Chanticleer (ensemble)

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Based in San Francisco, California, Chanticleer is the only full time classical vocal ensemble in the United States. For nearly three decades, Chanticleer has developed a grand reputation for its interpretation of Renaissance music, but performs a wide repertoire of jazz, gospel, and other venturesome new music and is widely known as an "Orchestra of Voices". It was named for the "clear singing rooster" in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Chanticleer was founded in 1978 by tenor Louis Botto who sang with the group until 1989, and served as Artistic Director until his death in 1997. As a graduate student of musicology, Botto found that much of the medieval and Renaissance music he was studying was not being performed, and, because of this, he formed the group to perform this music with an all male ensemble, as it was traditionally sung during the Renaissance period.

Originally, the group contained 10 singers, but has varied anywhere from eight to 12. Currently, Chanticleer contains 12 men including two basses, one baritone, three tenors, and six countertenors (three altos and three sopranos).

In 2000, Joseph Jennings (Music Director) and Chanticleer won a Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance for their work Colors of Love - Works of Thomas, Stucky, Tavener & Rands.