There is no local shortage of splendid large choruses that can fill cavernous venues as affiliates to symphony orchestras. Chicago a cappella gives a far more intimate taste of the vocal arts, unsullied by instrumental partnership.

Friday the 9-voice troupe presented a sampling of Latin music from several centuries in a kaleidoscope of styles, served up with a combination of scrupulous preparation and breezy informality that other small ensembles would do well to emulate.

One of their homes is Gottlieb Hall at Merit School of Music, a venue that has become a popular performance hub in the scant 2½ years since construction.  It’s neutral, dryish acoustic seems well suited to contemporary music and some chamber music, but it is worlds apart from the reverberant mush for which most sacred choral music was conceived.

The singers needn’t have worried that this x-ray sonic environment might prove unflattering. Each member brought strong technique and appealing charisma to the mix, while Music Director Patrick Sinozich prepared a generous program notable for its seamless blend and finely weighted balance.

Tomas Luis de Victoria’s “Lectio I” from his “Lamentations of Jeremiah” was dynamically contained and expressively nuanced, and Pablo Casals’ “O Vos Omnes” aimed for an equally reverent tone through a decidedly Romantic prism.

In Joaquin Rodrigo’s “Ave Maria”, the singers elicited a pure, delicate sound from a curious amalgam of ancient and modern. Artistic Director Jonathan Miller’s arrangement of the Sephardic melody “Una matica de ruda” was a potent medieval fusion of European, Middle Eastern, and North African influences.

The most refreshing surprise came in “Siete Haiku” by Mexican composer Jorge Cordoba.  Each of the seven brief movements was by turns elegant, bracing, and ethereal.

Kudos to the chorus for nabbing a composer of the stature of Tania Leon for their 15th anniversary season. In spite of the singers’ heroic efforts, “Estampas” didn’t make a strong impression in its premier.

Ms. Leon deserves credit for finding a trio of powerful poems by living Cuban writers and setting their texts clearly and succinctly.  The group negotiated the shifting tonalities, dynamic extremes, and quickly mutating textures with aplomb, but the musical core still sounded threadbare. The rhythmic vibrancy that lends much of her work its potency seemed tepid, save the rollicking final movement.

The singers also proved adept at mimicking their instrumental counterparts.  Oscar Escalada’s slick arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s “Verano Porteno” showed that an Argentinian tango can spring from a voice box nearly as fluently as from a bandoneon. The ensemble morphed into a virtual Latin percussion section for a bristling encore,  “Salseo” by the Venezuelan Oscar Galian.

Elizabeth Grizzell, Susan Schober, Trevor Mitchell, and Benjamin Rivera were the clear toned, affecting soloists.  The other members were Kathryn Kamp, Cari Plachy, Harold Brock, Matt Greenberg, and Brian Streem.