Chanticleer

This week, Ben, Greg, Mama, and I went to see Chanticleer in concert. My brothers were skeptical  about the concert. Like everything else that doesn't relate to his work or school, Ben was sure it would be a waste of time. And Greg just didn't want to go. Well, by the end of the concert I think we all agreed that it was worth it. The music was perfect all night long. The harmony was mind-blowing.

If you've never heard Chanticleer, they're a Grammy award-winning a capella men's singing group made up of twelve male vocalists--one bass, one bass-baritone, one baritone, three tenors, three sopranos, and three altos. Though none of the singers are restricted to their part. In fact, every piece demanded something different of each singer. One of the tenors, Ben Jones, said that every "chair" in the group is for one kind of voice only, so it is difficult to get into the group if you want to. There are no back-up singers or replacement singers in this group in case of emergency. And these guys tour all year round, so I have no idea how they manage that. But they do and they sound amazing.

As kids, we listened to their music a lot. My brothers and I especially loved their folk music. While the group performs a capella, not all of their albums are a capella. They feature guest singers, instrumentalists, and whole orchestras on some of theirs. Their goal as a group has always been to explore every kind of music. And their concert last night testified to their success in their pursuit. They sang a variety of classical and romantic pieces in German, French, and other languages. But then the second half of their concert featured a lot of modern composers such as Eric Whitacre and songs like "Somebody to Love". So they do an excellent job of performing different varieties of music!

Here is the group we saw with Chanticleer's first music video "Cells Planets". They sang this song at the very end, after we had made them come out onto the stage again!

Afterward, we got to talk to more of the members of Chanticleer. It was really interesting to hear all of their stories on how they joined.

My brothers (including the one with the camera) went and waited for us in the car and didn't want to hang around and talk. So I didn't get any pictures. Sadness. But my piano teacher was at the concert as well, so at my piano lesson that week we got to rave about the group to each other and chat about them.

Speaking of piano lessons, I have joined "sight reading boot camp". Not really. It's a joke with my piano teacher and I, because I wish there were such a thing as sight reading boot camp that I could go to and take a crash course on sight reading. I cannot sight read music to save my life and it's really, really bad for an aspiring pianist to not be able to sight read! So these next two weeks, I will be doing a lot of music reading/playing exercises on the piano. And I'm praying that my reading improves. Otherwise, I can't really play anything fluently and with confidence unless I have it memorized and that is really hindering me.

Now for bed. God bless!