Seraphic Fire

Seraphic Fire presents Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil

MIAMI, FL – SEP 20, 2010 – Lady Gaga must be accustomed to a daily barrage of attempts to outsell her multi-platinum albums. But in August, the last name she expected to see edging her out of the #27 spot on iTunes was Miami’s Seraphic Fire. Having ousted the pop diva with “Claudio Monteverdi: Vespers of the Blessed Virgin 1610,” South Florida’s premier choir enters its ninth season every bit as white-hot as its name suggests.

Under the captivating baton of maestro Patrick Dupré Quigley, the critically-acclaimed singers of Seraphic Fire launch into the 2010/11 Season (entitled “We Lift You Up”) with Vespers of a more eastern variety, those of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “All-Night Vigil,” Op. 37. Written amidst the tumult and devastation of the First World War, the Russian master reaches back to the chant-filled liturgies of the Russian Orthodox Church to synthesize a score that is at once a whisper to the heavens and an impassioned cry of nationalistic pride. The emotional immediacy of his creation astonished even the composer, and as he told his singers on the evening of the premier, “Even in my dreams I could not have imagined that I could write such a work.”

The full spectrum of the ensemble’s vocal color will be on display in this a-capella work as the voices take on orchestral-like roles such as that of horns and bells, caroming from the introspective to the clamorous, the solemn to the ecstatic. With a virtuosity that consistently brings audiences to their feet across Florida and beyond, Seraphic Fire’s “All-Night Vigil” is a season opener every bit as meteoric as its recent chart-topping success.

Tickets are $35 and available at www.SeraphicFire.org or by phone at 888-544-FIRE. Continuing its effort to reach new audiences, Seraphic Fire will once again make FREE tickets available to audience members who are 30 or under (but over 8, please) ten minutes before each performance as long as tickets remain. A limited number of under 30 tickets are available in advance by calling the Seraphic Fire office at 305-285-9060.

The program will be performed at the following venues:

Thursday, September 30, 2010, 7:30pm
St. Christopher’s by-the-Sea
95 Harbor Drive
Key Biscayne, FL 33149

Friday, October 1, 2010, 7:30pm
First United Methodist Church of Coral Gables
536 Coral Way
Coral Gables, FL 33134

Saturday, October 2, 2010, 8:00pm
All Saints Episcopal Church
333 Tarpon Drive
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301

Sunday, October 3, 2010, 4:00pm
Miami Beach Community Church
1620 Drexel Avenue (entrance on Lincoln Road)
Miami Beach, FL 3313