Against the Dying of the Light: the Second Cantus CD Who are Cantus?

Sidebar 2: Who are Cantus?

Cantus was founded in fall 1995 when a few college friends gathered on the campus of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, a place renowned for its virtual wellspring of activity in choral music. Their objective was to spend time away from the rigors of college life doing something they enjoyed: singing. During the next two years the ensemble grew to 12 members and began performing at venues on campus.

Cantus has performed more than 250 concerts in the nation during the past seven years, including appearances at AmericaFest, the American Choral Directors' Association's (ACDA) National Convention, the Newport Music Festival, the ACDA Central Division Convention, and numerous choral festivals and regional ACDA gatherings. In September 2000, Cantus established itself as a nonprofit arts organization based in Minnesota. In addition to its work as a performing ensemble, it is active as a proponent of music education, encouraging people of all ages, and especially young men, to sing. Its members are frequent clinicians at festivals, elementary and middle schools, and at high schools, colleges, and universities across the country.

In summer 2002 Cantus sang to great acclaim at the Oregon Bach Festival and at the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music in Minneapolis. Cantus appears in concert with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in December 2002, in a holiday program titled Cantus and Carols.

In addition to the new ...Against the Dying of the Light, four other Cantus CDs are available on the Cantus Recordings label: Introit (1997), Tidings (1998), Vagabond (1998), and Let Your Voice Be Heard (2001), the last also engineered, edited, and mastered by John Atkinson.

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