Mini-Review iof Seraphic Fire's new Christmas Recording

A few weeks ago I reviewed “A Seraphic Fire Christmas”, a Grammy nominated recording from last year (CD and iTunes) from by the Miami-based professional choir led by Patrick Quigley. Today I will give you a mini-review of their brand new Christmas recording, “Silent Night”. It's not too late to get this in time to listen to for this Christmas, especially if you use the iTunes download option.

http://www.seraphicfire.org/store/

Track list

The First Nowell

I Wonder as I wander

Preces (and Responses)

Hymn to the Eternal Flame

Glory to Thee, My God, This Night

Ding Dong Merrily on High

Carol of the Bells

Gitanjali Chants

Little Child in a Manger

Veni, veni Emmanuel

O Magnum Mysterium

Shiloh

Sweet Little Jesus Boy

Niño de Rosas, from Three Mystical Choruses

Silent Night

The singing on this recording is resonant and full, the intonation impeccable and the sound recording superb. Seraphic Fire has set the bar high for themselves with each recording, and this one is no exception. It is especially rewarding to hear them match their singing to the personality of each piece- quite evident in the most dramatic, passionate piece, Steven Sametz' setting of the Spanish text Niño de Rosas, with a robust solo by Lexa Farrell. Because Quigley's professional singers are so adept in so many vocal styles, he can sculpt the sound of each piece to his precise liking.

There are some tracks here that alone justify purchase of the CD. A striking performance of an old chestnut, Victoria's “O Magnum Mysterium” is sheer perfection, magically balancing both linear and horizontal axes of the late Renaissance counterpoint. Likewise, the sheer beauty of tone and tuning of modern American harmonies in Stephen Paulus' little gem “Hymn to the Eternal Flame” is magical. Gitanjali Mathur's soaring, glorious descant on the final verse brings chills to the spine. While there are a number of songs which may be unfamiliar to the average listener, there are still plenty of standards to satisfy those who want to hear new recordings of music they are already familiar with. Among these the standouts are performances of John Rutter's arrangement of “I Wonder as I Wander”, the Wilhousky arrangement of “Carol of the Bells”, and Quigley's own arrangement of “Silent Night”.

Seraphic Fire just keeps getting better and better as they enter their second decade. Patrick Quigley continues his tradition of letting the music speak without overreaching or getting in the way. His magic is in finding just the right sound and approach to each piece the ensemble presents. Bravo, Seraphic Fire!

More on Patrick Quigley:

Patrick Dupré Quigley is the Founder and Artistic Director of Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, has been described by the Miami Herald as, “a musician with a constellation of qualities rarely found in a single conductor: an enthusiastic and audience-friend personal style, a scholar’s instinct for rooting out obscure but worthy music, a scrupulous and historically informed approach to works that span a wide range of musical periods, an ability to bring out the best in his talented platoon…and a showman’s canny sense of how to appeal to audiences"
”
 This past year, Mr. Quigley was nominated for two 2012 Grammy awards for his work with Seraphic Fire and the Professional Choral Institute: Best Choral Performance for Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Best Small Ensemble Performance for A Seraphic Fire Christmas.  Seraphic Fire was the only chorus in North and South America to be nominated for a 2012 Grammy award, and Quigley was the only conductor to be nominated for two separate recording projects.  Under his direction, Seraphic Fire has released ten recordings on the Seraphic Fire Media label, with three additional recordings forthcoming this year.
2012 sees Mr. Quigley making guest appearances with the San Francisco Symphony’s Community of Music Makers series, Cincinnati’s professional Vocal Arts Ensemble, and two separate appearances with the San Antonio Symphony.  With Seraphic Fire, Patrick will conduct over 65 performances across the United States.

Quigley is the recipient of the 2004 Robert Shaw Conducting Fellowship, given annually by the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus America to one conductor between the ages of 25 and 40 who demonstrates the potential for a significant professional career.  At 26, Mr. Quigley was the youngest person to receive this award.  Most recently, Mr. Quigley was awarded Chorus America’s 2011 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal, recognizing his artistic and institution-building achievements with Seraphic Fire.

Patrick received his M.Mus in conducting from the Yale School of Music and his B.A. in musicology from the University of Notre Dame, and is a graduate of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy’s Fundraising School.

