Music

Nu Deco Ensemble makes our return to live, in-person performances at the North Beach Bandshell! Featuring a special new collaboration with 17-time GRAMMY nominated singer, songwriter and producer Anthony Hamilton, this concert will also include “Tessellations” by Gabriella Smith, Carlos Simon’s powerful and searing “Portrait of a Queen,” and a symphonic reimagination of the music of The Isley Brothers.

Join us in the first of our series of interactive live stream performances this season for K-12 students! This performance will be broadcast live from the North Beach Bandshell and provide students an opportunity to continue engaging with the orchestra. This performance is all about celebrating African American composers and their contributions to all forms of music. Featuring Anthony Hamilton plus the music of Carlos Simon and the symphonic reimaginations of the music by Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, and the Isley Brothers, we’ll explore how the activism, creativity, and courage of these artists have transformed the musical landscape. There will also be an opportunity to ask the orchestra questions during a Q&A session at the end! A digital program and concert quiz will be emailed prior to the concert. Please note that this concert and accompanying resources are intended for and available only to K-12 educators. An email affiliated with an educational institution will be required to access this performance.

Associate Conductor James K. Bass leads the men of Seraphic Fire in a rousing concert of sea shanties, German partsongs, and the centerpiece of Franz Biebl’s iconic Ave Maria. Biebl wrote Ave Maria for an all-male Bavarian Firemen’s Chorus in the summer of 1959. Seraphic Fire now performs the Biebl and explores the tradition of music for men’s choirs that inspired this singular work. This stirring concert showcases the men of Seraphic Fire in a presentation of favorites as well as new compositions from Ileana Velazquez and Seraphic Fire University of Miami Student Composer-in-Residence, Melissa D’Albora.

Associate Conductor James K. Bass leads the men of Seraphic Fire in a rousing concert of sea shanties, German partsongs, and the centerpiece of Franz Biebl’s iconic Ave Maria. Biebl wrote Ave Maria for an all-male Bavarian Firemen’s Chorus in the summer of 1959. Seraphic Fire now performs the Biebl and explores the tradition of music for men’s choirs that inspired this singular work. This stirring concert showcases the men of Seraphic Fire in a presentation of favorites as well as new compositions from Ileana Velazquez and Seraphic Fire University of Miami Student Composer-in-Residence, Melissa D’Albora.

The Enlightenment Festival continues with two of Johann Sebastian Bach’s great cantatas. Cantata 147, Hertz und Mund und Tat und Leben, contains one of the most memorable melodies in all of music, known in English as Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. Cantata 62, Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, features arresting choruses and luxurious arias sung by members of Seraphic Fire. Additionally, Bach’s seldomly performed Mass in g minor features the entire ensemble in ravishing counterpoint.

Henry Purcell’s charming and intimate love songs take center stage for this concert featuring soprano Margot Rood and the Seraphic Fire chorus. “If music be the food of love,” the Seraphic Fire ensemble will “sing on” with playful English madrigals in a delightful concert for the love minded in the audience. Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies round out this program. Bring your special Valentine for this serenade!

Seraphic Fire celebrates the release of its newest recording, Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum, with a performance of the work in a new production by lauded opera and Broadway stage director Francesca Zambello. The women of Seraphic Fire portray the struggle of the sweet-voiced Virtues against the songless, shouting Devil. Written in 1141, the Ordo virtutum has survived nearly 900 years through plagues, wars, schisms, reformations, and the dissolution of Hildegard’s convent. Celebrate as the women of Seraphic Fire bring this nearly millennia-old masterpiece back to life.

Seraphic Fire celebrates the release of its newest recording, Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum, with a performance of the work in a new production by lauded opera and Broadway stage director Francesca Zambello. The women of Seraphic Fire portray the struggle of the sweet-voiced Virtues against the songless, shouting Devil. Written in 1141, the Ordo virtutum has survived nearly 900 years through plagues, wars, schisms, reformations, and the dissolution of Hildegard’s convent. Celebrate as the women of Seraphic Fire bring this nearly millennia-old masterpiece back to life.

Seraphic Fire returns for Season 19 with Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s celebrated sacred work Stabat Mater. Completed in Pergolesi’s final weeks of life as the young composer battled tuberculosis, the Baroque work is tender and expressive. The solo talents of Seraphic Fire artists Lauren Snouffer, soprano, and Reginald Mobley, countertenor, illuminate in this chamber work featuring arias and duets with strings and organ.

The Blind Boys of Alabama with Donald Harrison's Quartet The Blind Boys of Alabama have won five Grammy Awards in addition to being presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.[9] They were endowed with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994,[10] they were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2003[11] and they were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 2010.[12] The group was also invited to the White House during the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations.[5][13] Group member Ricky McKinnie said in a 2011 interview with the magazine Mother Jones: "Our disability doesn't have to be a handicap. It's not about what you can't do. It's about what you do. And what we do is sing good gospel music."[5] https://www.minttalentgroup.com/blind-boys-of-alabama Donald Harrison's Quartet https://cityparksfoundation.org/events/charlie-parker-with-strings-2021/