Following the success of this year’s Season S delivered in multimedia, Seraphic Fire, Miami’s professional vocal ensemble, announces a return to in-person concerts with the release of its 2021-22 Season. Musical highlights include Pergolesi’s immortal Stabat Mater with Baroque stars soprano Lauren Snouffer and countertenor Reginald Mobley, a second installment of the Enlightenment Festival with two weeks of music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Henry Purcell, and the official CD Release concert of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo virtutum performed in a new staging by internationally lauded stage director Francesca Zambello, a first-ever for the ensemble. Performances of the complete Messiah by George Frideric Handel, a program of music for men’s voices, and Seraphic Fire’s annual Christmas concerts round out a triumphant return to the stage.
“We, the artists and staff of Seraphic Fire, are incredibly excited to return to musical normalcy,” says Seraphic Fire artistic director Patrick Dupré Quigley. “After a year of producing many hours of programming for our audiences who were confined to their homes, it is a great relief to know that we will be able to return to that very special audience-ensemble relationship that we have with our enthusiastic supporters in South Florida.”
After an entire season that was modified ‘on a dime’ by the enterprising ensemble, Seraphic Fire will celebrate togetherness with a menu of masterpieces from across the centuries. November sees the return of South Florida audience favorite countertenor Reginald Mobley and international opera star Lauren Snouffer in Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s hauntingly beautiful Stabat Mater.
In January, for the first time ever, Seraphic Fire will collaborate with the Opera and Broadway stage director Francesca Zambello in a new staging of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo virtutum. This theatrical treatment of Hildegard’s magnum musical opus coincides with the ensemble’s CD release concerts of its new disc Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum, the first complete recording of the work.
The Enlightenment Festival returns this year featuring two giants of the Baroque era, Johann Sebastian Bach and Henry Purcell. Bach’s Cantata 147, featuring the immensely popular chorus Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, headlines a show featuring the incisive Cantata 62 and Bach’s seldomly-performed Mass in g minor. Henry Purcell’s skill as a writer of love songs is in the spotlight for the first week of the Enlightenment Festival.
By popular demand, Seraphic Fire brings back two highly anticipated programs that were canceled due to the pandemic: a complete performance of George Frideric Handel’s eternal oratorio Messiah, and Biebl: Ave Maria, a program featuring the breadth and depth of music written for men’s chorus. Rounding out the season will be Seraphic Fire’s candlelight Christmas concerts, and the singing of Silent Night, Adeste Fideles, and Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.
Subscriptions are on sale at SeraphicFire.org and by phone at 305.285.9060.
2021–22 SEASON PROGRAM
November 2021
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
Lauren Snouffer, soprano; Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor
Fri, Nov 5, 7:30 pm | Coral Gables (St. Philip’s)
Sat, Nov 6, 7:30 pm | Ft. Lauderdale
Sun, Nov 7, 4:00 pm | Boca Raton
Seraphic Fire returns for Season 19 with Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s celebrated sacred work Stabat Mater. Completed in Pergolesi’s final weeks of life as the young composer battled tuberculosis, the Baroque work is tender and expressive. The solo talents of Seraphic Fire artists Lauren Snouffer, soprano, and Reginald Mobley, countertenor, illuminate in this chamber work featuring arias and duets with strings and organ.
December 2021
A Seraphic Fire Christmas
James K. Bass, guest conductor
Tue, Dec 7, 7:00 pm | Naples
Wed, Dec 8, 7:00 pm | Sarasota
Fri, Dec 10, 7:30 pm | Coral Gables (St. Philip’s)
Sat, Dec 11, 7:30 pm | Miami Beach
Sun, Dec 12, 7:00 pm | Ft. Lauderdale
Tue, Dec 14, 7:00 pm | Boca Raton
Wed, Dec 15, 7:30 pm | Miami
Fri, Dec 17, 7:30 pm | Coral Gables (First United)
Sun, Dec 19, 4:00 pm | South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center
South Florida’s favorite holiday tradition, A Seraphic Fire Christmas, returns with Associate Conductor James K. Bass. In what promises to be a joyful celebration of the holiday season, Seraphic Fire singers will serenade audiences with classics like Silent Night and Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, surrounded by the warm glow of candles.