More on the Ensemble:

Entering its second decade, Seraphic Fire has become one of South Florida’s most important performing arts organizations and has a national reputation for choral music excellence. Led by Founder and Artistic Director Patrick Dupré Quigley, Seraphic Fire brings the best ensemble singers from around the country to South Florida to perform repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to newly commissioned works. This past year, the ensemble’s recordings Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem and A Seraphic Fire Christmas were nominated for two 2012 GRAMMY awards. Seraphic Fire was the only choir in North or South America to be nominated, and the only classical ensemble in the world to be nominated for two separate projects.


In addition to a critically-acclaimed chamber choir, the organization has established Firebird Chamber Orchestra, which collaborates with Seraphic Fire on choral-orchestral masterworks as well as independent concerts of orchestral repertoire. The orchestra, like the chorus, is made up of top-tier performers from around the country who fly into Miami for intensive periods of rehearsal and performance.
Seraphic Fire is also committed to educational outreach: the Miami Choral Academy, Seraphic Fire’s inner-city education initiative, aims to change lives of underprivileged children by offering daily afterschool choral music instruction at disadvantaged Miami-Dade County public elementary schools. The program currently serves 200 children in five after school choirs.

Additionally, Seraphic Fire has established the annual two-week Professional Choral Institute & Artistic Director Academy which trains aspiring pre-professional singers and conductors with the aim of giving them the musical and business skills to make professional choral and ensemble singing their full-time vocation. The Professional Choral Institute is the only such program in the United States.

Would I like to own the Lanza Family's Guns?

Yes, this is usually a blog about the choral music world, but sometimes it isn't. A few people have told me to keep politics out of this part of my life and this blog, but, sorry-- no can do, no please you. And in fact, this ISN'T political- it's about life and how some people's lives end in an evil instant when bullets-- many, many bullets, enter their body.

Hey citizen, do you need a rifle to shoot a deer? Yeah, go buy one. If you want to shoot Bambi or his mom, go ahead. If it makes you feel powerful or you like to make your own venison jerky, I'm not stopping you. Need a gun in the house to "protect" your family? Yeah, go buy one, but you might want to read this first:

Startled Father Fatally Shoots His Daughter

Published: November 09, 1994 in the New York Times

• t

A girl who jumped out of a closet and shouted, "Boo!" when her parents came home in the middle of the night was shot and killed by her own father.
Fourteen-year-old Matilda Kaye Crabtree's last words to her father were "I love you, Daddy."
No charges were brought against her father, 53-year-old Robert Crabtree. The Ouachita Parish Chief Deputy, Richard Fewell, said the case would be turned over to the District Attorney as a matter of routine.
"It's sad," Mr. Fewell said. "This is something every kid has done. I don't know how the father is going to live with it."
Matilda and a friend, whose identity was not disclosed, were supposed to be spending Saturday night at the friend's home but had decided to go to the Crabtrees' while Matilda's parents were away, Mr. Fewell said.
When Matilda heard her parents drive up around 1 A.M. Sunday, she and her friend came up with a practical joke: They hid in her bedroom closet and made noises to make her parents think someone had broken in, Mr. Fewell said.

 Or this more recent event in South Africa:

A Centurion man accidentally shot dead his young daughter on Friday morning when their house was broken into, Gauteng police said.

Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said the man was awoken by a commotion at his house on Glover Street.
"He went upstairs to fetch his firearm and while he was there, he heard the commotion again near the door. He fired a shot which hit and injured his... daughter," said Dlamini.
"She was taken to hospital in a critical condition, where she died. We have opened a case of culpable homicide."
Dlamini said the five robbers fled the premise with a handbag, which belonged to the man's wife. No arrests had been made. Beeld newspaper reported that the father had heard dogs bark, went downstairs to investigate and spotted a robber in the house, in the early hours of Friday morning.
He ran back up to his bedroom, slammed the door and took his firearm from the safe. At that stage, his seven-year-old daughter had woken up and wanted to go into her parents' bedroom.
When she turned the door knob, her father thought it was one of the intruders and fired a shot.
He opened the door and found her lying there. According to Beeld she had been shot in the head.

