Chatting with Anthony Trecek-King

Using his passion for choral music to empower and unleash a new generation of musicians

“Anthony Trecek-King is so full of energy and life. He is a brilliant musician and knows how to get the best possible sound out of Seraphic Fire. He will bring a unique sense of musicality and joy to the holiday season.”

– Patrick Dupre Quigley

Q: What do you think is a differentiator in the way you conduct and work with artists?

A: What makes me unique is how much I try to explore emotion in music. When we like old recordings, they're not perfectly in tune but the emotion is there. Every note has to be oozing with meaning. There are better musicians than me, but the thing that I do well is relentlessly extract every piece of emotion out of the music. My first time with Seraphic Fire, we stopped one of our rehearsals and talked for an hour in order to get to the place where we could be on the same page, emotionally, with the music. Once we did that, everything else worked out.

Q: I know that you adhere to a collaborative rehearsal style. What exactly does that mean?

A: It’s a back and forth - I need them, and they need me - it’s symbiotic. I don’t have all the answers and sometimes the chorus may know better than me. I am here to facilitate their success. Leading by dictatorship is the old model; the new model is we're in this together.

Q: What separates Seraphic Fire from other choirs you have worked with in the past?

A: They are really good, so flexible, and it is a joy to work with them because the opportunities are limitless. Their strength is their ability to jump into multiple literature and be equally comfortable in different styles. These are some of the best voices in the country, and you can do amazing things when you have the best voices in the country.

Q: Do you have a vision for what you hope to accomplish with this December program?

A: Creating a program that's cohesive, yet challenging for the audience is the hardest part of our jobs as artists. I knew I wanted to explore music that the Seraphic audience had not heard. Even the Ave Maria is one that has not been performed by Seraphic Fire. It's a familiar text, but a different arrangement by a composer of African descent.

The Flight is a piece that I am really interested in performing. It connects Jesus and His birth with immigration and related issues. It's a heavy piece of music that will get the audience thinking. It’s not always our role to provide answers, but, instead, to raise questions. I think it’s important to program music that is familiar or easy for the audience to grasp, and then challenge the audience on the other hand.

Q: What led you to a career in conducting?

A: My music got serious when I started playing cello at age 10. In high school, I joined the chorus and that turned my love into choral music, but I always did both. When I was a college freshman, the chair of the department called for me and I thought I was in trouble. He sat me down and said, “Have you ever thought about being a conductor?” I replied, “No, why would I?” He answered, “Have you ever seen anybody that looks like you on the podium? You should think about it.” It was a very provocative question.

I went to my conducting teacher and said I wanted to learn more and he gave me a score of Romeo and Juliet. I listened to the CD a hundred times, first following just the flute line, then the next instrument, and so on. Finally, I starting waving my arms to figure out “Does this make sense?” By the time I got through with undergrad, I had conducted a lot. But if it wasn’t for that one little conversation, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today.

“My goal in life is to help other people be their best selves, whatever form that takes.” Anthony Trecek-King.