Over the past year, buffeted by uncertainty, I have taken particular comfort in music, but perhaps not for reasons that you might expect. For me (and perhaps for you), listening to music was actually quite difficult for the first months of the pandemic, bringing up feelings of longing and nostalgia that I wasn’t really ready to fully process at the time. Music brought with it memories of easier times with friends and anxiety about the present. But, over time, music also brought something I greatly needed: hope. The composition of music—any music—is, itself, an investment in the future. When Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his myriad works, it was a wager that these works would be performed at a later date. Sometimes this later date (in the case of the cantatas) was mere days away. In other instances, like that of the Mass in B minor, the music would not be performed in its entirety during Bach’s lifetime. Yet, even in this case, Bach still wrote music with the faith that it would be studied and performed in a more distant future. Each time we listen to a piece of music, we are experiencing an artist’s past dreams of the future. Whether it be the work of Hildegard von Bingen or Philip Glass, it is the composer’s visions of a future beyond her or his present that sounds in our minds. As performers and listeners, we are bringing to fruition days, months, years, and centuries of hopes. May our predecessors’ optimism about the future imbue our music with that same belief that art and humanity are resilient and that moments of joy, comfort, and consolation are still to come. Patrick Dupré Quigley Founder and Artistic Director
We have learned a great deal about our organization over the past 10 months: its resilience, the importance of our donors and supporters, emotional flexibility of our artists and staff, and most importantly our reasons for making art. Incredibly, these challenges have made us stronger than ever. We are grateful for the opportunity to support great art and want to assure you that when you support Seraphic Fire, you are making an investment in the future of professional choral singing because we are well-positioned to lead the way for choral performance and education for the next decade and beyond. The Board and administration are working with the medical experts on our COVID-19 Task Force to assure sound planning and decision making that will keep our singers and patrons safe. Our education team is producing uplifting and wonderful teaching materials that can be used in schools when we cannot be there in person. And, of course, our artists and staff have adapted in truly remarkable ways so that we can continue to bring you beautiful music this season. All of this is possible because of your continued support, both in terms of your subscriptions and your gifts. If you wonder what you can do to help Seraphic Fire stay strong and successful, please encourage your friends and relatives who are fans of great vocal music to consider purchasing tickets to our remaining concerts. A great benefit of multimedia performance is the opportunity to expand our exposure and fan base, and word of mouth is the most powerful tool for that. Dr. Thomas C. Boyd Chair, Seraphic Fire Board of Directors
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