By the time the last notes of J.S. Bach’s great B minor Mass have sounded at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton on Sunday afternoon, the audience will know whether it has been listening to a Grammy-winning ensemble.
Seraphic Fire, a concert choir founded 10 years ago in South Miami, is one of the few local classical ensembles to have been honored with Grammy nods. The Florida Philharmonic came close in the early 1990s with prestigious awards for its recording of the Mahler First Symphony, but no Grammy considerations came its way.
Seraphic Fire is up for two Grammys, and its producer is up for a third, on Sunday when the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences holds its televised ceremony at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Heady stuff, but there are still some local thoughts reserved for The Big Picture.
“The Grammys, whether we win or lose, is not so important as it’s just one more indicator that the recognition this group has long deserved is finally coming to pass,” said John Quaintance, treasurer of Seraphic Fire’s board of directors. “This organization is just a jewel in South Florida.”
And truth be told, Seraphic Fire’s path has been one of relatively rapid success, as these things go. From its establishment at the Church of the Epiphany in 2002, the group found strong audience, donor and press support for its programs, which have ranged from masterpieces of Renaissance polyphony to songs from the American gospel tradition and premieres of contemporary oratorios written especially for them.
Over the years, it has done backup work for Colombian pop star Shakira and spun off side projects including the Firebird Chamber Orchestra and the Professional Choral Institute (PCI), a training workshop at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Its recordings have found national download success, with its muscular version of the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 and its disc of the London version of Brahms’ German Requiem both soaring up the iTunes classical charts.
The Brahms recording, done with members of the PCI, is up for one of the Grammys for Best Choral Performance, and its holiday disc, A Seraphic Fire Christmas, has been nominated for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Peter Rutenberg, the producer of the Brahms disc, also has been nominated for Best Classical Producer. The nominations came as a surprise to some, including veteran Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed, who called the nods “a head-scratcher,” but for others it has been a logical outcome of its members’ hard work and the vision of its founder, Patrick Dupré Quigley.
Quigley, 34, a graduate of Notre Dame and Yale, is an energetic conductor and creative programmer whose usual in-concert remarks demonstrate his deep enthusiasm for the music. He said at the time the Grammy nominations were announced that the recognition said something important about American choruses.
“I hope that it shows that American choirs are making just as good a music as the traditional European powerhouses. We have an incredible tradition of choral singing in the United States, and so this is a real honor for us,” he said in December. “I think it’s also an eye-opener in that it shows we’re on the same level as the European choirs, and it’s nice to have confirmation of that.”
Quigley will attend the Grammy ceremony Feb. 12, and conduct the Bach only once, at the Feb. 10 performance. The other two performances will be led by Scott Allen Jarrett, one of the two pianists on the Brahms recording.
One of the first people to meet Quigley when he arrived in Miami was Misty Bermudez, a Miami native who held the Church of the Epiphany music director’s job before him. She said Seraphic Fire grew out of casual conversations.
“We hit it off and became friends, and he said, ‘Hey, let’s start a singing group,’” said Bermudez, a mezzo-soprano. “And it was really just that easy.”
And it was an idea whose time had come.
“There really wasn’t anything like Seraphic Fire in South Florida, so there was room for it to be, and grow,” she said. “And then of course Patrick is not just a really amazing musician and director, he’s also got a great mind for business, and that was really important.”
The idea of Seraphic Fire – its name comes from a line in a song by pioneering American songwriter and choral leader William Billings — from the beginning was to draw its 13 to 17 members from some of the best professional choral singers in the country.
Seraphic Fire’s singers are highly accomplished professionals who sing with numerous other groups, such as Austin, Texas-based Conspirare, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. They receive their music 30 days before the concerts, then have three days of rehearsal for six hours a day before going on stage, Bermudez said.
A typical program is organized around a theme or sometimes a major work. This month, it’s the B minor Mass, with accompaniment from the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, on three concerts. It also will present a program in March devoted to music associated with the royal Tudor family of England.
Bermudez, 35, whose guitarist-composer husband Alvaro has written for the group, is music director at St. Katharine Drexel in Weston, gives art song recitals and teaches voice. But Seraphic Fire is something special.
“What I find amazing about Seraphic Fire, and I’ve heard many of the singers who come here for the first time say this, is that it is a group of really wonderful musicians who are also really wonderful people,” she said.
And she’s aware that the ensemble’s “all-star” status presents her with a special challenge.
“As one of the local singers, I don’t ever want to be part of this group just because I’m local,” she said. “I want to be a part of this group because I deserve it.”
Seraphic Fire presents its monthly programs at several venues at home in Miami-Dade County and in Fort Lauderdale, with occasional visits to the Keys. This season, it has added a series in Boca Raton, which marks the third attempt by the choir to establish a foothold in Palm Beach County.
The Rev. Andrew J. Sherman, rector of St. Gregory’s, is happy Seraphic Fire is here.
“I enjoy classical music, and particularly choral classical music, so I was aware of Seraphic Fire,” Sherman said, adding that he also knew another Episcopal church, All Saints in Fort Lauderdale, is one of the group’s regular venues. “So I had always had it in the back of my mind: “Gosh, wouldn’t it be wonderful if Seraphic Fire could come to St. Gregory’s?’
“And then we found out after a concert about a year and a half ago, that they in fact were interested in looking at Palm Beach County … and we were interested in having a partnership based on the partnership they had with All Saints,” he said. “We had a mutual conversation about forming a partnership for this, and felt that it was a good deal for both of us.”
Seraphic Fire presented a “trial concert” of Christmas music last season at the church, and its success led both sides to go ahead with the season.
“They’re pleased because they’re getting a regular venue [in Palm Beach County], and we’re happy because we’re able to nurture the arts, which we feel is part of the church’s mission,” Sherman said. “It also becomes a front porch for people in our community to experience St. Gregory’s, and see what a beautiful church we have.”
Reaching a wider audience is something that Quaintance hopes will happen because of the Grammy recognition.
“I have watched the attendance in our Fort Lauderdale concerts go from fairly small to consistently sold out. That’s the mission I have: We need to find new venues, to touch new audiences,” Quaintance said, and if the Grammy notice helps the group do that, it will have done its most important work.
Though there’s always a hopeful spot on the corporate mantelpiece.
“I’d love to get that little statue, don’t get me wrong,” said Quaintance, laughing. “But I don’t know that that’s the important thing. The important thing is that maybe the Grammys have helped people sit up and take a little more notice … I’m just so proud of what’s going on here.”
Seraphic Fire performs the Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) of J.S. Bach at 7:30 p.m. Friday at All Saints Episcopal Church, Fort Lauderdale; 8 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church, Coral Gables; and 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Boca Raton. Tickets: $50. Call 305-285-9060 or visit www.seraphicfire.org.