 And you might want to know this research info:

Having a gun at home not only increases the risk of harm to one's self and family, but also carries high costs to society, concludes an article in the February Southern Medical Journal, official journal of the Southern Medical Association. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, and pharmacy.
"Firearm-related violence vastly increases expenditures for health care, services for the disabled, insurance, and our criminal justice system," writes Dr. Steven Lippmann of University of Louisville School of Medicine, and colleagues. "The bills are paid by taxpayers and those who buy insurance."

Guns at Home Increase Dangers, Not Safety
 
Based on a review of the available scientific data, Dr. Lippmann and co-authors conclude that the dangers of having a gun at home far outweigh the safety benefits. Research shows that access to guns greatly increases the risk of death and firearm-related violence. A gun in the home is twelve times more likely to result in the death of a household member or visitor than an intruder.

Returning to Sandy Hook:

An official with knowledge of the investigation tells The Associated Press three weapons were found inside Sandy Hook Elementary School and a fourth weapon was found outside. These weapons are critical evidence as investigators try to unravel why Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six school workers Friday after killing his mother at their home. The official was not authorized to speak on the ongoing investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

The murder weapon:

_ Bushmaster .223-caliber: lightweight with a high capacity, it also is popular with law enforcement and the military, and is commonly seen at shooting competitions. Two men convicted in a series of sniper killings in the Washington, D.C.-area in 2002 used a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle that they fired from the trunk of a car at randomly picked victims. Some models have a detachable magazine that can hold up to 30 rounds. The medical examiner in Connecticut said it appeared all the children and school staff were shot with the same high-powered rifle, some repeatedly, some at close range.
Also found in the school:

_ Glock 10 mm: a larger and more powerful weapon than the widely popular 9 mm, it is in many respects similar to the 9 mm. It is a lightweight and comparatively affordable weapon that is often used for target shooting and for personal protection.

_ Sig Sauer 9 mm: considered an upper-tier, quality product, it's comparatively expensive, and its range of uses include elite military and police units.

The Bushmaster and two other weapons were found near the body of Lanza, who killed himself at the school.

So perhaps we don't yet have final, official confirmation of what guns were on the scene and what Adam Lanza exactly did with those guns, but I decided to look up these weapons and see if they might be appropriate for me to own to shoot deer or squirrels, and have in my home with my nine year old boy in case of an intruder or rabid bear or alien invasion.

The Bushmaster .223 AR-15 Rifle

Form the company website, a section called "Our World":

Military

Bushmaster military carbines and rifles are helping defend freedom around the world. Proven in the most severe conditions, rugged and reliable Bushmasters are lightweight, accurate, and easy to shoot and maintain.
So whether duty calls you to the jungle or the desert... to mountain snows or urban landscapes... highly adaptable Bushmaster weapon systems are battle tested and field ready.

Home Defense

With a Bushmaster for security and home defense, you can sleep tight knowing that your loved ones are protected. Bushmaster offers everything you need to ensure the safety of you and your family. Our high-quality pistols, carbines, and rifles are extremely reliable, easy to shoot, and include lightweight carbon models that are perfect for women. And with their intimidating looks, all Bushmasters make a serious impression. Any gun will make an intruder think. A Bushmaster will make them think twice. [Your prankster daughter will even think three times before she pranks you again].


 Accuracy and reliability? Whether your prey is a prairie dog at 600 yards or a charging hog that's lost his sense of humor, [or a roomful of small children] you can rely on your Bushmaster for both pinpoint accuracy and quick follow-up shots. 

From my research I have found that this is a military rifle known as an AR-15 and that today the AR-15 and its variations are manufactured by many companies and are popular among civilian shooters and law enforcement forces around the world due to their modularity and notoriety in being associated with US military. In other words, if you want to feel cool and all Rambo military-like, buy this gun, get your sunglasses and fatigues on, and nobody will mess with you. You won't just be able to kill Bambi with it, you can kill all the animals in the forest with one big sweep. Fully modified Ar15's are capable of firing 800 rounds per minute! This also makes me realize that Adam Lanza could have killed EVERYONE in that school that day if many of the teachers had not been so heroic and able to get so many children out of harm's way. God bless them.

I don't want this gun in my house. I don't want this gun in my neighbor's house. I don't want anyone to have this gun unless they are a SWAT team member or a member of the military. PERIOD.

