Seraphic Fire

As our 2023-2024 season draws to a close, we are deeply grateful for the unwavering support of our patrons. This past year, thanks to you, we've presented 48 performances of 8 unique programs, attracting a season attendance of nearly 6,000 throughout South Florida. Additionally, our educational initiatives have reached over 3,000 students in twelve Title 1 schools, enriching their lives through concerts and interactive workshops.

Ticket sales and grant funding only cover 40% of the cost of bringing you the extraordinary performances you love, so your support is crucial. To end the 2023-2024 season on a high note and confidently plan for our 23rd season, we humbly ask for your support before our fiscal year ends on May 31.

Will you consider a gift to Seraphic Fire today? SeraphicFire.org/Support

Donate Now : Support : Seraphic Fire Seraphic Fire’s supporters receive unparalleled access to the ensemble’s music-making. Benefits for supporters include increased recognition, the best seats at performances, and access to exclusive, supporter-only events. Above all, supporters breathe life into Seraphic Fire’s season, providin...

Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum | WFMT Twelfth-century mystic, writer, philosopher, and composer Hildegard channeled her unfaltering Christian faith through her music in the morality play Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues).

Subscriptions are now available for Music History 101, Seraphic Fire's 2024-2025 season! Our ambitious 22nd season features seven programs that pair beloved classics with unknown gems of Western music's major eras. Enhance your experience with the contributions of America's leading musicologists joining us for online lectures, insightful magazine articles, entertaining program notes, and the return of the Seraphic Saturday Podcast. This is Seraphic Fire's most exciting season yet, and we look forward to sharing this extraordinary musical experience with you.

NEW for 2024-2025: All subscription levels now feature reserved seating, assigned in the order in which subscriptions are received. Subscribe now to lock in your seats for the season!

2024-2025 Season : Tickets : Seraphic Fire Welcome to Seraphic Fire’s 2024-2025 Season: Music History 101! True to our mission to present historically significant and underperformed works, you are sure to expand your musical horizons this season as you encounter rare choral gems.

“This adventurous program capped a rewarding Seraphic Fire season. The chamber choir continues to exceed itself, both in repertoire and quality of performance.”

Two more chances to experience MID-CENTURY MODERN, tonight in Ft. Lauderdale and tomorrow afternoon in Boca Raton. We hope to see you there for our final performances of the 2023-2024 season.

South Florida Classical Review » » Seraphic Fire wraps season with rewarding 20th-century works A new style of art, architecture, and furniture design flourished in the 1940’s and succeeding decades. That wider artistic movement came to be known as “Mid-Century Modern” and music was no exception. Many composers rebelled against the atonality that Arnold Schoenberg and his disciples had p...

“Patrick [Patrick Dupre Quigley] called me and said, ‘I know you love mid-century modern, would you be interested in putting together a program’ Are you kidding me? Absolutely! I love the cleanness and simplicity of mid-century architecture and some of these musical selections follow that same aesthetic. Almost all of the pieces are ‘firsts’ for Seraphic Fire. The program is like looking through a microscope to see the radically changing cultural and social experience of classical music in the ‘50s and ‘60s. We were exploring space and about to go to the moon, and it was very forward-thinking environment.” - James K. Bass, conductor

Want to learn more about our final concert of the season? Check out this preview of Mid-Century Modern, written by Beth Braswell for Miami Chronicles.

Poetry in Classical Song: Seraphic Fire’s Revival of Mid-Century Modern Written by Beth Braswell Seraphic Fire, known for their innovative take on classical compositions, is set to deliver a mesmerizing performance, delving into the compositions that mirror the post-Wo…

Last Friday, Seraphic Fire had the honor of hosting more than 1,600 students from Miami-Dade County Public Schools for a concert at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts! Later in the program, students from Spanish Lake and Bent Tree elementary schools joined Conductor James K. Bass and the professional ensemble onstage to thunderous applause in the Knight Concert Hall.

To learn more about Seraphic Fire's education programs, visit https://seraphicfire.org/education/

Don't miss Seraphic Fire's final concert of the season! Next week, Associate Conductor James K. Bass will take you on a tour of Mid-Century Modern music for a capella chorus.

For more information and for tickets, visit SeraphicFire.org/mid-century-modern

Seraphic Fire South Florida's GRAMMY-nominated vocal ensemble - SeraphicFire.org

Subscription renewals for the 2024-2025 season are now available for current subscribers!

New subscriptions are available April 25. Join us for a season-long journey through music history, with Seraphic as your guide.

South Florida Classical Review » » Seraphic Fire to present a season of diverse repertoire in 2024-25 Seraphic Fire will offer a wide-ranging series of concerts in the 2024-2025 season that will explore the byways as well as the major routes of music through the centuries.

"[J.C.] Bach’s moving and uplifting writing was imbued with angelic purity by the singers, with Molly Quinn’s crystalline soprano rising above the group gloriously."

Read on for the full review, and don't miss our four remaining performances in Naples, Coral Gables, Ft. Lauderdale, and Miami Beach. Tickets at SeraphicFire.org/fountains-of-israel

South Florida Classical Review » » Seraphic Fire explores intriguing rarities of Schein and Johann Christoph Bach Bach and Telemann are often considered the fathers of German Baroque music. Nearly a century before Bach, however, Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630) was a leading creative light of the early Baroque era.

Miguel Sirgado of Artburst Miami reports on the collaboration between guest conductor Ruben Valenzuela and Seraphic Fire on concerts THIS WEEK. Read the full article below.

Seraphic Fire welcomes guest conductor, unearths Baroque madrigals - ArtburstMiami Artburst works with some of the top arts journalists in South Florida for reviews, features and articles covering musical performance.

