Seraphic Fire’s Runaway Hit Recording of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 Soars to No. 1 on Classical iTunes

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Seraphic Fire’s self-released recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 soared to #1 on the iTunes classical chart in August, and briefly rose above pop diva Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster (Deluxe Edition) on the iTunes all-genre chart on Sunday. The rapid success of Seraphic Fire’s “indie” outing prompted NPR’s All Things Considered to run its story about Seraphic Fire, “From Zero to Hero”, on its weekend edition. “It promptly landed in the Top 10 classical recordings on iTunes, sandwiched between the London Symphony Orchestra's Beethoven and Yo-Yo Ma’s Bach,” enthused NPR’s Jeff Lunden. “What makes this surprising is that the recording is by a little-known Miami-based professional choir called Seraphic Fire — and the musicians released it themselves.”

"Everyone started to share this with all of their friends on Facebook, saying, 'Look, we got featured on iTunes,' " explained Seraphic Fire’s founding artistic director Patrick Dupré Quigley. "By the end of the day, someone noticed that we had become the 18th best-selling classical album on iTunes. Introducing a younger audience to this 400-year-old music is one of those fantastic things that happens only on the internet."

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