  

The Glock 10mm semi-automatic pistol


Although it was selected by the FBI  for use in the field following the 1986 FBI Miami Shootout, their training unit eventually "concluded that its recoil was excessive in terms of training for average agent/police officer competency of use and qualification", the pistols that chambered it were too large for some small-handed individuals. These issues led to the creation and eventual adoption of a shortened version of the 10mm that would evolve into what is today the .40 S & W.

So this is a gun rejected by the FBI for various safety and practicality reasons. Why does it still exist? It mostly seems to be another thrill machine (for people who get off on gun thrills) to own.

For some reasons, this gun is still used by some law enforcement agencies, and is often touted as a "hunting gun". Yeah, right.


I don't want this gun in my house. I don't want this gun in my neighbor's house. I don't want anyone to have this gun unless they are a SWAT team member or a member of the military. PERIOD.

 Hey, take a read of this (this guy has weird fantasies, most likely on a daily basis)

Inside The Gun Locker: Carrying A Glock 10mm

By: bboatman
12/7/2010 03:01 AM

Rumors of the death of the 10mm pistol cartridge and its replacement by the .40 S&W are premature. The talented Ten has simply moved out of town.

When you get out beyond the limits of the city, a .38 or 9mm in your holster seems awfully small. As the most likely theater for a potential armed confrontation opens up from city sidewalk, to high speed freeway, to lonely country road and wide open spaces, even the capabilities of a .40 or .45 may be stretched. When the threat of danger lurks, not in the aching veins of some desperate junkie or the evil eye of an adolescent asphalt-jungle predator, but in the paranoia of a gang of land-grabbing marijuana farmers or the stamping feet of a belligerent range bull – out where the bad guy is more likely to be armed with an AK-47 than a pipsqueak pocket rocket, might even weigh a thousand pounds and wear a set of horns suitable for impaling and tossing your big new truck – you cannot be overgunned. If you carry a revolver, this is .357, .41 and .44 Magnum country. If you carry a semi-automatic pistol, this is the land of the 10mm.

The Sig Sauer 9mm

This is another gun chiefly used by military around the world. It is used by the Navy Seals, but I think their intent is to  use it to kill bad people, not seals.

I don't want this gun in my house. I don't want this gun in my neighbor's house. I don't want anyone to have this gun unless they are a SWAT team member or a member of the military. PERIOD.


OBVIOUS CONCLUSION: NONE of these firearms were truly meant to be in the hands of everyday citizens. They, and the devastating bullets they fire rapidly, were designed for military and law enforcement use. But companies like profits and they are happy to take your money if you need these guns to make yourself happy (see below). Anyone who clears a background check can own these weapons of mass destruction. And you can buy them at many gun shows without much hassle. Why did Nancy Lanza need these military guns? Why on earth would she let Adam have continued access to them considering what we seem to know now (and what she had to have known to some extent) about his mental instability or at least his outsider personality traits. Her role in this comes into question just as much as her son's, at least in my opinion.This was a disaster that did not have to happen. And yet little children, their teachers, and the whole community of Sandy Hook is paying a price which cannot be fathomed. Shame on us, as a country, if we let Sandy Hook and other recent killings happen, and NOT do something to prevent them in the future. Please contact the White House, your senators and representatives and tell them how you feel about this gun and mental health issue.

Happiness is a warm gun
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is
When I hold you in my arms 
 When I feel my finger on your trigger
 I know nobody can do me no harm
 
Because happiness is a warm gun, momma
Happiness is a warm gun
-Yes it is.
Happiness is a warm, yes it is...
Gun!
Well don't ya know that happiness is a warm gun, momma? (yeah)

- Lennon (murdered at age 40 by a gun) & McCartney

FUN FACT: With less than 5% of the world's population, the US  is home to roughly 35–50 per cent of the world's civilian-owned guns

From the Washington Post today: Adam Lanza lived among guns. His mother, Nancy, collected them. She showed them off to her landscaper. “Guns were her hobby,” said Dan Holmes, the landscaper of Nancy Lanza’s sprawling yard here on the edge of town. “She told me she liked the single-mindedness of shooting.”

