Concerts and Tickets

The first Cuban composer, Esteban Salas, was born in Havana in 1725 and eventually ascended to the position of Master of Music at the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba. His music incorporates the elegance and glory of the French and Italian Baroque traditions while infusing the music with a uniquely New World spirit. Seraphic Fire’s opening concert celebrates the creations of composers, both past and present, from New Spain.

Something borrowed, something…Baroque? Seraphic Fire presents the debut of its new Firebird Chamber Orchestra with the vibrant mix of Baroque and Modern music that has been the ensemble’s signature. Barber’s famous Adagio, Vivaldi’s Concerto for 4 Violins, Telemann’s Don Quichotte and Diamond’s Rounds for Orchestra combine for a stunning evening of music.

The music of New Orleans is a cultural gumbo, incorporating Jazz standards, traditional hymns, Cajun ballads and the music of Soul legends. From Just a Closer Walk With Thee and Mahalia Jackson’s Didn’t It Rain, to Randy Newman’s Louisiana 1927, Seraphic Fire and New Orleans legal activist Bill Quigley, Patrick Dupré Quigley’s father, walk through the sorrows and joys of a post-Katrina Crescent City as they recreate a New Orleans Jazz funeral.

Johann Sebastian Bach, outliving one wife and twelve of his twenty-two children, experienced the passage from life to death constantly. His Cantata No. 82, Ich Habe Genug, is a stunning illustration of a soul gratefully leaving its earthly body. Bach’s masterwork joins Schubert’s Death and the Maiden on a double bill which examines the struggle, resignation and peace between this life and the next.

A timeless holiday tradition, Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Chamber Orchestra bring Handel’s masterpiece to the resounding acoustics of the Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Last year, Seraphic Fire performed Messiah to a sold-out crowd of 2000—this year will be no different! Subscribe and secure your place in the audience!

The rivalry between Wolfgang and Antonio portrayed in the Academy Award winning Amadeus only tells half of the story about these two musical powerhouses. While they had their disagreements, the two were usually cordial colleagues. Mozart wrote to his wife that the when Salieri attended his Magic Flute there was “no piece that didn’t elicit a bravo or bellow out of him.” This concert culminates in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, premiered at the suggestion of, and later conducted by, Salieri himself.

Two years after Rachmaninoff wrote his famous Vespers in 1915, the Russian Revolution silenced sacred music and the voice of the Russian Orthodox Church. Today, one hears a resurgence in the glorious Orthodox musical tradition. John Tavener’s Greek Orthodox inspired compositions and Arvo Part’s reverent treatment of Church Slavonic hearken back to the glory of Orthodox composition typified by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky and Bortniansky.

“Deathbed Conversion Spawns Masterpiece!” Rumors surrounding Giovanni Pergolesi’s untimely passing at a cloistered monastery in 1736 catapulted an already masterfully constructed work to musical stardom. While we now know that Pergolesi composed his Stabat Mater long before his illness and death, the lore surrounding this intimate musical description of the Virgin Mary has kept this gorgeous piece in constant performance since its composition.

At a time when Jews were confined to the ghettoes of Italy, Salamone Rossi broke through the theological prejudices of 16th and 17th century Italy to revolutionize and ignite the musical world around him. His close relationship with Catholic composer Claudio Monteverdi inspired his vibrant music-making, and propelled him to becoming the father of modern Jewish composition.