Seraphic Fire to travel north for Midwestern tour

By Lawrence A. Johnson

Seraphic Fire

While most traffic in January is headed into South Florida, Seraphic Fire is bucking the trend, venturing north next month into the wintry Midwest for a four-city tour, including its Chicago debut Jan. 23.

Now in its ninth season under the direction of founding artistic director Patrick Dupré Quigley, the critically lauded chamber choir has become  renown for its pure, seamlessly blended ensemble and venturesome approach to repertoire. The 13 singers have tackled music ranging from monastic chant, Renaissance and Baroque to 20th and 21st-century works. Recently, the group has also enjoyed success with crossover excursions into folk, gospel and bluegrass.

Patrick Quigley

In 2005, Seraphic Fire commissioned and performed Shawn Crouch’s The Road from Hiroshima, a 50-minute cantata for choir and orchestra. The ensemble has also released a total of eight discs ranging from Bach Motets to gospel music. Seraphic Fire’s recent recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers reached No. 1 on the iTunes classical charts.

The Chicago program, to be performed 4 p.m Jan. 23 at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, reflects Quigley’s eclectic approach to programming, including music of Victoria, Bortniansky and John Tavener with excerpts from Arvo Part’s Missa Syllabica.

The concert will also include Seraphic Fire’s extraordinary take on Ingram Marshall’s Hymnodic Delays. In this arrangement, commissioned and premiered by Seraphic Fire in 2006, Marshall’s electronic orchestral work is performed in an “unplugged” acoustic version with the voices tackling all the multifarious lines and electronic effects.

The whistle-stop tour will also include dates at Notre Dame in South Bend on Jan. 19, Green Bay on Jan. 21, and Milwaukee on Jan 22.

For tickets and information go to seraphicfire.org or call 888-544-3473. (For Green Bay tickets, call 800-236-3330.)

Seraphic Fire’s next local performances will be Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana Jan. 7-8.

Posted in News


Leave a Comment








Wed Dec 22, 2010
at 5:51 pm
No Comments