All is Calm touring and xmas update

Hey Gang.

Posting late after our show in Sioux Falls, SD. Just returned from Monk's public house, where some of us were enjoying a nice Belgian beverage to warm up our chilled bodies after the show. Had a nice time hanging out with our good friend Audra, who works for the Washington Pavilion, recoding venue for a few of our albums. We head to Algona Iowa in the morning. We had a great time last week doing our annual Away in a Manger concerts, with cider, cocoa, and hay rides!



We departed soon after to tour All is Calm, first to Irvine California, then two Arizona Shows (way to go 80 degrees!), then New Hampshire, and back to Minnesota for a show at St. Bens. (here's a nice scene...Adam and Paulie on the beach!)




We headed to Wasau, Wisconsin, and now we are in the familiar territory of Sioux Falls. I guess it sounds like a revolving door of cities and venues, but we do get sometimes to hang out in a town long enough to enjoy it. We've spent enough time in Sioux Falls to have favorite joints to eat at, or candy shops to visit.

We look forward to bring ing All is Calm to our home audience in the Cities. Hope to see you there. The shows have been going great, and CD sales have been very good too--don't forget to stuff your stockings with Cantus CDs!!

Driving blues

Safe and sound in Athens GA, we just had a nice dinner and drinks at a great Mexican place next door to the motel. The trip here, though, was a little bit of an adventure. Extremely windy up in the West Virginia hills, but low temperatures wreaked a little havoc on the windshield washers on our van. We figure some other renter must have put some water in with the windshield fluid, because when we opened the hood (this was after trying to keep our van on the road looking through either a haze of white or at the most a tiny clean gap on the windshield), the wiper fluid was basically a big blue ice cube! After a comedy of bad choices for interstate exit ramps we stopped at a Kmart for some new fluid, which we topped off, but it was only 75 miles south of there that the temperature got warm enough for the lines to thaw. Ridiculous.

The actors and director just showed up at the motel, after their own drive from Charlotte this evening, and we are anxious to perform the show tomorrow night. Some of us have relatives that are coming to the show, which always makes the trip a little more special than when we perform only for strangers.

Almost Heaven...West Virginia

Thursday Nov. 20

After a flight to Charlotte NC, our day of travel ended on wooded, windy roads in the mountains of West Virginia. I brought along a new (old) board game based on the crime sprees of Bonnie and Clyde, Dillinger, and other gangs. Pretty fun, and we got a lot of the guys to play. I think we were having board game withdrawal. Our show at Concord University in Athens, WV was intimate. We stayed at the beautiful Pipestem State Park lodge (out in the sticks, though), with a homey atmosphere, mountain vistas, and deer--lots of deer!








Tomorrow we meet up with the actors and head to Athens Georgia for our first touring performance of All is Calm at the Univesity of GA. Looking forward to touring that show, and bringing it to other audiences around the country.

Cantus in the South Pt. deux, and Musings of a Touring Tenor.

More pics and news from our Southern Tour:

If you see a familiar face in this picture, you aren't crazy--we want to thank Tom McNichols for stepping in for this tour to cover the paternity leave of tim Takach who, with his wife, welcomed a bouncing baby boy while we were away. Cantus prides itself on being as family-friendly as a touring organization can be, and we were fortunate that Tom (who left the group last season to pursue a solo career in New York) was available and knew a lot of the repertoire already!



We finished our tour in Louisiana--two shows at LSU. The weather was mostly beautiful, so you could find a few of us throwing a frisbee on campus, and later some of the guys headed to the Louisiana State capitol. Here they are in front of the Huey Long statue--Adam riddled us with Louisiana political trivia (appropriate for the week in question, it would seem) for the rest of the trip!




We followed all of this with an afternoon in New Orleans before we headed to the airport in the evening. Bourbon Street was quiet, but blues bands and drinkers were about starting about 2pm. Gumbo, beans and rice, and jambalaya were on the lunch menu, and then we were off to the aeropuerto.






