Quire Cleveland

Daniel Singer

Beverly Simmons — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:00:04 +0000

Daniel Singer is Director of Choir and Orchestra at University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio. He is also an active arranger and composer, having written for choral and instrumental ensembles throughout the United States. From 2003 to 2009, Daniel worked as a performer, music director, and teacher in the Chicago area. He sang with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and was a vocalist and arranger with the Lakeside Singers. Daniel has a BM in Music Education from Northwestern University and an MM in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University, where he studied with David Rayl, Jonathan Reed, and Sandra Snow.

Brian MacGilvray

Beverly Simmons — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 23:46:16 +0000

Baritone Brian MacGilvray holds a BM in voice from Northwestern University and an MM in voice from the University of Kentucky. He has sung with Chicago Music of the Baroque, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, Chamber Opera Chicago, Church of the Ascension (Chicago), and the Kentucky Opera Theater. He is currently pursuing a PhD in historical musicology at Case Western Reserve University and is a soloist/section-leader at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland.

Quire headlines Medina Choir Festival

Beverly Simmons — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:00:32 +0000

Quire Cleveland is the headliner of the upcoming Choir Festival presented by Medina High School, under the direction of MHS Music Teacher, Tyler Skidmore.

Artistic Director Ross W. Duffin has chosen favorites from the ensemble’s repertoire for their part of the program. Included are pieces by William Byrd, Henry Purcell, Johann Pachelbel, and Gustav Holst.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012, at 7:00 pm
Medina Performing Arts Center
851 Weymouth Road
Medina, OH

TICKETS are $5, and can be purchased at the door or via the Medina High School Box Office, 330-636-3400 (open from 10am-2pm, weekdays).

Come one, come all!

Review: Carols for Quire III at Trinity Cathedral

Beverly Simmons — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:02:27 +0000

Quire Cleveland presented “Carols for Quire III,” its third annual pair of Christmas concerts, on December 22 and 23 in the grand and resonant surroundings of Trinity Cathedral. Directed by Ross Duffin, Quire aptly utilized straight tone vocal production to weave an elegant tapestry of the purest of a cappella sounds as they performed choral works spanning the 13^th through the 21^th century with stylistic authenticity, attention to detail and an eye to audience appeal.

Quire opened the first section of this feast of music with several anonymous 13^th - 15^th century works which immediately set the stage for the evening’s fare. The opening works, Orientis partibus (Song of the Ass), and Angelus ad virginem were followed by works of Pygott, Palestrina, and Byrd. All were set in polyphonic style and open fifth cadential endings were predominant.

Duffin, an expert on the performance and practice of early music, joined the Case Western Reserve University music department in 1978 “to direct the nationally recognized historical performance program there.” In his exceptionally explicit program notes (three portrait size pages, single spaced) Duffin pinpointed the important historical details of each work with scholarly expertise. Several of the works were arranged by “RD” as well.

From my position in the front row off to stage left, I was could not only hear the performance but was able to observe the performance “up close and personal.” As Quire ventured through many centuries of choral style in almost chronological order, one was able to clearly experience historical changes in harmonies, textures and performances practices, wonderfully accomplished with such logic!

Duffin utilized the vocal capabilities of Quire by assigning solos, duets, quartets, etc in a multitude of differing arrangements. This added to the overall enjoyment of the performance and showcased the strong vocal talents of each individual singer.

Duffin’s arrangement of Quelle est cette odeur agréable? (What is this agreeable fragrance?) was wonderfully simple, homophonic in nature while moving smoothly between beautifully caressed phrases and a harmonization that was both stunning and pleasant to the ear.

Handl’s Canite tuba in Sion (Blow ye the trumpet in Zion) scored for altos, tenors and basses brought forth a strikingly dark sound and a blend and balance that was lush with integrity and solemnity.

Of course, what Christmas performance would be complete without Gustav Holst’s mellifluous and profoundly moving In the bleak midwinter? Here the singers departed ever so slightly from their straight tone and I seemed to hear a gentle, faint and soothing vibrato sneak into the moment. Wonderful!

Jennifer Conner’s Quiet Promise was the winning composition in Quire’s 2011 composition competition for members of the Cleveland Composers Guild. It was a beautiful and impassioned setting of her own poetry. (Conner is on the CIM composition faculty and is Head of the Suzuki music theory program).

