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In only the second time in its 19-year history, Seraphic Fire, South Florida’s Grammy-nominated professional vocal ensemble will present a program solely comprised of music written for all-male choirs.
As the men of Seraphic Fire musically illustrate the evolution of this 1,000-year choral tradition, the listener will be spellbound by the tight harmonies and the unfathomable range admirably demonstrated by this male-only vocal ensemble.
Join in for a pre-concert conversation one hour before each performance:
Wednesday, Mar. 23, 7:30 p.m., St. Sophia, 2401 SW Third Ave., Miami.
Friday, Mar. 25, 7:30 p.m., St. Philip’s, 1121 Andalusia Ave., Coral Gables.
Sunday, Mar. 27, 4 p.m., All Souls Episcopal, 4025 Pine Tree Dr., Miami Beach.
Tickets and subscriptions are on sale now at SeraphicFire.org and by phone at 305-285-9060
Associate conductor James K. Bass has built a stirring program that celebrates men’s choral music. The March program features the much-celebrated Ave Maria of Biebl, written for a firemen’s choir and made famous by the Cornell University Glee Club. Another 20th Century composer, a powerhouse of French music, also will be featured. Francis Poulenc wrote Quatre petites prières de Saint François d’Assise, which originally premiered in 1949 by Franciscan monks. It seamlessly merges plainchant, early polyphony, and Poulenc’s own colorful, progressive harmonies producing exquisite results.
Bass is excited to have the men perform rich, low-set Armenian Orthodox divine liturgy that most people have never heard before. This program introduces the master of basso profundo, Eric Alatorre, who will amaze the audience with perhaps the lowest sung notes they have ever experienced. Equally impressive are two works by Schubert: Grab und Mond and Die Nacht which Bass refers to as “musical works of art.”
“When you listen to barbershop quartets or military choirs, there is something about the scintillating tight harmonies of men’s voices that people are drawn to. It’s like velvet, deep and dense, but soft to the touch,” Bass said.
Nowhere is this more obvious than the opening number, Brothers Sing On! by the Norwegian composer Edvard Greig who was both prolific and heterogeneous in his musical compositions.
Somewhat of an anomaly, the March program will feature three world premieres, written by women and all very difficult compositions. They highlight the complex voices in the men’s ensemble and accentuate their impeccable blending and polish. Vijae by Cuban-American Ileana Perez Velazquez, a work commissioned with the support of William Jaume, will premiere alongside two compositions from Seraphic Fire’s University of Miami Student Composers-in-Residence, Melissa D’Albora and Sydney Doemel.
James K. Bass, three-time Grammy-nominated singer and conductor, is professor and dsirector of Choral Studies at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA. He is the associate conductor and director of education for the Miami-based ensemble Seraphic Fire and is the artistic director of the Long Beach Camerata Singers.
His professional career has coincided with the development of Seraphic Fire as one of the premier vocal ensembles in the United States. He has been actively involved as soloist, ensemble artist, editor, producer, and preparer for 14 of the ensemble’s recordings and routinely conducts the ensemble in Miami and on tour. During the summer of 2011, he co-founded the Professional Choral Institute.
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 Deutches 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 titled the Ensemble Artist Program that aims to identify and train the next generation of high-level ensemble singers.
Seraphic Fire brings together professional vocal and instrumental artists from around the U.S. and internationally to perform and record repertoire ranging from medieval chant and Baroque masterpieces to commissions by leading living composers.
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.