January 2022
Hildegard: Ordo virtutum (CD Release Concert)
Francesca Zambello, stage director
Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor
Thu, Jan 20, 7:00 pm | Naples
Fri, Jan 21, 7:30 pm | Coral Gables (First United)
Sat, Jan 22, 7:30 pm | Ft. Lauderdale
Sun, Jan 23, 4:00 pm | Miami Beach
Seraphic Fire celebrates the release of its newest recording, Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum, with a performance of the work in a new production by lauded Opera and Broadway stage director Francesca Zambello. The women of Seraphic Fire portray the struggle of the sweet-voiced Virtues against the songless, shouting Devil. Written in 1141, the Ordo virtutum has survived nearly 900 years through plagues, wars, schisms, reformations, and the dissolution of Hildegard’s convent. Celebrate as the women of Seraphic Fire bring this nearly millennia-old
masterpiece back to life
February 2022
Enlightenment Festival: Music of Bach, Moore, and Purcell
If Music Be the Food of Love: A Valentine’s Day Concert
Margot Rood, soprano
Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor
Thu, Feb 17, 7:30 pm | Miami
Fri, Feb 18, 7:30 pm | Coral Gables (St. Philip’s)
Sat, Feb 19, 7:30 pm | Ft. Lauderdale
Sun, Feb 20, 4:00 pm | Miami Beach
Henry Purcell’s charming and intimate love songs take center stage for this concert featuring soprano Margot Rood and the Seraphic Fire chorus. “If music be the food of love,” the Seraphic Fire ensemble will “sing on” with playful English madrigals in a delightful concert for the love minded in the audience. Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies round out this program. Bring your special Valentine for this serenade!
Johann Sebastian Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor
Thu, Feb 24, 7:00 pm | Naples
Fri, Feb 25, 7:30 pm | Coral Gables (First United)
Sat, Feb 26, 7:30 pm | Ft. Lauderdale
Sun, Feb 27, 4:00 pm | Boca Raton
The Enlightenment Festival continues with two of Johann Sebastian Bach’s great cantatas. Cantata 147, Hertz und Mund und Tat und Leben, contains one of the most memorable melodies in all of music, known in English as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. Cantata 62, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, features arresting choruses and luxurious arias sung by members of Seraphic Fire. Additionally, Bach’s seldomly performed Mass in g minor features the entire ensemble in ravishing counterpoint.
March 2022
Biebl: Ave Maria
James K. Bass, guest conductor
Wed, Mar 23, 7:30 pm | Miami
Thu, Mar 24, 7:00 pm | Naples
Fri, Mar 25, 7:30 pm | Coral Gables (St. Philip’s)
Sat, Mar 26, 7:30 pm | Ft. Lauderdale
Sun, Mar 27, 4:00 pm | Miami Beach
Associate Conductor James K. Bass leads the men of Seraphic Fire in a rousing concert of sea shanties, German partsongs, and the centerpiece of Franz Biebl’s iconic Ave Maria. Biebl wrote Ave Maria for an all-male Bavarian Firemen’s Chorus in the summer of 1959. Seraphic Fire now performs the Biebl and explores the tradition of music for men’s choirs that inspired this singular work. This stirring concert showcases the men of Seraphic Fire in a presentation of favorites as well as new compositions from Ileana Perez Velazquez and Seraphic Fire University of Miami Student Composer-in-Residence, Melissa D’Albora.
April 2022
Handel: Messiah
Patrick Dupré Quigley, conductor
Thu, Apr 28, 7:00 pm | Naples
Fri, Apr 29, 7:30 pm | Coral Gables (First United)
Sat, Apr 30, 7:30 pm | Ft. Lauderdale
Sun, May 1, 4:00 pm | Boca Raton
Handel’s Messiah has been in continuous performance since virtually the day of its premiere. Given its first performance in Dublin, Ireland, Messiah was instantly recognized by audiences and critics alike as a singular piece of music. For the first time since 2004, Seraphic Fire will perform Handel’s complete work. From the excitement of For Unto Us a Child is Born to the magnificence of the Hallelujah Chorus, Messiah is one of the consummate masterpieces of the Baroque canon. Though now most commonly performed at Christmastime, Seraphic Fire will perform the masterwork in April as a tribute to its original composition for the Easter season.
