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'Chanticleer' Men's Chorus to perform
The Grammy Award-winning men's chorus, Chanticleer, will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, at the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center on the Fort Scott Community College campus.
This special engagement is sponsored by the Key Charitable Trust. All seats are reserved and ticket prices are $15 for adults and $5 for children and students. Limited VIP seating (first several rows of the center section) is available for $20 for adults and $10 for children and students.
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, the ensemble's 34th season. Chanticleer will tour to 21 of the United States, appearing in a wide variety of venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"Chanticleer is performing in Kansas City at the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday night so we feel extremely lucky that they were able to fit us into their schedule for the concert on Sunday," concert coordinator Jill Warford said in a news release. "They are an exciting group that our community will really enjoy. We appreciate the Key Charitable Trust for sponsoring this event."
Chanticleer -- based in San Francisco -- is known around the world as "an orchestra of voices" for the seamless blend of its 12 male voices ranging from countertenor to bass and its original interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music. Their program is called "Love Story" -- songs exploring man's most profound and fascinating emotion -- including a new composition by Stephen Paulus and a new Vince Peterson arrangement of "Somebody to Love" by Freddy Mercury, the release said. "Love Story" also includes music by Strauss, Duke Ellington and more.
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, the release said.
Tickets are now on sale and available at the Gordon Parks Museum on the FSCC campus and at Country Cupboard Gifts and Collectibles, 12 N. Main, in downtown Fort Scott. For more information or to purchase tickets by phone, call 223-2700, ext. 5850, or email jillw@fortscott.edu.