Seraphic Fire is a nationally recognized ensemble of professional singers chosen for their exceptional talent. Seraphic Fire flies these renowned artists to South Florida for intensive rehearsals followed by engaging performances, tours, and educational initiatives like the Professional Choral Institute.
Soprano
Voice: Soprano
City: Madison, WI
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Chorus Master
Sara Guttenberg
is highly sought after as a soloist and chamber artist, charming critics and audiences with her “vocal finesse” (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) and “soaring tones” (Miami Herald). Guttenberg is a member of critically-acclaimed Seraphic Fire and the Berwick Chorus of the Oregon Bach Festival. Known for her vocal versatility, she has performed and recorded music of multiple vocal genres. She is a featured ensemble soloist on Naxos recordings of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, which earned four GRAMMY® Awards. She has sung under the batons of Nicholas McGegan, Michael Tilson Thomas, John Nelson, Leonard Slatkin, and Helmuth Rilling. Guttenberg is pursuing a doctoral degree in choral conducting at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Previously, she spent seven years teaching at Southern Utah University, where she conducted multiple ensembles in addition to teaching choral music education classes and voice. Originally from Wisconsin, she received her bachelor’s degree in music education and voice performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her master’s degrees in voice performance and choral conducting from the University of Michigan.
Sarah Moyer
was exclusively featured in Boston Globe Magazine for her work as a professional singing artist and deemed her “the kind of church singer who will rock your sacred-music world.” As a soloist, Moyer’s recent repertoire includes the world premiere of Theofanidis’ Four Levertov Settings with Seraphic Fire, American premieres of Nørgård’s Nova Genitura and Seadrift with Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, world premiere of Runestad’s The Hope of Loving with Seraphic Fire, and Foss’ The Prairie with Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Moyer appears frequently with Skylark, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, True Concord, Vox Humana TX, and the Berwick Chorus of Oregon Bach Festival.
Voice: Soprano
City: Philadelphia, PA
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Rebecca Myers
was recently described in San Francisco Chronicle as singing with “an appealing blend of vulnerability and grace.” Myers is a solo and ensemble singer who performs in and around the Philadelphia area. She is a member of The Crossing, an award-winning vocal ensemble fully dedicated to the performance of new music under the direction of Donald Nally. Her last season with The Crossing included collaborations with Quicksilver Baroque and International Contemporary Ensemble for the highly anticipated Seven Responses project at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. Myers has appeared as a chorister and soloist with Santa Fe Desert Chorale, American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Bach Collegium Philadelphia, The Laughing Bird, Piffaro, Opera Philadelphia, and Prometheus Chamber Orchestra.
Meredith Ruduski
is hailed by critics for her “delicate, mellifluous sound” and “effortless,” “radiant” tone. She appears regularly with Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Seraphic Fire, and the Texas Early Music Project, among others. Ruduski recently made her debut with South Florida Master Chorale as soprano soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Austin Symphony Orchestra as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah, and as soprano soloist in Brahms’ German Requiem with Chorus Austin. Ruduski has also performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with conductor Harry Bicket in Santa Fe. She currently serves as Operations Coordinator at Texas Early Music Project, where she produced, co-wrote, and stage-directed its latest opera pastiches. Ruduski holds a master’s degree in music from University of Houston and a bachelor’s degree in music from University of Texas at Austin.
