Quigley recruits nationally, with singers flying in from all over for rehearsals and concerts. The quality of the music-making is astonishingly high and has been since its origins. Seraphic Fire would never have made much of a mark if it had been simply the result of a charismatic conductor and slick audience outreach. That was a perfect example of Patrick explaining at the beginning and giving everyone enough background to understand it.” The conductor’s friendly and approachable manner is pretty much the opposite of the forbidding maestro in evening clothes who leads a performance, gravely accepts applause and vanishes off stage.Īs for the Hildegard performance itself, Moore said, “I loved it. He just pulls people in.”Īfter the concert, Quigley and his singers stood outside the church and talked with audience members, accepting compliments and answering questions. “He exudes it in every performance when he’s describing the history and setting of the music.

“He is obviously extremely knowledgeable and loves the music, and he is able to convey that love to other people,” said Marilyn Moore, a retired lawyer who has been attending Seraphic Fire events for a decade, at the Hildegard performance. His style with audiences is informal yet serious. The choir has snagged two Grammy nominations, seized (briefly) a spot on the iTunes chart ahead of a hit by Lady Gaga, and developed a deep and loyal audience and donor base that has allowed it to thrive as other classical organizations cut back.Īlthough the beard he grew a few years ago gives him a touch of mature gravitas, at 44 Quigley remains youthful in manner and appearance. Under Quigley’s leadership as artistic director, Seraphic Fire has grown from a south Miami church choir to a nationally known ensemble that recruits singers from across the United States. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A major (soloist Paul Dwyer), and Dances from Terpsichore by Praetorius in collaboration with the South Chicago Dance Theatre. 3, Rameau’s Suite from Castor et Pollux, Telemann’s Burlesque de Quixote, C.P.E. Originally centered on the French Baroque, the revised “Heroes” program now includes Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. Yet the substantial MOB program he was scheduled to lead in spring of 2020 was cancelled due to Covid-19. Quigley made his MOB debut in 2019 leading the ensemble’s Holiday Brass & Choral Concerts. “She used motifs in a way that Wagner would use leitmotifs hundreds of years in the future.”Ī conductor in increasing demand across the United States, Quigley returns to conduct Music of the Baroque Sunday afternoon in Skokie and Tuesday night at the Harris Theater.

“From the very beginning of the work, you are stunned by the unity of composition,” said Quigley, founder of the Miami choir Seraphic Fire and a master of drawing audiences in for some unusual experiences. But Quigley was fascinated by the piece, the story of a female soul tempted by the Devil. Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum, a choral morality play nearly 900 years old, lacks much in the way of traditional harmony, conventional tunes or plot. Patrick Dupre Quigley conducts Music of the Baroque Sunday and Tuesday.Īt a church north of Miami, conductor Patrick Dupre Quigley was explaining a work that would be a tough sell to even the most musically sophisticated audience.

Just dance 2020 review