Seraphic Fire Christmas CD/itunes recordings

 Now ten years old, the Miami-based professional choral ensemble Seraphic Fire, under the leadership of Patrick Quigley, has become a major choral force in the choral world, not just in the US but globally. Singing a wide-ranging, highly creative repertoire, producing Grammy-nominated CDs, becoming involved in a big way in musical education in the community- Seraphic Fire is doing it all!

This month they have released their second CD/iTunes release of Christmas music. Here is the info on that recording which, in just a  few days of release, is scaling toward the top of the classical release list. 

Ordering information:  http://www.seraphicfire.org/store/

Or through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_2?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aseraphic+fire&page=2&keywords=seraphic+fire&ie=UTF8&qid=1354764499


But before this CD there was another one which I have been meaning to review for quite awhile now. I finally got around to starting on that review when I realized they were about to release another Christmas CD. So, with apologies to Patrick Quigley for my tardiness, here is the review of the earlier, quite wonderful CD. I hope to review the newest  CD soon, and am also going to review their other Grammy-nominated release from last year- the Brahms' Requiem in the piano 4 hands version.



A SERAPHIC FIRE CHRISTMAS

For those of you looking to add a quality new Christmas recording to your collection, let me suggest the Grammy nominated “A Seraphic Fire Christmas”, by the Miami-based group Seraphic Fire, released about a year ago. Patrick Quigley, Seraphic Fire’s young and highly talented director, was kind enough to mail me a copy a number of months ago. He also mailed me their recording of the Brahms’ Requiem, which I will review soon as well.

TRACK SELECTIONS:

1) Pater Noster 2) Ave Maria 3) Tota Pulchra es Maria 4) Verbum caro factum est 5) Adeste Fideles / O Come, All Ye Faithful 6) Once in Royal David's City 7) Quem pastores laudavere 8) O magnum mysterium 9) O Little Town of Bethlehem 10) There is no Rose of such vertu 11) Once as I Remember 12) Es ist ein Ros 13) Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day 14) The Lamb 15) Jesus Christ the Apple Tree 16) There Will Be Rest 17) A Merry Christmas

Quigley’s repertoire choices for the Christmas CD are brilliant and the whole forms a wonderful progression/arc as the disc plays out. Tracks one through seven take us back in time to the world of chant and chant-influenced music. From this simple, yet elegant beginning, the rest of the CD journey unfolds delightfully. After establishing the homophonic plainchant mode on tracks one and two, Seraphic Fire’s clarity and graceful delineation of free polyphonic line radiate on track three- Durufle’s “Tota Pulchra es Maria”. Another treat here in the first seven tracks is the original Latin chant of “Adeste Fideles” paired with “O Come, All Ye Faithful”. We recognize the Adestes chant as the source of “O come, All Ye Faithful”- but we also hear how the more, to us, familiar “O, come” melody differs here and here from the original Latin tune. This pairing by Quigley is artistically informing and appreciated by those interested in origins and influences.

At track eight we take a detour for Morten Lauridsen’s much-beloved “O Magnum Mysterium”, and Quigley changes the tone color to a more modern one here; there is far more warmth and atmospheric modernity in the sound than in the earlier tracks, which are remarkable in their resonance, but sparing in their use of obvious vibrato. Quigley has made strong decisions on the soundworld of this choir for this CD, especially in regard to the model he wants for the older music on the recording. His model, I believe, is wonderful- there is especially a nice ringing through “the mask” in the men’s voices. The women’s voices, in the earlier era music, somewhat suggest the English cathedral boy soprano pure headtone- yet they are obviously artistic, musically sophisticated women’s voices- not boy choristers.

As the CD progresses, the repertoire generally becomes more modern, and the singing more 20^th-21^st century in approach. This of course is the most obvious on the final selection, (We Wish You a) “Merry Christmas”, where the singers pull out all the stops and have a rip-roaring time with this jolly arrangement.

