uire Cleveland is a professional choral ensemble, founded in 2008, to perform the glorious choral masterpieces of the late Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras, and beyond. Members of the ensemble are soloists and choral leaders at many of the major churches in the greater Cleveland area. Under the artistic direction of Ross W. Duffin, Quire Cleveland offers northern Ohio an outstanding professional ensemble of unaccompanied voices.
Quire Cleveland fills St. John’s Cathedral with shining artistry
Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer — Apr 14, 11
The sound of voices wafting radiantly through space must be one of the closest equivalents we have to that elusive realm known as Paradise. Quire Cleveland’s concert Wednesday at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Cleveland proved just such an experience.
To hear this professional choir singing Renaissance and Baroque music in which it specializes was to know something on the order of bliss. The ensemble’s program, “Lobet den Herrn: German Music for Quire,” was packed with sacred works by some of the greats of the 15th through 18th centuries, including composers that deserve more than footnotes in music history.
Lobet den Herrn: German Music for Quire
Scott Metcalfe, Conductor — Apr 13, 11
Under the direction of guest conductor Scott Metcalfe, Quire Cleveland returns to the Cathedral of St. John, site of our celebrated début concert. In this program, Quire explores the rich heritage of German choral music, from sacred songs and polyphony by Renaissance masters, to thrilling baroque works by Schütz, Pachelbel, and Bach.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011, at 7:30 pm
Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist
East Ninth Street & Superior Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio
This concert is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Free parking is available in the Cathedral Garage on the SE corner of Rockwell Avenue and East Ninth Street. For more information, call 216-771-6666, ext. 5510, or email gheislman@dioceseofcleveland.org.
Scott Metcalfe is a conductor and violinist whose career has taken him all over North America and Europe. He is the music director of Blue Heron, a vocal ensemble based in Boston which specializes in music between 1400 and 1600 and has been acclaimed by the Boston Globe as “one of the Boston music community’s indispensables.” He has recently been appointed Music Director of Early Music America’s first Young Performers Festival, to be held in conjunction with the Boston Early Music Festival in June 2011. Metcalfe is also a member of Cleveland’s Les Délices (directed by Quire Cleveland’s own Debra Nagy) and a participant in Montreal’s early music scene, working with Arion, Montreal Baroque, Les Voix Baroques, and other groups.
Preview: Quire Cleveland at Cathedral of St. John on April 13
Mike Telin, ClevelandClassical.com — Apr 6, 11
On Wednesday April 13, Quire Cleveland will present “Lobet den Herrn: German Music for Quire” as part of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist’s Helen D. Schubert Concert Series. We spoke to guest conductor Scott Metcalfe, who will be making his debut with Quire at this concert, by telephone.
Mike Telin: Many people in Cleveland know you as a violinist, especially through your performances with Les Délices, but you also have an impressive resumé as a conductor.
Scott Metcalfe: I actually do about half and half in fact. Although conducting came to me much later, because I started playing the violin in third or fourth grade. I certainly wasn’t conducting then. I did a tiny bit toward the end of high school, and then some in college, but I really got started in my later twenties. I had a group for a number of years here in Boston called the Cambridge Bach Ensemble, and that was my first venture into working with professional singers. I also conducted an amateur Renaissance Choir for about a dozen years, and that was actually my entre into Renaissance vocal music, which is what I spend so much of my time on now. That led to Blue Heron, the professional vocal ensemble that I run now.
Choral Gems from England, Flanders & Germany
Ross W. Duffin, Artistic Director — Mar 6, 11
Quire Cleveland offers favorite pieces from the choral repertoire of Europe, at a free concert at St. Christopher’s by the River, in Gates Mills.
The program includes works by the English composers William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, and Orlando Gibbons, selections by the Flemish masters Heinrich Isaac, Josquin Desprez, Jacobus Clemens non Papa, and Jacob Arcadelt, as well as pieces by the German composers Johann Pachelbel, Johann Christoph Bach, and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Sunday, March 6, 2011, at 4 pm
St. Christopher’s by the River
7601 Old Mill Road
Gates Mills, OH 44040
This concert is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. For more information, call 440-423-4451.
NOTE: As of 3/1/11, recent flooding in Gates Mills will NOT impact this concert.
What Did You Like?
— Feb 20, 11
At Carols for Quire II in December 2010, we distributed a Mercifully Short (but invaluable) Audience Survey, which generated an amazing 50% response!
One of the questions was, “What did you like about the concert?” Here’s a Wordle™, illustrating the responses.
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Quotes
—the ensemble's performances are freshly and purely alive
—[Quire's program made] something new and thrilling of music that is extremely old.
—sophisticated yet accessible concert ... beautifully performed
—sophistication, cohesion and clarity ... have become the ensemble’s hallmarks
—exceptional purity of pitch and crisp enunciation […]
—an inspiring mastery of blend and intonation
—a welcome addition to Cleveland's musical scene
—[Tim] Brown and his newfound friends achieved something on the order of bliss.