Choral Art Festival 2027

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 more than one million recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the globe.

Rooted in the Renaissance, Chanticleer’s repertoire has been expanded to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz and popular music and to reflect a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements. The ensemble has dedicated much of its vast recording catalogue to these commissions, garnering GRAMMY® Awards for its recordings of Sir John Tavener’s Lamentations & Praises and the ambitious collection of commissioned works entitled Colors of Love. Chanticleer is the recipient of Chorus America’s Dale Warland Singers Commission Award and the Chorus America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. During his tenure with Chanticleer, Music Director Emeritus Joseph H. Jennings received the Chorus America Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award for his contribution to the African American choral tradition.

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 National Endowment for the Arts, San Francisco Grants for the Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Bob Ross Foundation, Dunard Fund USA, E. Nakamichi Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts, and the Negaunee Foundation. Chanticleer’s activities as a not-for-profit corporation are supported by its administrative staff and Board of Trustees. 

Image by Stephen K Mack

After performing around the world for seventeen years with the GRAMMY®-nominated British vocal ensemble VOCES8, Andrea has established an international reputation for her clarity of tone and expressive communication. Her journey as a singer began in the children's choir of her local church in Kent, England, before she joined numerous youth choirs and went on to study Music at Cardiff University.

With VOCES8, Andrea performed around 120 concerts each year, touring extensively across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia in programmes ranging from a cappella concerts to collaborations with leading orchestras, conductors and soloists. She has performed and recorded in many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Vienna Konzerthaus, Abbey Road Studios, Washington National Cathedral, Tokyo Opera City, and Sydney Opera House. She recorded 24 albums with the ensemble (signed to Decca Classics), and enjoyed many collaborations with artists including Paul Simon, Jacob Collier, Cody Fry, and Sami Yusuf.

Andrea continues to perform as a soloist and ensemble singer, with recent highlights including appearances with Eric Whitacre, VOCES8 Foundation, Ringmasters and The Gesualdo Six. In the summer of 2025, she also worked with Justin Vernon, Kurt Wagner, and Blake Morgan on indie band Lambchop’s album ‘Punching the Clown’, (released in August 2026).

Andrea is also leading workshops and masterclasses internationally, focusing on developing singers’ ensemble musicianship and communication, including attending the World Choir Games 2026 as juror and clinician, and co-directing The Consort Project for Sing the North Festival in Victoria, BC. Beyond her work as a vocalist, she also has experience in creating digital artwork, audio production, lyric writing and poetry, arts administration, social media management, and has a particular interest in vocal health.

Whether at home or on the road, Andrea enjoys great food (with a gin and tonic), and is rarely without a yoga mat, notebook, and watercolour paints. 

Image by Mantas

Composer Sarah Quartel is one of Canada’s most internationally celebrated and widely performed living choral composers. Her music is programmed globally, and her commissions have premiered in spaces such as Carnegie Hall, Canterbury Cathedral, Cité de la Musique Paris, and the famed Temppeliaukio Church in Helsinki. Raised as a choral singer herself, Sarah is inspired by the life-changing relationships that can occur in group singing. Known for her fresh, exciting, and chorister-centred approach to music making, Sarah writes in a way that connects singer to singer, ensemble to conductor, and performer to audience.

Sarah is in high demand as a commissioned composer and values the partnerships built with conductors, educators, and singers as they bring a new work to life together. She has been commissioned by groups including the Orchestre de Paris, The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, the American Choral Directors Association, The National Children’s Chorus of the USA, Hamilton Children’s Choir, and New Dublin Voices. Sarah’s music is performed by a wide variety of ensembles ranging from professional groups to community and school choirs. Notable performances and recordings include those by VOCES8, Chanticleer, London Voices, Rajaton, The Swingles, The Gesualdo Six, New York Polyphony, The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, and the global mega-choir the Stay at Home Choir.

Sarah is published exclusively with Oxford University Press. 

JUNO award-winning Swiss conductor Michael Zaugg serves as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Pro Coro Canada, an innovative force across the Canadian choral landscape. A versatile pedagogue, clinician, and guest conductor, he brings decades of international experience to every stage. 

Zaugg holds degrees in voice and music education from the University of Basel and an Honorary Doctorate from King's College, Aberdeen (2018). In 2020, he received the Choral Canada Award for Outstanding Innovation for the CHORAL ART program at the Banff Centre, as well as the Edmonton Artists Trust Fund Award. During the pandemic, he transitioned Pro Coro into a hybrid model, publishing over 150 videos and creating leadership resources. 

Previously, he directed the St. Lawrence Choir in Montreal (2008-2013) and Cantata Singers of Ottawa (2005-2014). In 2009 he founded the Montreal Choral Institute, leading its ensemble voces boreales at the Montreal Bach Festival, Podium 2012, and on CBC Radio 2. As Chorus Master of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (2006-2011), he prepared up to 1,500 singers for Kent Nagano, including the award-winning Saint François d'Assise by Messiaen. 

Zaugg was the first Swiss conductor accepted to the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm's postgraduate diploma, where he worked with the Swedish Radio Choir, Adolf Fredrik's Girls Choir, and the Mikaeli Chamber Choir. An accomplished tenor early in his career, he toured Europe and Asia with the Swiss Chamber Choir, World Youth Choir, and Stockholm Chamber Choir. He remains a passionate pedagogue, offering masterclasses and private instruction to conductors worldwide. 

Timothy Shantz is active as conductor, collaborator, tenor soloist and teacher. He is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Alberta’s Department of Music and founded Luminous Voices in 2012 after toying with the idea for years. His other choral activities in Calgary included Chorus Master for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of Spiritus Chamber Choir. As a conductor, Tim is recognized for the breadth of his work, from early music to contemporary, virtuoso unaccompanied pieces to large-scale choral-orchestral works. He has been honoured to grow as a musician through his ensembles and commissioning projects and continues to learn from them in every rehearsal and performance experience. He has enjoyed sharing accolades with the ensembles he directs and continues to strive for beauty and expression through performances, workshops and recordings.

Timothy holds a Doctor of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with a dissertation analyzing the unaccompanied choral work Sun-Dogs by composer James MacMillan. He has studied with John Poole, Jan Harrington, Carmen Tellez, Frieder Bernius, Jon Washburn, Leonard Ratzlaff, Debra Cairns and Noel Edison.