Cantus Coming to Mondavi

Based in Minneapolis, the 9-member men’s chorus, Cantus, is considered by at least one reviewer to be “the premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States.”  Their style is energetic and non-conformist, and their eclectic repertoire is full of creative touches – and a bit of performance art.  There is an extensive collection of their videos on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/cantussings), and over the past decade they have cut 13 CDs. 

They are coming to Mondavi Center on Saturday evening, December 8 (at 8:00 p.m.) with a very unusual program called “All Is Calm:  The Christmas Truce of 1914.”  Their publicity describes it this way:  “The Western Front, Christmas Eve, 1914. Out of the violence of the Great War’s trenches comes a silence, then a song as a young German soldier steps into no man’s land singing Stille Nacht. Thus begins an extraordinary night of camaraderie, music and peace. The extraordinary nine-man vocal ensemble Cantus and its collaborators Theatre Latté Da bring this remarkable historical event to life through new arrangements of European carols, war-songs for a cappella voices and excerpts from soldiers’ diaries.” 

It’s not a completely new program, because they produced a CD in 2008 with the same title as this concert.  But as a live theatrical event, with singers of exceptional quality, this promises to be a special experience.  The Cantus website is at www.cantussings.org, and tickets are available through the Mondavi Center website, www.mondaviarts.org.