There were many curtain calls. Duffin returned to conduct Quire in a very clever encore arrangement of We [Wish] you a Merry Christmas written by one of Duffin’s old friends [Philip Neuman], who obviously had a delightfully twisted sense of humor as The Star Spangled Banner somehow made its way into the musical line. Great fun and a lot of laughter and joy!

Audiences are often lured into attending choral performances that proclaim to be authentic in style, historically significant, and fastidiously accurate to the period from which the music emanates. And unfortunately, audiences are often disappointed by the lack of the most important factor, the quality of the performance. Not so with Quire. With the exception of one soprano voice that protruded throughout the evening, these superb professional singers demonstrated to all in attendance that their authenticity, accuracy, attention to detail and performance quality were remarkable and their skills prodigious. Quire’s every phrase conveyed an acute sensibility and understanding of the importance of a blended, balanced and pure choral sound.

Carols for Quire from the Old & New Worlds (3rd annual)

Beverly Simmons — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:30:58 +0000

It’s a Cleveland holiday tradition — Carols for Quire from the Old and New Worlds (now in its third year) celebrates the season with beautiful and inspiring music from yesterday and today. Under the direction of Ross W. Duffin, Quire Cleveland makes the inspiring architecture of Trinity Cathedral resonate from the rafters with glorious choral song, entertaining and accessible to all.

Thursday, Dec. 22 & Friday, Dec. 23, 2011, at 7:30 pm
Trinity Cathedral
2230 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH

Celebrate music from the 13th to the 21st centuries — Medieval carols, Renaissance motets, plus songs from Slovenia, Finland, Spain, France, England, and America. This year’s program also features the world premiere of a work by Jennifer Conner, of the Cleveland Composers Guild, who won the competition to have a piece performed and recorded by Quire.

Children are admitted FREE, when accompanied by an adult, and everyone is welcome. These glorious sounds are guaranteed to make your holiday season more harmonious!

TICKETS: $15 adult; $10 senior (65+); $7 student (full-time); children FREE when accompanied by adult, senior, or student. Free parking at Trinity Commons; nearby parking also available at Cleveland State University Prospect Garage (free with parking ticketed validated at Trinity).

Portrait of a Quire

Beverly Simmons — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 04:18:23 +0000

Before singing a single note, Quire Cleveland was photographed by the spectacular Beth Segal. The ensemble returned to her studio in October, where each Quirister had an individual photo session. The result: great new headshots for this website, as well as inimitable photos of the group.

Pictured above, left to right: bass Nathan Longnecker, tenor David Simmons-Duffin, soprano Judith Overcash, countertenor John McElliott, tenor Peter Hampton, baritone Jonathan Moyer, soprano Gail West, mezzo-soprano Debra Nagy, baritone José Gotera, artistic director & tenor Ross Duffin, soprano Sandra Simon, tenor Tyler Skidmore, executive director & mezzo-soprano Beverly Simmons, soprano Donna Fagerhaug, bass Ray Lyons, tenor Evan Bescan, soprano Lisa Rainsong, tenor Jeremiah Heilman, and bass Ian Crane.

Quire sings Messiah in Chagrin Falls

Beverly Simmons — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:30:45 +0000

Quire Cleveland joins the Cleveland Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and soloists, conducted by Maestro Michael Gelfand, in a performance of George Friedrich Handel’s magnificent oratorio Messiah, presented by the Chagrin Valley Chamber Music Concert Series.

Saturday, December 3, 2011, at 7:30 pm
Chagrin Valley Chamber Music
Valley Lutheran Church
87 East Orange Street
Chagrin Falls, OH
440.539.6376
info@chagrinmusic.org

TICKETS can be purchased at Valley Lutheran Church during business hours or at the Chagrin Valley Chamber Music Concert Series website.

[Tim] Brown and his newfound friends achieved something on the order of bliss.

Beverly Simmons — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:08:21 +0000

[Tim] Brown and his newfound friends achieved something on the order of bliss.

performances of crystalline clarity and expressive urgency

Beverly Simmons — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:03:39 +0000

performances of crystalline clarity and expressive urgency

Review: Quire Cleveland with Timothy Brown at Trinity Cathedral

Beverly Simmons — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:37:32 +0000

In his extensive and chatty program notes, guest conductor Tim Brown noted that he chose his repertory for Quire Cleveland through something of a misunderstanding, but he went ahead with plans to “construct a program that would take Quire out of its more accustomed comfort zone, and into corners of liturgical music from the English choral canon that would carry us from the early 1500s up to the end of the 20th century”.

