lifestyles | perfect pitch
DÉBUT SEASON By Pat r i c k D. M c C oy
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wo-time Grammy-nominated conductor Patrick Dupré Quigley, 37, chats it up about his rising career, the Washington début season of his Florida-based ensemble, Seraphic Fire, and finding balance amid his performance schedule. WASHINGTON LIFE: What initially sparked your interest in music and eventual career choice as a conductor? Patrick Quigley: My grandmother was a piano performance major in college and my grandfather’s mother was a church organist. All of her five sons sang in a barbershop group every Sunday, which she directed, live on the radio. My parents sang all the time around the house and they figured out that when I was a baby, the only thing that kept me quiet was putting me between the speakers playing a recording of the Philadelphia Orchestra playing Stokowki’s transcription of the Bach “Toccata and Fugue in D minor.” That and Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony” would keep me rapt until the record would get to the end. WL: Tell us about your decision to establish a musical presence in Washington, D.C. PQ: As we were thinking about the future of our ensemble and where we wanted people to hear our music, Washington was at the top of our list. We wanted to bring that combination of choral and orchestra music with original instruments here. WL: What are some of the things that will distinguish Seraphic Fire from the ensembles that Washington audiences are already accustomed to hearing? PQ: We like to think of ourselves as a historically informed ensemble, no matter what the period is. In our first program, we will perform music from the French and English Baroque [period], featuring the music of Charpentier, Purcell and a number of pieces by Handel. In February we will perform the Mozart “Requiem” but as completed by a young American composer Gregory Spears. We commissioned this piece twoand-a-half years ago and it is an amazing kaleidoscopic sort of combination of various
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styles. At the beginning of that program we will be performing selections from Gluck’s “Orfeo” and in April we perform the Brahms “Requiem,” a version Brahms wrote for piano and four hands. WL: What were some of the factors that made yourself and Seraphic Fire a prime candidate for two Grammy nominations? PQ: The Brahms program we are bringing to Washington in 2016 got us our first Grammy nomination. The combination and breadth of repertoire at the opposite ends of the spectrum was something I think the Grammys found encouraging in terms of the art form. WL: How is Seraphic Fire presenting this style of music in a way that engages young audiences? PQ: We, along with a number of our colleagues, are trying to present this music not as a relic in a museum, but instead as something that you feel as if the composer is in the room with you. WL: How do you balance your career and everyday life? PQ: That’s a really good question. When I am not performing, my husband and I like to cook, work on the house, watch Netflix and spoil our dog. It’s a question that I think a lot of musicians deal with.
Patrick Quigley (Photo by Abdiel Thorne)
WL: Who would you consider to be your desert island composer? PQ: I don’t think I would want to live in a world without Mozart’s Italian operas, especially “The Marriage of Figaro”! Patrick Quigley will conduct Seraphic Fire in Charpentier’s “Te Deum” on Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Patrick Quigley with his ensemble Seraphic Fire (Photo by Marta Xochilt Perez / Southern Land Films)
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
| no v e m b e r
2015
| washingtonlife.com