(Nov 11) Just finished a great show at Concordia up at Fargo/Moorhead, and sitting here in this nicer Courtyard Mariott, marveling at the irony that the nicest places to stay (room refrigerators, microwaves, comfortable beds, and friendly staff--that these are invariable the places we only get to stay in one night while we are on tour...

And by nicer, I don't mean frou-frou. The frou-frou joints that cater to business travelers on the high end look nice, but are often lame (expensive daily internet fee, people won't leave you alone)--kind of like a bathroom with an attendant. You know you're going to get stuck paying for being handed something you didn't want in the first place. Anyway, this hotel had the right combination of quiet and service. Breakfast buffet wasn't exorbitant, either. Oh, but don't get me wrong--boutique hotels can be fantastic--those tend to have the big fluffy beds, and niceties. We'd stay at those anytime.

Also, this could be time to mention that Cantus usually doubles up on the rooms. This actually makes us a little more competitive in the market. So you've got a roommate most of the time--and on an intermittent basis, you get the single room (since we have an odd number of singers). Everyone has different sleeping/waking habits, and we mix up the roommates pretty often. You know, this reminds me...we've been very DVD-oriented so far this season, but the board games have yet to be brought along. Guys--hey, let's get it together!!

-gary

Cactus heads south!

Kicked off this two week tour in Tyler TX. Nice crowd, which included our friend Anna Rose Bain, a fantastic young portrait artist who did this lovely drawing of us a couple of years ago.

Cantus returned to Ft. Smith, Arkansas next, where we performed our first show with the Boston Pops last November. It's neat to come back to a venue again, and the turnout was very high--many people who saw us last year.

We headed out to Little Rock next, staying down by the River Market, and the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, which a few of us visited. PIC A perfect venue to visit in this most political of seasons!

The collection details life in the White House and in international politics during the Clinton years, and also featured a special exhibit of amazing Choppers.

By the end of the stop there, we had been treated to fantastic weather, good restaurants, and a post-show tour of the Diamond Bear Brewery! It was a late night, but we got to (heavily) sample all the current production in the front bar, and enjoy the company of the concert presenter's board members and friends of water scientist/brewery part-owner John Czarnecki.



More to come!

Welcome to the 2008-09 Season

The men of Cantus hope that your summers were all fantastic, and that you are all ready to enjoy some great music with us this year! We welcome two new members: bass Chris Foss and tenor Paul Rudoi to the roster. We had a short run-out last week to Ames and Storm Lake, Iowa to kick of the touring season, and this weekend we present our touring program in the Twin Cities, entitled"While You are Alive".

We've had a great time off this summer--the guys have done some traveling, some music-making of their own, but after reconvening, our rehearsal period has come to an end, and we will be out for the next nine months going at it with a vengeance. Be sure to check our concert listings to be sure you see us in your town this season.

2007-08 season wrap-up

We've spent a season traveling the world. Beginning with an African tour, three weeks with the Boston Pops, a hit Christmas show, recording two albums' worth of new music, and finishing the season with a collaboration with Trio Mediaeval at our Kennedy Center debut, Cantus got a well-earned rest at the end of the trail.

After our quick stop in Cleveland with the ladies of Trio Mediaeval, we moved on to the Kennedy Center, performing to a sold-out house (great review here).

The season ended on a high note, though we feel some sadness as we say goodbye to two of our members, Tom McNichols and Michael Jones, who are moving on to other opportunities. Tom's wins of the District and Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions were a big turning point, and we wish him luck as he begins his solo career. Michael Jones' path has taken him to a tour of Les Miserables and to some charity work.


We are looking forward to next season: rehearsals start on the 18th of August, and we have exciting things to share with you as the men of Cantus tour the country again, and sing more locally than ever before. We also welcome two new members of the ensemble for 08-09, bass Chris Foss, and tenor Paul Rudoi. More news about them later.see you during the 2008-09 season!