Lullaby by Shawn Crouch; and the timeless classic Summertime by George and Ira Gershwin.

The New Yorker summed up the incomparable appeal of “A Chanticleer Christmas” with this description: “To hear a Christmas concert in the majestic intimacy of the museum’s Medieval Sculpture Hall is an essential New York experience. Chanticleer, the ebullient (and stunningly expert) San Francisco men’s chamber choir, has been drawing eager crowds for several years by offering a tempting mix of carols, spirituals, and sacred polyphony from the medieval and Renaissance periods.”

Chanticleer’s six performances at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (two concerts each on November 30, December 1 and December 3) are preceded by tour-opening concerts in Fairfax, VA (November 28) and South Orange, NJ (November 29). The tour also includes a concert in Westhampton Beach, NY (December 5); two concerts (December 7 and 8) at Chicago’s 4th Presbyterian Church, presented by the Chicago Symphony; a return engagement at Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (December 17); and eleven performances throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Chanticleer’s home base. While in Chicago, the group will also make a live appearance on WFMT’s Impromptu on December 7, a radio program that features live music and conversation from the station’s Levin Performance Studio in Chicago.

Chanticleer’s winning way with holiday fare has been documented on a number of best-selling recordings as well as on a DVD recorded at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and broadcast widely on public television.

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