Voice: Soprano
City: Seattle, WA
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Brenna Wells
has been praised for her “angelic,” “soaring,” and “captivating” voice. Her operatic roles include Galatea in Acis and Galatea, First Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, La Musique in Charpentier’s Les Plaisirs de Versailles, and she was Première Nymphe de l’Acheron in Boston Early Music Festival’s production and GRAMMY® nominated recording of Lully’s Psyché. Wells has sung and recorded with such acclaimed ensembles as the BEMF Orchestra, Blue Heron, Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Opera Boston, L’Académie, and the Handel and Haydn Society. She has appeared in many festivals world-wide including the London Handel Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Amherst Early Music Festival, BBC Proms, and in both 2008 and 2009, she was selected to perform in the Early Music Seminars at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy. Recent season highlights include solo appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Collage New Music, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Boston Baroque, Yale Choral Artists, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, The Metropolitan Chorale, Boston Early Music Festival, Ensemble VIII, Early Music Underground, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Sammamish Symphony Orchestra, and Emmanuel Music as their Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow. Last season includes appearances in the Seattle’s St. Cecilia Music Festival with works including Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate and Vivaldi’s Gloria as well as appearances with Vancouver Early Music Festival, and Pacific Musicworks’ production of Dido and Aeneas.
Alto
Voice: Mezzo-Soprano
City: Miami, FL
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Amanda Crider
has sung with Dallas Opera, New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, The Castleton Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Boston, Opera Omaha, Des Moines Metro Opera, Anchorage Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Eugene Opera. Her 2016-2017 Season included a debut with Boston Lyric Opera and a return to Apollo’s Fire as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah. Crider has also appeared as a soloist with ensembles including Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Symphony, New World Symphony, Bach Festival Society of Florida, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. She has been a prize winner and finalist in the José Iturbi International Voice Competition, Jensen Foundation Voice Competition, Joy in Singing Debut Artist Competition, Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year Competition, Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition, Center for Contemporary Opera Competition, and is a recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation. Crider is also the founder and Artistic Director of Miami’s Art Song and Vocal Chamber Music concert series, IlluminArts.
Margaret Lias
has been celebrated for her “warm,” “arresting,” and “rich-toned” singing. Since her Boston Symphony Hall debut in 2011 with Handel and Haydn Society (Handel’s Israel in Egypt), Lias has been a frequent soloist under the baton of Harry Christophers. In 2015, she received praise for her Lincoln Center solo debut singing Mozart’s Requiem. Select solo appearances in 2016 and 2017 included Princeton Pro Musica (Corigliano’s Fern Hill), Portland Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9), Handel Society of Dartmouth (Bach’s Mass in B Minor), Masterworks Chorale (Mozart’s Missa Brevis), The Cleveland Orchestra (Stravinsky’s Threni), and Emmanuel Music (Bach’s St. Matthew Passion). Lias was a founding member of vocal ensemble Skylark under Matthew Guard. She performs frequently with Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman, Voices of Ascension under Dennis Keene, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space under K. Scott Warren, Emmanuel Music under Ryan Turner, and Musica Sacra New York under Kent Tritle.
Reginald Mobley
is equally at home in any style ranging from medieval to jazz, but finds the baroque period as the source of his rising popularity in North America. A “voice that simply has to be heard to be believed” (Knoxville Metro Pulse), Mobley has appeared with top ensembles including Charlotte Symphony, Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and Early Music Vancouver.
Voice: Mezzo-Soprano
City: Minneapolis, MN
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Clara Osowski
has been hailed for her artistry and “rich and radiant” voice (Urban Dial Milwaukee). She was a 2012 Metropolitan Opera National Council Upper-Midwest Regional Finalist, the winner of the 2014 Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artists Competition in Milwaukee, and the runner-up in the 2016 Schubert Club Bruce P. Carlson Scholarship Competition. Osowski’s passion for art song creation and collaboration is evident in her most recent premieres with Linda Tutas Haugen (Gjendine’s Lullaby), Paul Rudoi (Midnight Songs) and James Kallembach (Songs on Letters of John and Abigail Adams). As a recitalist, she recently completed the Vancouver International Song Institute, the International Workshop on the songs of Edvard Grieg in Bergen, Norway, and traveled to Tours, France to attend the Académie Francis Poulenc. Performances in her 2016-2017 season included Dominick Argento’s A Few Words about Chekhov with chamber orchestra, alto soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion, and several recital engagements across the United States.
