With no leader, Cantus acts collaboratively

Cantus can belt out a medieval motet with the best of them.

Yet despite this vocal ensemble’s distinctive name — a Latin word that medieval monks used for melody — Cantus only occasionally sings early music.

The group, in town for a concert Saturday at the Holland Performing Arts Center, also performs art songs, contemporary music, world music, even pop.

“All of those styles are culturally important to us,” said Chris Foss, the group’s bass singer.

Founded at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., in 1995, Cantus is one of the country’s premier all-male vocal ensembles.

Like the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Cantus performs without a conductor. Consequently, its music making is entirely collaborative and democratic.

The group’s nine members all have input in choosing songs. They also have a say in how those songs are interpreted.

“We haggle over a song until it’s perfected and ready for performance,” said Foss.

Cantus concerts usually have a title or theme. Its Omaha concert is called “Elemental” and includes songs that invoke both the spiritual and natural worlds.

Franz Schubert’s “Gesang der geister uber den Wassern” inhabits the heavenly realm, comparing the human soul to water. Zoltán Kodály’s luminous “Mountain Nights” expresses the composer’s deeply felt conviction that mountains have their own songs.

Other songs on the program will include the African-American spiritual “Been in the Storm,” the Scottish Highland tune “Loch Lomond” and Lerner and Loewe’s “They Call the Wind Maria.”

Contact the writer:

444-1076, john.pitcher@owh.com

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