Press Quotes & Audience Reactions
EDUCATION
“Because of the HSR program, I have seen unprecedented enrollment growth and a drastic increase in the quality of my students’ singing. I highly recommend this program!”
"I just want to sing forever."
“My musical dream is to teach music like all of my great music teachers and Cantus have taught me.”
COMMUNITY BENEFIT
“I would like to attend your open rehearsal on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 at Westminster Presbyterian. As a choral director for many years I’m always looking for techniques to improve a collaborative rehearsal.”
“Numerous of my peers in the Armstrong Chamber Singers and I would like to attend your open rehearsal on May 16th to see your process, and to hopefully be able to apply it to our own rehearsals. I speak for all of us, especially the men in the ensemble when I say we find your work wonderfully inspiring, and we really hope that we can sit in.”
FROM AUDIENCE MEMBERS
“Your concert was one of the most enjoyable evenings of music I have experienced in some time. Your investment in each other, the music, and texts you sang moved us all.”
“[My two children and I] were enthralled with your voices, your harmonies, and music selections. Thank you for bringing such beauty to our city and to our souls.”
GENERAL PRESS QUOTES
“The premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States.”
“Listening to Cantus, you understand that there’s something about a group of people singing that touches listeners on a very human level.”
“The eight-man vocal ensemble offers an effortless combination of outstanding vocal quality, versatility and winning stage presence.”
“The engaging young male chorus from the Twin Cities is making a home for itself at the Metropolitan Museum.”
NO GREATER LOVE THAN THIS
“Over the summer months, Twin Cities vocal group Cantus shed three of its nine members and added two, arriving at a new, permanent eight-man lineup. Does it sound any different? Yes and no. Yes, because the current roster of four tenors and four basses is more naturally balanced than before. If anything, this lends further subtlety to the delicate interplay of vocal lines and textures Cantus already majored in. And no, because the changes have been made with no apparent cost to the group’s ability to create a richly textured body of sound.”
“War-themed programs can be heavy going musically, but this one was absorbingly nuanced.”
“When Cantus, the all-male singing group often called the premier men’s vocal ensemble in the country, performed its new concert program at an Oregon Elks lodge recently, many of the veterans in the audience were moved to tears.”
CANTUS & CHANTICLEER IN CONCERT (Oct. 3, 2016)
“This may have been the Twin Cities area’s quintessential celebration of the human voice this year, and the choral-crazy crowd sent the 20 men off by raising their own voices in cheers and whoops akin to what might have been found across downtown Minneapolis at the Vikings game.”
“Cantus has made a real commitment to new music … its sound seems more earthbound... Dressed in suits (Chanticleer wore tuxes), they’re less formal, and their interactions with each other are more relaxed and open.”
WOULD YOU HARBOR ME?
“This was not always an easy evening, and it wasn’t meant to be. Music is too often merely the food of love and leisurely distraction, and too rarely food for serious reflection. The sounds and images of Would You Harbor Me? lodge firmly in the memory, a pang to conscience and — who knows? — perhaps a stimulant to serious action.”
“Because of the HSR program, I have seen unprecedented enrollment growth and a drastic increase in the quality of my students’ singing. I highly recommend this program!”
- Joseph Osowski, Twin Cities HS choir conductor
"I just want to sing forever."
- Jake G. Andover High School student
“My musical dream is to teach music like all of my great music teachers and Cantus have taught me.”
- Josh, Andover High School student
COMMUNITY BENEFIT
“I would like to attend your open rehearsal on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 at Westminster Presbyterian. As a choral director for many years I’m always looking for techniques to improve a collaborative rehearsal.”
- Dr. Mark Slaughter (Minister of Worship Arts, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Burnsville, MN)
“Numerous of my peers in the Armstrong Chamber Singers and I would like to attend your open rehearsal on May 16th to see your process, and to hopefully be able to apply it to our own rehearsals. I speak for all of us, especially the men in the ensemble when I say we find your work wonderfully inspiring, and we really hope that we can sit in.”
- Brennan Palony (junior at Armstrong High School, Plymouth, MN)
FROM AUDIENCE MEMBERS
“Your concert was one of the most enjoyable evenings of music I have experienced in some time. Your investment in each other, the music, and texts you sang moved us all.”
- David Dickau, Director of Choral Activities, Minnesota State University
“[My two children and I] were enthralled with your voices, your harmonies, and music selections. Thank you for bringing such beauty to our city and to our souls.”
- Susan G. (audience member at The Met in NYC)
GENERAL PRESS QUOTES
“The premier men’s vocal ensemble in the United States.”
- Fanfare
“Listening to Cantus, you understand that there’s something about a group of people singing that touches listeners on a very human level.”
- NPR
“The eight-man vocal ensemble offers an effortless combination of outstanding vocal quality, versatility and winning stage presence.”
- Star Tribune (December 11, 2016)
“The engaging young male chorus from the Twin Cities is making a home for itself at the Metropolitan Museum.”
- The New Yorker (November 9, 2016)
NO GREATER LOVE THAN THIS
“Over the summer months, Twin Cities vocal group Cantus shed three of its nine members and added two, arriving at a new, permanent eight-man lineup. Does it sound any different? Yes and no. Yes, because the current roster of four tenors and four basses is more naturally balanced than before. If anything, this lends further subtlety to the delicate interplay of vocal lines and textures Cantus already majored in. And no, because the changes have been made with no apparent cost to the group’s ability to create a richly textured body of sound.”
- Star Tribune (Oct. 17, 2016)
“War-themed programs can be heavy going musically, but this one was absorbingly nuanced.”
- Star Tribune (Oct. 17, 2016)
“When Cantus, the all-male singing group often called the premier men’s vocal ensemble in the country, performed its new concert program at an Oregon Elks lodge recently, many of the veterans in the audience were moved to tears.”
- The Westerly Sun (Rhode Island, Oct. 25, 2016)
CANTUS & CHANTICLEER IN CONCERT (Oct. 3, 2016)
“This may have been the Twin Cities area’s quintessential celebration of the human voice this year, and the choral-crazy crowd sent the 20 men off by raising their own voices in cheers and whoops akin to what might have been found across downtown Minneapolis at the Vikings game.”
- Pioneer Press
“Cantus has made a real commitment to new music … its sound seems more earthbound... Dressed in suits (Chanticleer wore tuxes), they’re less formal, and their interactions with each other are more relaxed and open.”
- Star Tribune
WOULD YOU HARBOR ME?
“This was not always an easy evening, and it wasn’t meant to be. Music is too often merely the food of love and leisurely distraction, and too rarely food for serious reflection. The sounds and images of Would You Harbor Me? lodge firmly in the memory, a pang to conscience and — who knows? — perhaps a stimulant to serious action.”
- Star Tribune