South Florida Classical Review

The Seraphic Fire torch is being passed.

Patrick Dupre Quigley, founder and artistic director of Seraphic Fire, is moving on after 24 years leading the Florida vocal ensemble, which he built from a South Miami church choir into a regional success and national, Grammy-nominated stature as one of the most accomplished and versatile classical chamber choruses in the country. The 2025-26 season will be Quigley’s final one leading the group he began nearly a quarter-century ago.

“At the end of this season, I will have been with Seraphic Fire for half of my life“ said Quigley this week.”The patience, kindness and care that the artists, board, and staff have shown me over nearly 24 years—especially since this was my first time being an artistic director—is that of a family. I am deeply appreciative that they allowed me to figure out how all this works in real time.  

“There are very few places where that could happen, and happen so successfully.  Seraphic Fire is a great and skilled ensemble, and it has always been a deep honor to work among such remarkable colleagues.”

Quigley, 47, currently enjoys a busy and active guest conducting career outside of Florida. This month he takes up his new post as artistic director of Opera Lafayette in Washington DC, where he will lead performances of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas.

Quigley will assume a new title as Seraphic Fire’s artistic director laureate and continue to return to Florida for concerts with the choir he founded in future seasons.

Fortunately, continuity will be preserved and James K. Bass, Seraphic’s associate conductor, has been named as Quigley’s successor. 

Bass has been affiliated with Seraphic nearly from the start as a singer. In recent seasons, he has taken on an increasingly high profile, leading more of the group’s concerts as Quigley had handed off a greater number of programs to Bass and guest conductors.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” said Bass from his car, as he was driving home in California. “It’s awesome.”

“I am truly honored to have received this invitation to artistically lead the organization that has transformed me personally and professionally,” added Bass. “Patrick Quigley has created something absolutely extraordinary in Seraphic Fire, and we all are indebted to him for bringing such beauty and passion into our world. It is my intention to continue his vision and fold in my own perspectives to the rich story being told by Seraphic Fire.”

Bass, who will lead next week’s season-opening program, “The Best of Seraphic Fire,” will officially become artistic director next summer and commence his new role in the fall with the start of the 2026-27 season.

Though Bass was clearly the most logical choice, he said this week there was still an internal process and it was never a given that he would automatically succeed Quigley. “I feel like I’ve had a 24-year audition,” he said with a laugh.

Bass said that Quigley gave the board a list of names including his. “You know sometimes when you’re at a place that long as essentially a No. 2, often people think, “We need something completely different.’ Of course, I’m ecstatic that they decided that I’m the right person.”

In addition to his long association with Seraphic Fire, Bass is professor and director of choral studies at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. He is also artistic director of the Long Beach Camerata Singers, and has served as program director of the Professional Choral Institute at the Aspen Music Festival. He received his doctorate from the University of Miami.

Bass said that while Seraphic Fire would continue its emphasis on classical and choral music, he does plan to explore some new avenues and repertoire. 

“We have some similarities in programming,” said Bass. “But I’m a different person than Patrick and I have a lot of different ideas.” 

For instance? “I probably won’t do as much Baroque music as Patrick has done,” he said. “We’ll still always keep that part of our DNA going. But so much of my work has been in Late Romantic music and into the 20th and 21st centuries. So I think we’ll experiment there a little bit more.”

He would like to do more collaborations with musicians of the New World Symphony as well. “ I would like to be able to access some of those players for music like Arvo Pärt and others. I’m very interested in cultivating that.”

Bass said he would also like to explore doing more crossover-style programs exploring jazz and song standards, possibly as a separate series from the classical emphasis of Seraphic’s traditional programs. “There are so many things we can do. It’s not an ‘Either-Or’,” he said. “It’s an ‘And’.”

James K. Bass opens Seraphic Fire’s 2025-26 season with a program titled “The Best of Seraphic Fire” at various South Florida venues October 9-12. seraphicfire.org

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