Gallicantus

Since its establishment in 2008, the English vocal sextet Gallicantus—whose name translates as "cock crow"—has earned recognition through concert and recorded programs that examine a precise moment or episode from history with scholarly thoroughness, all while maintaining an appealing vocal texture that draws in broad listeners. Although each singer’s training lies firmly within England’s traditions of early vocal performance and cathedral choirs, the ensemble owes part of its genesis to American soil: musical director Gabriel Crouch, a former member of the boys’ section at Westminster Cathedral Choir, conceived the idea after encountering the King’s Singers and performed with that ensemble from 1996 onward. Crouch later relocated to the United States to teach at DePauw University and subsequently at Princeton, enabling Gallicantus to build an audience through prominent appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, among them a 2017 engagement at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Crouch guided the sextet’s inaugural Signum release, the 2009 album Dialogues of Sorrow, which he described to The Cross-Eyed Pianist Blog as “the recording that defines what I would like our group to be. It involves a little scholarship and a lot of adventure. Much of the music is completely unheard but it’s all ravishing and I hope our love for it comes across.”

The remaining founding members are Mark Chambers, whose prior affiliations include Tenebrae, the Monteverdi Choir, and the English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble; David Allsopp, a former choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge, and a computer scientist by training; Christopher Watson, known for his work with Tenebrae, Alamire, The Clerks, and the Binchois Consort; Baroque-opera specialist Nigel Short, who also performs with The Pits!; and William Gaunt, lay clerk at Westminster Cathedral and frequent collaborator with Tenebrae, The Sixteen, and related ensembles. Beyond its sacred-music projects, Gallicantus has drawn praise for the recording Queen Mary’s Big Belly: Hope for an Heir in Catholic England, which investigates the interplay between musical repertory and contemporary debates over royal succession and religious identity.