Tenor
Voice: Tenor
City: Provo, UT
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Andrew Crane
is Associate Professor of Choral Conducting at Bringham Young University. Before this appointment, he served for four years as Director of Choral Activities at East Carolina University, and six years in the same position at California State University, San Bernardino. Choirs under his direction have appeared by invitation at multiple conferences of the American Choral Directors Association and National Association for Music Education, and have won top prizes in international competitions. Crane enjoys a career as a professional solo and ensemble tenor, having appeared with such groups as Seraphic Fire, Los Angeles Bach Festival, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Yale Choral Artists, Vox Humana, Spire Chamber Ensemble, Tennessee Chamber Chorus, North Carolina Master Chorale, Carnegie Hall Festival Chorus, and others. Crane holds a doctoral degree from Michigan State University, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Bringham Young University.
Voice: Tenor
City: Birmingham, AL
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Brad Diamond
is equally adept in the genres of opera, oratorio and song literature. Diamond has presented more than 400 solo vocal performances in works by Cavalli, Monteverdi, Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Rossini, Berlioz, Orff, Bartok, Janacek and Britten with symphony orchestras and opera companies across North America and Europe. He completed his Bachelor of Music at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ in 1991. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. Diamond is assistant professor of voice at Samford University in Birmingham, AL.
Patrick Muehleise
is in demand throughout the country as a versatile singer in opera, choral, and concert repertoire. He regularly collaborates with nationally acclaimed ensembles such as The Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Tucson Chamber Artists, and Music of the Baroque. In 2015-2016, Muehleise performed Carmina Burana with the Tucson Chamber Artists, recorded an inaugural disc with the new Apollo Master Chorale in Minneapolis, and took the stage at the 2015 National ACDA Convention in Salt Lake City with The Santa Fe Desert Chorale. During his 2014-2015 season, he made his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in the chorus of Wagner’s Parsifal; and made soloist appearances in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor and Coronation Mass, Handel’s Messiah, David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion, Copland’s The Tender Land as the role of Martin, and Britten’s Albert Herring as the title role.
Voice: Tenor
City: Austin, TX
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Steven Soph
has been lauded as a “superb vocal soloist” (The Washington Post) possessing a “sweetly soaring tenor” (The Dallas Morning News) of “impressive clarity and color” (The New York Times). Soph’s 2016-2017 Season marked his return to The Cleveland Orchestra and Seraphic Fire for Stravinsky’s Threni; Voices of Ascension (NYC) for arias in Bach’s St. John Passion; the Chicago Chorale for Bach’s B Minor Mass; and the Bach Society of St. Louis for Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. Recent seasons’ highlights include appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra in an all-Handel program led by Ton Koopman; New World Symphony and Seraphic Fire in Reich’s Desert Music; Symphony Orchestra Augusta in Bach’s B Minor Mass; the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra (San Diego) in Mozart’s “Orphanage” Mass and Mass in C Minor; and the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah. Soph remains active with top American ensembles including GRAMMY® nominated Seraphic Fire; GRAMMY® Award winning Conspirare; GRAMMY® Award winning Roomful of Teeth; GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices & Orchestra; Trident; Yale Choral Artists; Cut Circle; Santa Fe Desert Chorale; Colorado Bach Ensemble; Apollo Master Chorale of Minneapolis; American Classical Orchestra Chorus; Spire Chamber Ensemble; and the Choir of St. John’s Cathedral, Denver.