Tune in to WDNA RADIO *TOMORROW* at 9:30 am for an interview with Ruben Valenzuela, conductor of our upcoming program "The Fountains of Israel."

Tickets are on sale now for this concert exploring the influences of J.S. Bach, at SeraphicFire.org/fountains-of-israel

South Florida Classical Review » » Seraphic Fire brings Haydn rarities to brilliant life As the eighteenth century drew to a close, the lives of British naval hero Admiral Horatio Nelson, his mistress Lady Emma Hamilton and Franz Joseph Haydn intersected.

There are so many interesting historical connections that inspired this weekend's concert, A Visit With Haydn.

The British war hero Admiral Lord Nelson was traveling back to England with his mistress—socialite and amateur soprano Lady Emma Hamilton—and made a stop at the Esterhazy Palace, where none other than Franz Joseph Haydn was the resident composer.

Haydn entertained the guests with a concert that we aim to recreate this weekend. It featured Lady Emma singing a newly composed song inspired by Lord Nelson's victory in the Battle of the Nile, and Haydn's "Mass for Troubled Times," which later became known as the "Nelson Mass."

Learn more about this story at our concerts Thursday through Sunday, tickets at SeraphicFire.org/Enlightenment.

Experience the artistic mastery of Seraphic Fire's chorus and chamber orchestra in our fourth annual Enlightenment Festival.

Join us as we recreate a historical concert where Lady Emma Hamilton and Admiral Lord Nelson visited Haydn at the Esterhazy palace.

A Visit With Haydn takes place TOMORROW through Sunday. Tickets available now at SeraphicFire.org/Enlightenment

“Just when it seems that Seraphic Fire has reached the pinnacle of choral singing, artistic director Patrick Quigley and his ensemble exceed themselves.”

Read more of the lovely review of A Scarlatti Family Affair from South Florida Classical Review.

There are 2 more performances of this program, more info on our website, don’t miss out!

South Florida Classical Review » » Quigley leads Seraphic Fire in moving and revelatory Scarlatti perfomances Just when it seems that Seraphic Fire has reached the pinnacle of choral singing, artistic director Patrick Quigley and his ensemble exceed themselves.

Last night Artistic Director Patrick Dupre Quigley was featured on NBC Nightly News!

In collaboration with OperaCreole and Opera Lafayette, Quigley is conducting the premiere of Edmond Dédé's 1887 opera "Morgiane," the first opera by a Black American.

This premiere is part of OperaCreole's ongoing work to bring restorative justice to American opera through presentations of works by 19th-century free people of color.

Watch the segment below!

Rediscovering New Orleans' rich musical history before jazz It's a little-known part of New Orleans' musical history. Before jazz came to dominate the landscape, it was known as a city of opera. Now, a project called ...

"For Sharkova, designing the program was both a journey and a colossal project. Speaking from California, she admitted that she felt 'like a kid in a candy store, discovering all these female composers that I didn’t know.' Ultimately, she found the potential repertoire 'an embarrassment of riches by women who broke barriers.'"

Read more of the preview article on this weekend's concert from South Florida Classical Review

South Florida Classical Review » » Seraphic Fire conductor to explore music of 20 women composers, from Hildegard to Shaw “We are used to hearing stories of women, the history of women expressed by men,” says Elena Sharkova. “But these are not all white composers and not all came from somewhere in Europe.”

In Her Own Voice, coming up January 18-21, is a program of music entirely by women composers.

From the Romatic-era voices of F***y Mendelssohn Hensel and Clara Schumann to medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen and contemporary composers Reena Esmail and Tania León, be captivated by these often overlooked contributors to music history.

Tickets available at SeraphicFire.org/in-her-own-voice

We are excited to collaborate with Frost Choral Studies in our upcoming program In Her Own Voice. Twelve voice students from Frost School of Music at the University of Miami will perform alongside the professional ensemble in our subscription series concerts.

This experiential learning opportunity helps to develop the next generation of professional vocalists. Learn more about this program at SeraphicFire.org/Education.

Explaining the title of our upcoming concert, "In Her Own Voice," guest conductor Elena Sharkova says,

"We are so used to hearing stories of women, the history of women, expressed by men, whether they are composers or lyricists. Don’t speak for us; we have our own words. What if we spoke in our own voice of how we feel and how we think? We want to hear the woman talk about how she feels, how she prays, how she cries, and how she breaks the rules."

Contributor Beth Braswell interviews Sharkova in our latest blog post at SeraphicFire.org/Blog

"The Apple Tree" is WXXI Classical 91.5's CD spotlight!

"Neither the snow, nor a peaceful perfect moment with this music will last, but the music is lovely and simple right now."

Read more on the WXXI website.

CD Spotlight: The Apple Tree: Christmas with Seraphic Fire Seraphic Fire sings the season with lovely choral arrangements, and this new album is the CD Spotlight on WXXI Classical from mid-December through the new year.

Our performance of Castor et Pollux was named the #1 Performance of 2023 by South Florida Classical Review!

Our performance of Shawn Crouch's "The Road from Hiroshima" also earned a nod for Best Revival.

Read the full article for more about South Florida's best performances of the year!

South Florida Classical Review » » Top Ten Performances of 2023 Seraphic Fire’s season-opener was a rare excursion into music of the French Baroque. The prologue and scenes from the original 1737 version of Jean Philippe Rameau’s Castor et Pollux spotlighted the score’s innovative approach to music drama and a harmonic invention far ahead of its time. Patr...

Exciting news! "The Apple Tree: Christmas with Seraphic Fire" is in the Top 10 of Billboard's Traditional Classical Albums charts!

Let Seraphic Fire bring the holiday spirit to your home and give it a listen on all major music streaming platforms.