For Immediate Release

CHANTICLEER & THE SHANGHAI QUARTET
TO PRESENT WORLD PREMIERE
FROM THE PATH OF BEAUTY, MARCH 13 – 16
SONG CYCLE FOR MIXED CHOIR & STRING QUARTET BY CELEBRATED CHINESE COMPOSER CHEN YI

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 11, 2008—Chanticleer, the Grammy® Award-winning male a cappella ensemble, and the internationally acclaimed Shanghai Quartet, will present the world premiere of Chen Yi’s From the Path of Beauty, a song cycle for mixed choir and string quartet. Four debut performances are scheduled for the Bay Area beginning March 13 at 8 p.m. at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, followed by March 14 in Berkeley, March 15 in Santa Clara, and March 16 in San Francisco.

Commissioned by Chanticleer and The Shanghai Quartet for their respective 30th and 25th anniversaries, Chen Yi’s newest work is a musical portrait of beauty in Chinese arts ranging from the ancient totems and delicate figurines, from poetry to calligraphy, to dance and music.

The work is composed in seven movements, four of which feature both Chanticleer and The Shanghai Quartet together, while other movements feature either group alone. The string quartet plays in nontraditional textures – dark and dense blocks o chords, imitation of Chinese operatic reciting, and woodwind-like running passages. The choir sings in nonsense syllables, clusters and banding tones taken from Chinese traditional folk music materials and performing styles.

The concert will also feature The Shanghai Quartet in a performance of Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major, and the Chanticleer men singing select works by Ravel and György Ligeti.

As a prolific composer who blends Chinese and Western traditions, transcending cultural and musical boundaries, Chen Yi is the recipient of the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2001. She is the Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the Conservatory of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2005. Chen Yi has received bachelor and master degrees in music composition from the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Columbia University in the City of New York. Her current teaching posts also include a three-year stint at China’s Central Conservatory of Music.

Chen Yi has served as composer-in-residence for Chanticleer, the former Women’s Philharmonic, and the Aptos Creative Arts Center. Her extensive body of music has been primarily composed for symphony orchestras, as well as chamber music, vocal works and pieces for piano. Chen Yi’s music is featured on more than a dozen CD recordings, including Chanticleer’s Grammy® Award-winning Colors of Love.

Originally formed in Shanghai 25 years ago, The Shanghai Quartet is a versatile ensemble known for their passionate musicality, impressive technique, and multicultural innovations. The Shanghai Quartet's elegant style of melding the delicacy of Eastern music with the emotional breadth of Western repertory allows them to traverse the genres, from traditional Chinese folk music to cutting edge contemporary classical works. The musicians are Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jang, violin; Honggang Li, viola; and Nicholas Tzavaras, cello.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary (2008-09), the Quartet will premiere commissions from the three continents that comprise their artistic and cultural worlds: Chen Yi, Krzysztof Penderecki, and jazz pianist Dick Hyman. Of a recent performance, The New York Times stated, “The whole performance was superb”.

The Quartet has performed on the world’s most prominent concert stages, and regularly tours the great music centers of Europe, North and South America, and Asia. The Quartet has made regular appearances at Carnegie Hall both in chamber performance and with orchestra, and in 2006 performed the world premiere of a Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra by Takuma Itoh in Carnegie’s Isaac Stern Auditorium. In addition to their busy performance and recording schedule, The Quartet serves as the Ensemble-in- Residence at Montclair State University, and as visiting professors at the Shanghai Conservatory and Central Conservatory in China.

Called “the world’s reigning male chorus,” by the New Yorker magazine, Chanticleer will perform more than 100 concerts in 2007-08, the Grammy® Award-winning ensemble’s 30th season. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for their “tonal luxuriance and crisply etched clarity,” Chanticleer will tour to 22 states across the United States this season, including appearances at Walt Disney Concert Hall under the auspices of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. In January 2008, the ensemble performed at prestigious venues in major European cities: Paris, Luxembourg, Bruges, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and Vilnius.

In Fall 2007, Warner Classics and Jazz released Chanticleer’s newest Christmas CD, Let It Snow. Let It Snow features the ensemble with the Chanticleer Holiday Orchestra performing such favorites as “Feliz Navidad” and “The Christmas Song.” The editors of the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts recently honored Chanticleer as the 2008 “Ensemble of the Year”, the first time a vocal ensemble has been so recognized.

Based in San Francisco, Chanticleer has developed a remarkable reputation for its vivid interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz, and from gospel to venturesome new music. With its seamless blend of twelve male voices, ranging from countertenor to bass, the ensemble has earned international renown as “an orchestra of voices.” Joseph Jennings is Chanticleer’s Music Director.

The commission of Chen Yi’s From the Path of Beauty has received major assistance from The Carol Franc Buck Foundation, the Fleishhacker Foundation, and Kathleen G. Henschel. The Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation, J.C. Property Investment, Tom & Patricia Klitgaard, and Mary D. Lau have provided additional support. The composition is dedicated to Peter Henschel and Gordon Lau, honoring their great devotion and contribution to the friendship between the San Francisco Bay Area and China. The New York premiere is scheduled for April 11, 2008 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Tickets for all four performances of the March program are $44 to $25, and may be purchased by calling City Box Office at 800 407 1400 or visit www.chanticleer.org. On Sunday, March 16 at 2:30 p.m., composer Chen Yi will give an informal discussion about her career and other musical matters, in addition to a live performance by members of the Crystal Children’s Choir. This afternoon event is free to the public; for tickets, call the Chanticleer office at 415 252 8589.

Chanticleer will return to the Bay Area May 15–30 with a special program, El Camino Real: Chanticleer Travels the Mission Road, beginning in San Luis Obispo and concluding at San Francisco’s Mission Dolores. The rich repertory of the past eras will nicely compliment these nine historic California Missions.  

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