Backtracking to two other earlier selections, I have two big favorites. Track 12 is Praetorius’ “Es ist ein Ros”. I love the fact that Quigley tacks on the canon of this piece by Melchior Vulpius which was created a few years after Praetorius’ original. The shift from the homophonic tune to the canon is delicious. The other drop-dead gorgeous track is Seraphic Fire’s’take on living English composer John Tavener’s “The Lamb”, one of my most favorite small Christmas repertoire gems. Quigley understands that all he and the singers need to do is create in sound, with their utmost artistry and vocal skill, what is on the page. Tavener’s melding of text with a haunting melody of odd intervallic turns in two-part voicings  is magical and sparingly simple in the best meaning of that term- there is no need at all for any choir to try too hard to make it more than it what was meant to be. Hearing this, and many other tracks here, one is amazed by Quigley’s musical maturity and artistry- he is still a very young man with much greatness ahead of him and for his ensemble. 

Seraphic Fire is one of the very few premier, fully-professional choral ensembles in the country. Let us hope that they continue to succeed season after season in their home base of Miami and also continue to amaze us with brilliant recordings. I highly recommend this CD/itunes recording!
  
Link to Amazon.com
 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004EFD3PQ/sr=8-1/qid=1322759976/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1322759976&sr=8-1&seller=

More on Patrick Quigley:

Patrick Dupré Quigley is the Founder and Artistic Director of Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, has been described by the Miami Herald as, “a musician with a constellation of qualities rarely found in a single conductor: an enthusiastic and audience-friend personal style, a scholar’s instinct for rooting out obscure but worthy music, a scrupulous and historically informed approach to works that span a wide range of musical periods, an ability to bring out the best in his talented platoon…and a showman’s canny sense of how to appeal to audiences"
”
 This past year, Mr. Quigley was nominated for two 2012 Grammy awards for his work with Seraphic Fire and the Professional Choral Institute: Best Choral Performance for Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Best Small Ensemble Performance for A Seraphic Fire Christmas.  Seraphic Fire was the only chorus in North and South America to be nominated for a 2012 Grammy award, and Quigley was the only conductor to be nominated for two separate recording projects.  Under his direction, Seraphic Fire has released ten recordings on the Seraphic Fire Media label, with three additional recordings forthcoming this year.
2012 sees Mr. Quigley making guest appearances with the San Francisco Symphony’s Community of Music Makers series, Cincinnati’s professional Vocal Arts Ensemble, and two separate appearances with the San Antonio Symphony.  With Seraphic Fire, Patrick will conduct over 65 performances across the United States.

Quigley is the recipient of the 2004 Robert Shaw Conducting Fellowship, given annually by the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus America to one conductor between the ages of 25 and 40 who demonstrates the potential for a significant professional career.  At 26, Mr. Quigley was the youngest person to receive this award.  Most recently, Mr. Quigley was awarded Chorus America’s 2011 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal, recognizing his artistic and institution-building achievements with Seraphic Fire.

Patrick received his M.Mus in conducting from the Yale School of Music and his B.A. in musicology from the University of Notre Dame, and is a graduate of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy’s Fundraising School.

More on the Ensemble:

Entering its second decade, Seraphic Fire has become one of South Florida’s most important performing arts organizations and has a national reputation for choral music excellence. Led by Founder and Artistic Director Patrick Dupré Quigley, Seraphic Fire brings the best ensemble singers from around the country to South Florida to perform repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to newly commissioned works. This past year, the ensemble’s recordings Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem and A Seraphic Fire Christmas were nominated for two 2012 GRAMMY awards. Seraphic Fire was the only choir in North or South America to be nominated, and the only classical ensemble in the world to be nominated for two separate projects.


In addition to a critically-acclaimed chamber choir, the organization has established Firebird Chamber Orchestra, which collaborates with Seraphic Fire on choral-orchestral masterworks as well as independent concerts of orchestral repertoire. The orchestra, like the chorus, is made up of top-tier performers from around the country who fly into Miami for intensive periods of rehearsal and performance.
Seraphic Fire is also committed to educational outreach: the Miami Choral Academy, Seraphic Fire’s inner-city education initiative, aims to change lives of underprivileged children by offering daily afterschool choral music instruction at disadvantaged Miami-Dade County public elementary schools. The program currently serves 200 children in five after school choirs.

Additionally, Seraphic Fire has established the annual two-week Professional Choral Institute & Artistic Director Academy which trains aspiring pre-professional singers and conductors with the aim of giving them the musical and business skills to make professional choral and ensemble singing their full-time vocation. The Professional Choral Institute is the only such program in the United States.