Bass
Voice: Bass
City: Los Angeles, CA
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
James K. Bass
is Director of Choral Studies at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA and Director of Education at Seraphic Fire. He previously served on the faculties of Western Michigan University and University of South Florida, and holds a Doctoral degree from University of Miami, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from University of South Florida. Bass has appeared with professional choral ensembles including Seraphic Fire, Conspirare, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Apollo Master Chorale, Vox Humanae, and Spire. He appears on CD recordings on the Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, Albany, and Seraphic Fire Media labels. Solo orchestral engagements include appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra, New World Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Back Bay Chorale, and The Sebastians. In 2011 Bass co-founded Seraphic Fire’s Professional Choral Institute at University of South Florida. In its inaugural year of recording, Seraphic Fire and PCI received a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Choral Performance for their recording of Brahms’ Ein Deuthches Requiem. Bass has prepared choirs for Sir Colin Davis, Sir David Willcocks, Jahja Ling, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gerard Schwarz, Giancarlo Guerrero, Michael Francis, Marcelo Lehninger, Stefan Sanderling, Evan Rogister, Danail Rachlev, Joshua Weilerstein, Markus Huber, Michael Francis, Patrick Quigley, and Robert Shaw among others.
Voice: Bass
City: Los Angeles, CA
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
John Buffett
has been praised by Salt Lake Tribune for his “warm tone and ringing top notes”. Buffett has sung with the Utah, San Antonio, and Syracuse symphonies, the Rochester Philharmonic, Apolloʼs Fire, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Bach Collegium San Diego, Oregon Bach Festival, and Ars Lyrica. Equally comfortable on the operatic stage, he has sung with the Opera Companies of Utah, Sarasota, Memphis, Utah Festival Opera, Ohio Light Opera, and Eastman Opera Theater. Buffett has worked with conductors including Robert Tweten, Josh Habermann, Jeannette Sorrell, Craig Jessop, Victor DeRenzi, Barbara Day Turner, and Paul OʼDette. Other career highlights include appearances at Tanglewood Music Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, and Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Buffett received a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music and is currently on faculty at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach.
Voice: Bass
City: Tampa, FL
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Charles Wesley Evans
has been applauded by The New York Times for his “elegant, mellifluous and expressive baritone.” Evans began singing professionally as a chorister at The American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey, where he toured nationally and internationally singing under the batons of notable conductors such as John Williams, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Vladimir Spivakov, and Lorin Maazel. Evans maintains an active career as a concert soloist and professional choral singer, and has recently made his Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall debuts. His singing has been heard on a variety of broadcasts throughout the United States and recorded on a number of notable recording labels. Evans holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Brewton-Parker College, with further study at the Boston Conservatory of Music and Westminster Choir College of Rider University. He currently serves in the Artist Associate Faculty at University of Tampa.
Voice: Bass
City: New York, NY
Seasons with Seraphic Fire: —
Thomas McCargar
has established himself as both a soloist and sought-after ensemble singer in New York City and around the United States, having been called “gripping” by The New York Times, and described as singing with “calm fluidity” by The Washington Post. Recent engagements include singing the role of Evangelist in Ginastera’s Turbae ad Passionem Gregorianam with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Washington Chorus, and NOVUS NY at Carnegie Hall; Angel’s Bone with the Prototype Festival; Steve Reich’s Three Tales with Ensemble Signal at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles; Paul Moravec’s Songs of Love and War with The Dessoff Choirs; Anne Hamilton’s The Event of a Thread at Park Avenue Armory; performing with Kanye West at the Hollywood Bowl for his two 808’s and Heartbreak concerts; and appearing with Andrea Bocelli during NBC’s 2015 broadcast of Christmas in Rockefeller Center. As an ensemble singer, Thomas is a member of the acclaimed Choir of Trinity Wall Street and performs regularly with Seraphic Fire, GRAMMY® Award winning Roomful of Teeth, Pomerium, Spire, TENET, Musica Sacra, VOX Vocal Ensemble, Antioch, Voices of Ascension, New York Virtuoso Singers, Early Music New York, Yale Choral Artists, and Meridionalis. Other highlights include touring the world with Chanticleer; leading over 1,000 people in Times Square in the singing of John Lennon’s Imagine for Yoko Ono’s installation Imagine Peace; and singing You Can’t Always Get What You Want with the Rolling Stones.
