There Lies the Home:
Cantus opens the 2020-21 Season with a new program that celebrates sea travel and exploration

Performance filmed at “Camp Cantus” available online October 2-4

Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN – September 21, 2020 – On Friday, October 2, the Twin Cities based men’s vocal ensemble Cantus will launch the first concert of the 2020-21 season, entitled There Lies the Home. The program celebrating sea travel and exploration – originally planned for the ensemble’s spring 2020 home concert series – will be made available to audiences online October 2-4 on a pay-what-you-can model. There Lies the Home marks the first of several online concerts that Cantus has developed to continue sharing music during the ongoing pandemic.  
 
Few journeys on our planet are more dangerous than those across the oceans. There Lies the Home honors the courage, despair, and yearning of those who traverse these tumultuous blue unknowns seeking opportunity or adventure, as well as those fleeing persecution or stolen from their homes. With repertoire spanning riveting sea shanties as “Shenandoah,” traditional spirituals like “Steal Away,” and the Lake Superior folk classic “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” There Lies the Home weaves together stories of the journey, what’s left behind, and what’s just beyond that blue horizon.
 
Thanks to careful quarantine and creativity, Cantus has been able to continue making music during the pandemic. The group’s small size has allowed its members to sing together under protocols developed with guidance from medical professionals. To safely create and capture There Lies the Home, the ensemble quarantined intensively for two weeks, underwent tests for COVID-19, and then rehearsed and recorded together in isolation in Decorah, Iowa at what the members of the ensemble dubbed “Camp Cantus.”
 
There Lies the Home is the first program of Cantus' 2020-21 season, which includes two additional online concerts: On November 6, Brave will be broadcast LIVE from the Ordway in St. Paul and available online through November 8; Christmas with Cantus: Lessons and Carols for Our Time will be available December 11-13 and 18-20. 
 
Cantus’ online concerts are available on a pay-what-you-can model, with a suggested price of $20 per household per concert. Tickets for online concerts can be purchased on the Cantus website. Attendees who purchase tickets will receive an e-mail with a link to the webpage for the online concert, available for 48-hours.
 
There Lies the Home
Friday, October 2 at 7:30 pm through Sunday, October 4 at 7:30 pm
Tickets: Pay-what-you-can with a suggested price of $20 per household
Tickets available online or by calling 612-435-0055
 
Repertoire to include:
Hinbarra – Michael McGlynn
Sunayama – Japanese Folk Song by Shinpei Nakayama, arr. Jacob Christopher
Alfonsina y El Mar – Ariel Ramírez & Félix Luna
Super Flumina – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Steal Away – Traditional Spiritual, arr. Stacey V. Gibbs
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald – Gordon Lightfoot
This Brightening Silence – Kathleen Allan
Long Time Traveler – Traditional Sacred Harp Hymn
Shenandoah – Traditional American Folk Song, arr. Chris Foss
 
About Cantus:
The “engaging” (New Yorker) men’s vocal ensemble Cantus is widely known for its trademark warmth and blend, innovative programming and riveting performances of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. The Washington Post has hailed the Cantus sound as having both “exalting finesse” and “expressive power” and the Philadelphia Inquirer called the group nothing short of “exquisite.”
 
As one of the nation’s few full-time vocal ensembles, Cantus has grown in prominence with its distinctive approach to music-making. Working without a conductor, the members of Cantus rehearse and perform as chamber musicians, each contributing to the entirety of the artistic process.
 
Committed to the expansion of the vocal music repertoire, Cantus actively commissions new music each season and seeks to unearth rarely performed repertoire for men’s voices. Cantus has received commissioning grants from New Music USA, the National Endowment for the Arts, Chorus America, American Composers Forum and Chamber Music America. Cantus also encourages the creation of new repertoire through its annual Young and Emerging Composers’ Competition.
 
Cantus has released 18 recordings on the group’s self-titled label and is heard frequently on both classical public radio nationwide and on SiriusXM Satellite Radio.  Manifesto will be released on Signum in 2021 and will include works written for Cantus by David Lang, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Libby Larsen among others.
 
Integral to the Cantus mission is its commitment to preserve and deepen music education in the schools. Cantus works with more than 5,000 students each year in masterclass and workshop settings across the country, and has visited 31 Minnesota high schools throughout the 11-year history of its award-winning High School Residency program.

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