Chanticleer & Tim Keeler
Biographie Chanticleer & Tim Keeler
Chanticleer
The GRAMMY® Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for its wide-ranging repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, selling over one million recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the world.
Chanticleer’s repertoire is rooted in the renaissance, and has continued to expand to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz, popular music, and a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements. The ensemble has committed much of its vast recording catalogue to these commissions, garnering GRAMMY® Awards for its recording of Sir John Tavener’s “Lamentations & Praises”, and the ambitious collection of commissioned works entitled “Colors of Love”. Chanticleer is the recipient of the Dale Warland/Chorus America Commissioning Award and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming, and its Music Director Emeritus Joseph H. Jennings received the Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award for his contribution to the African-American choral tradition during his tenure with Chanticleer.
Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer continues to maintain ambitious programming in its hometown of San Francisco, including a large education and outreach program, and an annual concert series that includes its legendary holiday tradition “A Chanticleer Christmas”.
Chanticleer—a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation—is the current recipient of major grants from The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, The Bob Ross Foundation, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and The National Endowment for the Arts. Chanticleer’s activities as a not-for-profit corporation are supported by its administrative staff and Board of Trustees.
Tim Keeler
Music Director, sang as a countertenor in Chanticleer for their 2017-18 season. In Chanticleer’s history, he is the fourth of its six music directors to have been a member of the ensemble. Prior to moving to San Francisco, he forged a career as an active conductor, singer, and educator. He has performed with New York Polyphony, The Clarion Choir, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and TENET. An avid proponent of new and challenging repertoire, Keeler performs regularly with Ekmeles, a vocal ensemble based in New York City and dedicated to contemporary, avant-garde, and infrequently performed vocal repertoire.
As an educator, Keeler directed the University of Maryland Men’s Chorus, served as director of choirs at the Special Music School High School in Manhattan, and worked closely with the Young People's Chorus of New York City as a vocal coach and satellite school conductor. He was also the choral conductor for Juilliard's new Summer Performing Arts program – a two-week, intensive summer course in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Keeler holds a BA in music from Princeton University with certificates in vocal performance and computer science, an MPhil in music and science from Cambridge University, an MM in choral conducting from the University of Michigan, and a DMA in choral conducting at the University of Maryland.
