Chanticleer brings male harmony to Ogden

Chanticleer's stunning performances of choral music spanning seven centuries of human history are known to make audiences feel that time is standing still.

That's not the only reason the title of the male chorus's concert Saturday in Ogden -- borrowed from e.e. cummings' poem "in time of" -- is a fitting one. Chanticleer will sing the title work, a fascinating choral setting by composer Steven Sametz.

"The poem is about the progression and passage of life," said Chanticleer's artistic director, Matthew Oltman. "What we all share, what's important and what's not so important. So, many of the pieces follow the idea of time passing, war and peace, love and loss -- the themes that keep recurring throughout human history."

It's a concert that Weber State University's cultural-affairs office couldn't afford to offer without the help of a California family who chose to memorialize a the death of their daughter in a generous way.

Melisa Reasner McGuire was a California securities broker and arts lover who died of blood cancer at age 37 in 2002. Since then, McGuire's mother and stepfather, Richard and Kaye Woltman, have twice sponsored appearances of England's St. Martin-in-the-Fields chamber orchestra at WSU in their daughter's memory. This season, the couple is underwriting the Chanticleer concert and a Jan. 23 performance of Kitka, a women's chorus performing music of the Balkan region.

McGuire had no connection to WSU other than a

childhood friendship with Diane Stern, the university's concert series director. But Kaye Woltman feels her daughter would enjoy this week's music and the concert setting in Ogden. "We feel such a sense of community here," Woltman said. "I think that's why we like to repeat our idea of memorializing Melisa through these concerts. We feel they are so appreciated by the community that does get to attend."

Chanticleer, named for the clear-singing rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales , was founded in 1978 in the San Francisco Bay Area to re-create authentic a cappella performances of music from the 15th to 17th centuries.

The group's repertoire soon expanded to cover the full range of music history. Tonight's concert includes Renaissance music of Gibbons, Palestrina and Dufay alongside works of living composers such as Mason Bates, Michael McGlynn and Sametz.

Along with England's The King's Singers, Chanticleer is considered one of the world's best-known male choral ensembles, dubbed "the world's reigning male chorus" by The New Yorker magazine.

Oltman said his singers work to find the "real heart of the piece" for every selection they perform. "They love all of them -- they have to," he said. "You have to find that in every singe piece, so you can't really have favorites."

Audiences, though, have made "in time of" a favorite. Sametz originally conceived the piece to be performed by a collaboration of multiple choirs and orchestras. On request, he also arranged it for an intricate interweaving of Chanticleer's dozen voices. The makeup of which singers are being heard changes moment by moment.

"We visually represent that onstage by constantly reconfiguring ourselves in a fluid walking motion throughout the piece," Oltman said. "It's like a progression, and like life --- we weave ourselves in and out of different people and situations, ever-evolving and constantly changing."