Showing posts with label Patrick Quigley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Patrick Quigley. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Seraphic Fire Signs with Columbia Artists Management


Recently I posted two reviews of two different Christmas CD/iTunes releases by the great Miami-based professional choir Seraphic Fire. Already recently inking a recording deal with Naxos, they have just now signed a management contract with one of the biggest and most prestigious companies in the field, Columbia Artists (CAMI). Look for Seraphic Fire's national and international recognition to skyrocket as they, Naxos, and CAMI work together! Below is the press release:

Twice GRAMMY®-Nominated Seraphic Fire
Signs with Columbia Artists Management, Inc.


MIAMI, FL – Seraphic Fire, the United States’ All-Star two-time GRAMMY®-nominated vocal ensemble, has signed with Columbia Artists Management, Incorporated (CAMI), the international leader in managing the careers and touring activities of the world's most prominent performing artists and institutions. Seraphic Fire is based in Miami, FL.

Seraphic Fire will join the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, internationally lauded pianist Lang Lang, and Metropolitain Opera Artistic Director James Levine as the only American choir on CAMI’s roster.

"The entire Seraphic Fire team is thrilled to join CAMI’s roster” said Seraphic Fire’s Managing Director, Joey Quigley. “We are so excited to bring our art to the rest of the world. CAMI’s large network of contacts will allow Seraphic Fire to achieve greater recognition in cities across the globe.”
“On behalf of Columbia Artists Management Inc., we are excited to begin this new partnership with Seraphic Fire” said Benjamin Maimin, Vice President and National Booking Director for CAMI. “We look forward to sharing their outstanding voices and innovative programming with audiences around the world.”

For interview requests, high-resolution photos, or any other information, please contact Mike Burgess at (305) 285-9060.

About Seraphic Fire

Entering its second decade, Seraphic Fire is widely regarded as one of the most important vocal ensembles in the United States. Led by Founder and Artistic Director Patrick Dupré Quigley, Seraphic Fire brings the best ensemble singers from around the country 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.

Patrick Dupré Quigley with Seraphic Fire


Seraphic Fire’s artistic accomplishments have translated to chart-topping album sales. In the summer of 2010, Seraphic Fire’s recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (1610) reached the number one position on the iTunes classical music charts. The ensemble’s GRAMMY®-nominated recording of Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem debuted at #7 on Billboard Magazine's Classical charts, and Seraphic Fire’s newest Christmas album, of which NPR’s Morning Edition proclaims “the singing is just fabulous; this group has a really excellent blend”, broke into the top ten on the iTunes Classical charts on day of its release.

Seraphic Fire has just signed a three-year partnership deal with Naxos of America to distribute Seraphic Fire Media. Seraphic Fire is represented worldwide by Columbia Artists Management, Inc.

About CAMI

Columbia Artists Management Inc. (CAMI) is an international leader in managing the careers and touring activities of the world's most prominent performing artists and institutions. Led by Chairman and CEO Ronald A. Wilford and the managing partners of CAMI's subsidiaries, the company has been on the forefront of performing arts management and production throughout the world for eight decades.

CAMI was formed in 1930 by William S. Paley and Arthur Judson, in a merger of seven independent concert managers, as part of Columbia Broadcast System. The convergence of major impresarios under the Columbia Concerts Corporation, as CAMI was originally known, began the tradition of cooperation among independent managers that is still in place today. The company’s dominating presence in broadcasting and representation was sustained and driven by the now legendary roster of artists managed by the company’s founders.
CAMI continues its legacy in the discovery and career development of the next generation of young artists from the world over through its subsidiary Columbia Artists Management LLC (CAM LLC). Under the direction of Tim Fox, President, with colleagues R. Douglas Sheldon and Andrew S. Grossman, Senior Vice Presidents, the company maintains its position as the world's largest classical music management firm internationally recognized for its distinguished list of Artists & Attractions.
The firm’s managers include a diverse selection of individuals who specialize in the careers of instrumentalists, conductors, opera singers and other vocalists, as well as in the touring activities of orchestras and instrumental ensembles. Complementing its activities in classical music, the company manages an extensive roster of world music performing artists, as well as the leading classical, modern and popular dance companies.

For over thirty years, through its Columbia Artists Theatricals (CAT) subsidiary, CAMI has pioneered the development of national Broadway touring. Today, through the leadership of Gary McAvay, CAT continues its long tradition of distributing the highest caliber of theatrical entertainment.
In recognition of the diversity of its artists and of previously untapped opportunities to reach new audiences worldwide, CAMI's subsidiary, CAMI Spectrum, led by Margaret Selby, is reaching beyond convention to produce an array of innovative projects and special events.

In 2004 Ronald A. Wilford and Jean Jacques Cesbron formed CAMI Music, an independent enterprise, specializing in the worldwide general management and touring of a prominent roster of artists, institutions and theatrical events appealing to both existing and new audiences across the globe. In addition to traditional representation, CAMI Music provides production and consultation services for special events and festivals around the world.

Through the further development of collaborative partnerships, CAMI continues to expand its activities at the forefront of media development and the performing arts.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

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.

Silent Night


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.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

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. 



Silent Night

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


A Seraphic Fire 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 20th-21st 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.