Seraphic Fire and Western Michigan University recording

A great story I'm reposting from ChoralNet - and what the future holds- more and more creative people will "do it themselves" instead of kowtowing to publishers, record companies and the like:



Releasing it yourselves: Seraphic Fire, WMU, and Monteverdi
Date: August 29, 2010
by Philip Copeland
All of the record labels turned them down, so they released it themselves. And now, the recording is tops on iTunes.

Patrick Quigley told ChoralNet about it on Monday. I thought it needed a little more prominence, so here is the story:

From WMU News:

A new compact disc by the Western Michigan University Chorale in collaboration with the professional singing ensemble Seraphic Fire has climbed to the top of the iTunes classical recordings charts, displacing new releases by the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and the London Symphony Orchestra.

The recording of Claudio Monteverdi's 1610 masterpiece, "Vespers of the Blessed Virgin," also known as the "1610 Vespers," was released on iTunes last week, immediately landing in the Top 10 classical recordings and prompting National Public Radio to feature the CD and the story behind its creation on the program "All Things Considered."

"It's really an amazing story," says Dr. James Bass, who just left WMU after serving as director of choral studies. "I'm so proud of the students at Western."

Here is the NPR story.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129321950&ft=1&f=1039

2009 ACDA Convention: Down in the (Green) Valley with Claudio Monteverdi (Mr. Green Mountain)

(line drawing of Monteverdi, apparently with his neck painfully stuck inside a giant Krispy Kreme- come on now, this can't be historically accurate)




2009 ACDA national convention: Performances by high school choirs can sometimes be a yawn at ACDA conventions, but they can also be real eye-openers too. So we were afforded a pleasant surprise by the Green Valley High School Madrigal/Chamber Singers from Nevada, directed by Kimberly Barclay Drusedum. Their program included some Eric Whitacre and Dan Gawthrop, but their real strong point was an amazing dexterity, clarity, and complete understanding of all aspects of madrigal singing in pieces by Wilbye, Sweelink, and Monteverdi. Monteverdi's Si ch'io vorrei morire was especially breathtaking- not a short piece and quite difficult- yet they sang it as if they had lived past lives in the Italian musical renaissance. Contrapuntal lines were all there to be heard, no muddiness- just exceptional singing. I especially appreciated that the many descending sequences this piece contains never went flat- quite an achievement for a group of such young singers. Bravo, Ms. Drusedum.

Their final piece was a vocal version (along the lines of Ward Swingle's Flight of the Bumblebee) of The Barber of Seville, with manic application of hilarious vocal pomades, funky (cow)licks, close shaves with hairy cadences, and other barbarous musical shtick- all great fun as arranged by Daryl Runswick ("Daryl, I officially hate you- I wish I had written this arrangement").




(Kimberly Barclay Drusedum)