ABOUT SERAPHIC FIRE
Seraphic Fire brings together professional vocal and instrumental artists from around the country to perform repertoire ranging from medieval chant and Baroque masterpieces to commissions by leading living composers. The Seraphic Fire media catalog contains 16 releases. In 2012, two of the ensemble’s recordings, Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem and A Seraphic Fire Christmas, were nominated for GRAMMY® Awards.
Seraphic Fire’s artistic accomplishments also have translated to partnerships with The Cleveland Orchestra and New World Symphony, among others. At the forefront of Seraphic Fire’s mission is a commitment to community well-being and musician advancement through educational programs for South Florida’s underserved elementary students, as well as rising music professionals at University of Miami, Florida International University, UCLA, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.
ABOUT FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO
Francesca Zambello is an internationally recognized director of opera and theater, as well as the General Director of The Glimmerglass Festival since 2010 and the Artistic Director of The Washingtion National Opera at the Kennedy Center since 2012. She has also served as the Artistic Advisor to the San Francisco Opera from 2005-2011 and as the Artistic Director of the Skylight Theater from 1987-1992. In her current roles at the Kennedy Center and the Glimmerglass Festival she is responsible for producing 12 productions annually. She has begun major commissioning programs for new works in both companies that have resulted in productions of many large and small-scaled new works. Both companies have thrived financially and increased their national and international profiles as a result of her artistic vision and leadership.
Her American directing debut took place at the Houston Grand Opera with a production of Fidelio. She debuted in Europe at Teatro la Fenice in Venice with Beatrice di Tenda and has since staged new productions at major theaters and opera houses in Europe and the USA. She has worked at over 50 major opera houses including: The Met, La Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Paris Opera, the Bolshoi, Munich State Opera, Covent Garden and the Australian Opera. Her work has also been seen at many of the world’s major festivals. Collaborating with outstanding artists and designers and promoting emerging talent, she takes a special interest in new music theater works, innovative productions, and in producing theater and opera for wider audiences.
Francesca Zambello has been awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for her contribution to French culture, and the Russian Federation’s medal for Service to Culture. Other honors for her work include three Olivier Awards from the London Society of Theaters and two Evening Standard Awards for Best Musical and Best Opera. She has also received the award for Best Company Achievement. The French Grand Prix des Critiques was awarded to her twice for her work at the Paris Opera. Other awards include Best Production in Japan, the Palme d’Or in Germany, the Golden Mask in Russia and the Helpmann Award in Australia.
Francesca Zambello’s most recent opera projects have included The Ring and Aida for the San Francisco Opera and The Washington National Opera, and Porgy and Bess and Show Boat for commercial DVD release. Musical and theater projects have included developing Voigt Lessons with Terrance McNally and Debbie Voight; Rebecca for Vienna’s Raimund Theater, Stuttgart’s Palladium Theater (presented by Stage Entertainment), and in St. Gallen, Switzerland; The Little Prince with Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman; Napoleon in the West End; The Little Mermaid for Disney on Broadway; the musical of The Little House on the Prairie for national tour; The Master Butchers at The Guthrie Theater; and Aladdin in Disneyland. Film works have included Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors for BBC Television; a new film for the BBC, Sony and PBS of The Little Prince; and West Side Story for the floating stage in Bregenz.
Ms. Zambello has also served as a guest professor at Yale University. An American who grew up in Europe, she speaks French, Italian, German, and Russian. She attended Moscow University in 1976 and graduated cum laude from Colgate University in 1978. She began her career as an Assistant Director to the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Francesca Zambello lives in New York with her wife, Faith Gay, a founding partner at Selendy and Gay, and step-son, Jackson.
ABOUT PATRICK DUPRE QUIGLEY
Patrick Dupre Quigley, conductor, is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. He has led The Cleveland Orchestra in Mozart’s Requiem, San Francisco Symphony in Handel, Bach, Ligeti and Berio, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in Bach and Purcell. Recent and upcoming projects include a return to Chicago’s Music of the Baroque in Bach and music from Rameau’s Castor et Pollux; Handel’s Messiah in debuts with National Arts Centre Orchestra and Kansas City Symphony; and Handel’s chamber opera Acis and Galatea with his indie-classical ensemble, Seraphic Fire.