After a week of intensive rehearsals, the twenty voices of Quire showed off what they had learned from Tim Brown at Trinity Cathedral on Saturday evening (the program was to be repeated in Solon on Sunday afternooon). Moving both backward and forward in time from its usual base of repertory, Quire gave splendidly idiomatic performances of English music from the pre-Reformation to the present day.

Brown was formerly music director for Clare College, Cambridge, where he polished its mixed-voice chapel choir to a high lustre over a 30-year tenure. He is now a freelance conductor, and obviously a very fine one who can achieve remarkable results in a short period of time. Since high standards of choral singing have always been a hallmark of Quire Cleveland, Brown could concentrate on matters of tone production, vowels, diction and singing style which are almost proprietary to Anglican cathedral and chapel choirs in England, but which make amazing differences in projecting this repertory down the length of large, stone buildings.

A good case in point was the opening Le Roy Kyrie by John Taverner, sung mysteriously from the high altar steps at Trinity in alternation with beautifully shaped plainchant supplied by baritone José Gotera from the pulpit. All the strands of Taverner’s complex web of polyphony were distinct and clear even at the back of the nave.

Vitality and clarity also marked the Gloria from Taverner’s Westron Wynde Mass, for which Quire moved onto risers in the crossing. Turning “from extravagance to utter simplicity — one word to one note”, as Brown put it, Quire sang exquisite post-Reformation motets by Tallis (O nata lux) and Ford (whose Almighty God, who hast me brought was echoed by a semi-chorus tucked away in the side chapel).

Brown had structured his program in semi-liturgical style, something like “A Day in the Life” of an Anglian chorister, and by now we had come to Psalms. Brown had chosen four wide-ranging examples of English psalm setting beginning with the tender Anglican chant of Henry Walford Davies’ Psalm 121 (followed by its equally touching Requiem aeternum), and followed by Byrd’s busy and madrigalesque Laudibus in sanctis (Psalm 150), Lennox Berkeley’s astringent Judica me (Psalm 26) and Gibbons’ energetic eight-part O clap your hands together. Quire changed stylistic gears smoothly and did a particularly fine job of tuning and balancing the complex chords in the Berkeley.

After intermission, Quire mystically floated the Sanctus and merrily skipped through the Benedictus from Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor before turning to two “Motets during Communion”, Byrd’s somber Ave verum corpus and Bairstow’s almost Byzantine-sounding Let all mortal flesh keep silence. Brown kept the tempo moving on the Byrd and whipped the Bairstow up to a religious fervor (maybe a little too fast at the climax to let the delicious chords settle in).

Three standard issue — but no less ecstacy-producing — “Anthems at Evensong” ensued: Stanford’s amiably meandering, six-voice Beati quorum via, Purcell’s starkly colorful eight-voice Hear my prayer, and William Harris’ transcendent, double choir motet, Bring us, O Lord God, setting a yearning-for-eternity prayer by John Donne. Quire moved easily into the repertory of later Anglican centuries and had only the normal amount of trouble even the best choirs do with Harris’ enharmonic modulations.

Quire split in two and arranged its halves on the high altar steps and at the rear of the nave for alternating performances of two restrained, late evening anthems by John Sheppard and William Mundy. Then they came together again in the crossing for the true novelty of the evening.

Giles Swayne (born in 1946) teaches composition at Cambridge and apparently trusts that the deity has a sense of humor. His Missa brevissima is full of strange and wonderful vocal effects and repetitious religious chatterings and brought a quite serious evening to a light-hearted conclusion (and lightning didn’t strike!). Quire proved here that it can also take on avant-garde music to good effect.

For an encore, Tim Brown gave the appreciative, capacity crowd an early Tudor anthem by Christopher Tye — so early in the sequence of fiddlings with liturgical texts that even “Amen” was considered a second cousin to Latin and got replaced with “So be it”, dutifully rendered in lovely contrapuntal lines at the end.

Video still courtesy of Ross Duffin.