the Suspicious Cheese Lords

 All of this academic year one of my students, Chase Foster, has been typing a long inventory of the many boxes of School of Music recordings. These included reel-to-reels, cassettes,  DVDs, CDs and some Beta and VHS videotapes of CMU School of Music recitals, performances, concerts, and workshops by CMU faculty, students, various musical groups, Mount Pleasant High School Choirs, and other invited musical guest performers at CMU. Some of the events are annual, while others are rarer. Occasionally, there is a name or title that makes us wonder a bit about it. Yesterday we found one with such an interesting name I had to conduct some research. The Suspicious Cheese Lords. The list of pieces they performed is mostly in Latin. Hmmm. I was intrigued.

The choir was formed in 1996 in Washington, DC by Clifton "Skip" West who wanted to sing Thomas Tallis' Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah. I can't imagine forming a group to lament in tune, but  we all have our gifts. Their name developed from them "translating" the title of a Tallis piece and thinking of words that sounded familiar or translated similarly, thus The Suspicious Cheese Lords. I bet some beer was involved with this "translating." The choir sings a cappella, or without accompaniment, and they are really good. Their unique name probably attracts more attention then if they were named something like A Cappella Choir #10. Here's a link to one of their shorter recordings in which they sing a bit in English at the end. It's really quite lovely. See https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=752504082286246  There are a number of their recordings and more information about their history online. Enjoy!