Quigley has long championed rising vocal and instrumental concert artists, collaborating with Matt Albert, Dashon Burton, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Christian Van Horn, Bryan Hymel, Reginald Mobley, Kathryn Mueller, Margot Rood, the Spektral Quartet, Lauren Snouffer, Zachary Wilder, and Tamara Wilson. He has commissioned and premiered works by composers Christopher Theofanidis, Nico Muhly, Alvaro Bermudez, Ileana Perez Velasquez, Susan Labarr, Sidney Guillaume, Shawn Crouch, and James Kallembach.
Quigley founded Seraphic Fire in 2002 in Miami, FL. The ensembles’ repertoire spans from Hildegard of Bingen to Steve Reich, and their recording catalogue contains 16 albums; two titles have received GRAMMY® nominations. Seraphic Fire enjoys a residency at the Aspen Music Festival, where Quigley teaches and conducts.
ABOUT JAMES K. BASS
James K. Bass, three-time GRAMMY®-nominated singer and conductor, is Professor and Director of Choral Studies at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. He is the Associate Conductor for the Miami-based ensemble Seraphic Fire, Program Director for the Professional Choral Institute at Aspen Music Festival and School, and Artistic Director of the Long Beach Camerata Singers.
Bass is an active soloist and ensemble artist. In 2017, he made his solo debut with The Cleveland Orchestra singing with Franz Welser-Möst in Miami and at Severance Hall in Cleveland. Other engagements as soloist include New World Symphony with Michael Tilson-Thomas, The Florida Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Back Bay Chorale and Orchestra, and The Sebastians.
He has appeared with numerous professional vocal ensembles including Seraphic Fire, Conspirare, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Apollo Master Chorale, Vox Humanae, True Concord Voices & Orchestra, and Spire. He was the featured baritone soloist on the GRAMMY®-nominated recording Pablo Neruda: The Poet Sings with fellow singer Lauren Snouffer, conductor Craig Hella-Johnson and the GRAMMY-winning ensemble Conpirare. He is one of 13 singers on the GRAMMY®-nominated disc A Seraphic Fire Christmas and appears on CD recordings on the Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, Albany, and Seraphic Fire Media labels.
Bass was selected by the master conductor of the Amsterdam Baroque Soloists, Ton Koopman, to be one of only 20 singers for a presentation of Cantatas by J. S. Bach in Carnegie Hall and was an auditioned member of Robert Shaw’s workshop choir at Carnegie. He has appeared as conductor with the Florida Orchestra during their annual education concerts.
During his tenure as Artistic Director for the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, the official chorus of the Florida Orchestra, he was responsible for five recordings and multiple world premieres. In 2012, he served as chorusmaster and co-editor for the Naxos recording entitled Delius: Sea Drift and Appalachia featuring the Florida Orchestra and conducted by Stefan Sanderling. In 2014, he was the principal preparer for the recording Holiday Pops Live! conducted by the Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik. During his tenure as a chorusmaster he has prepared choirs for Sir Colin Davis, Sir David Willcocks, Jahja Ling, Michael Tilson-Thomas, Gerard Schwarz, Giancarlo Guerrero, Michael Francis, Marcelo Lehninger, Stefan Sanderling, Evan Rogister, Danail Rachlev, Joshua Weilerstein, Markus Huber, David Lockington, Xian Zhang, Patrick Quigley, and Neal Stulberg.
His professional career has coincided with the development of Seraphic Fire as one of the premier vocal ensembles in the U.S. He has been actively involved as soloist, ensemble artist, editor, producer, and preparer for 14 of the ensembles recordings and routinely conducts the ensemble in Miami and on tour. During the summer of 2011, he co-founded the Professional Choral Institute (PCI). In its inaugural year of recording, Seraphic Fire and PCI received the GRAMMY® nomination for Best Choral Performance for their recording of Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. As the Director of Education for the ensemble, he has been involved with annual events that service more than 2,000 students in the Miami-Dade County area each year. In 2017, Seraphic Fire and UCLA launched a new educational initiative entitled the Ensemble Artist Program that identifies and trains the next generation of high-level ensemble singers.
Bass received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami, where he was a doctoral fellow, and is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy.
