News and Events

Exeter, NH—Phillips Exeter Academy's Gilbert Concert Series will welcome nationally acclaimed male vocal ensemble Cantus for an evening concert on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at Phillips Church. The performance will feature a collaboration with PEA students from the Academy's Concert Choir on Franz Biebl's Ave Maria. An open rehearsal with the students and Cantus will be held Monday, April 30, at 7 p.m. in the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center on Tan Lane. The rehearsal is open to the PEA community and the media. The concert, which is open to everyone, will be at 7 p.m. in Phillips Church is on the corner of Tan Lane and Front Street.

The Los Angeles Times describes Cantus as a "splendid, relatively new male a cappella choral group that swells the ranks of our current golden age of ensemble singing in a distinctive way. Other groups aim for a honeyed but disembodied sound. Cantus matches that blend, but it also revels in a heft of sound hardly imagined possible from 10 men singing without accompaniment. At times . . . Cantus sounded 50 voices strong."

The nine-member group—tenors Aaron Humble, Paul J. Rudoi, Gary Ruschman, Shahzore Shah and David Walton; baritones Adam Reinwald and Matthew Tintes; and basses Chris Foss and Timothy C. Takach—inspire audiences with adventurous genres and period music, including chant, Renaissance, contemporary, art song, folk, spirituals, world music and pop. Named the "best classical musician" by the Minneapolis weekly, City Pages, Cantus has toured nationally, performing in concert and leading educational workshops.

The ensemble has also performed throughout Canada, West Africa and Europe. Within the U.S., the group has sung at the Library of Congress, The Kennedy Center, San Francisco Performances and the Oregon Bach Festival. Cantus has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra (including a collaboration with musical artist Bobby McFerrin), and toured with the Boston Pops Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

For further information, email the Music Department's Concert Manager Vanessa H. Holroyd, or call Patrice Baker in the Music Department at 603-777-3453. For a complete list of upcoming musical and community events, please visit the Music Department's webpage and PEA Community Calendar. You may also call the PEA public events line at 603-777-4309, or visit the PEA website. Directions to the Academy are available at 603-777-4330.


—Famebridge Witherspoon