What do Frozen, Toy Story, The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, Coco, The Sound of Music, and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory have in common?
You can hear music from all of them performed by Seraphic Fire this Sunday.
On September 13 at 2:00 PM, Seraphic Fire takes the stage at The Parker in Ft. Lauderdale for Pure Imagination, a special concert created for children, families, and anyone who remembers the first song that made them fall in love with music.
Led by Dr. Matthew Brady, the program gives audiences a chance to hear some of the most recognizable music of the past century in a completely different way: performed by the extraordinary professional voices of Seraphic Fire.
If you have been looking for a concert to introduce your children or grandchildren to Seraphic Fire, this is it.
Songs Your Family Already Knows
There is a good chance everyone in your family will recognize something on this program.
The afternoon opens with the irresistible “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast, then moves to “Pure Imagination,” the beloved song from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory that gives the concert its name.
Then come songs that have become part of childhood for several generations: “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story, “Remember Me” from Coco, “I See the Light” from Tangled, and the song almost every young Frozen fan knows from its opening notes, “Let It Go.”
Parents and grandparents will find plenty to love, too. The program includes “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music, “Tomorrow” from Annie, and Harold Arlen’s timeless “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz. The concert closes with “Go the Distance” from Disney’s Hercules.
And this is still Seraphic Fire.
Alongside those familiar favorites, audiences will hear Aaron Copland’s playful “I Bought Me a Cat,” Christopher Tin’s “Baba Yetu,” Andrea Ramsey’s arrangement of “Crowded Table,” and “The Call” from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.
The result is a concert that moves easily between popular culture and serious vocal artistry, showing young listeners just how much the human voice can do.
The Remarkable Story Behind “Over the Rainbow”
One song on Sunday’s program has been inspiring audiences for nearly nine decades.
“Over the Rainbow” was written by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, became inseparable from Judy Garland, and was later inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. In 2001, it was ranked the greatest song of the 20th century.
Remarkably, it almost never made it into the movie.
The song was initially cut because studio executives worried the slow ballad interrupted the film. Associate Producer Arthur Freed fought to restore it, and when audiences finally heard Dorothy sing it at the movie’s premiere, they reportedly sat in silence before erupting into applause.
Part of the song’s lasting power comes from its sense of yearning. Even its famous opening octave has meaning. The low note evokes Dorothy’s black-and-white Kansas before the melody leaps upward toward the colorful world of Oz.
Generation after generation has discovered something of its own in the song. Judy Garland kept changing how she performed it throughout her career, and artists ranging from Aretha Franklin and Barbra Streisand to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole and Ariana Grande have made it their own.
Now Seraphic Fire brings its own voices to one of the most recognizable melodies in American music.
A Concert Designed to Spark Something
Seraphic Fire chose this repertoire for a children's concert for a reason.
Dr. Matthew Brady, who makes his Seraphic Fire conducting debut with Pure Imagination, recently told us that nearly every professional musician can remember a moment when music first reached them deeply enough to make them wonder whether it could become part of their lives.
For Matthew, that happened as a child watching a violinist perform.
For someone sitting at The Parker this Sunday, it might happen during “Let It Go.”
Or "Baba Yetu." Or "Over the Rainbow." Or "Pure Imagination."
Some children in the audience may be experiencing a live professional vocal ensemble for the first time. They do not need to know anything about choral music before they arrive. They already know the songs.
Seraphic Fire gets to show them what those songs can become.
That is part of our larger commitment to music education throughout South Florida. As Florida’s only GRAMMY-nominated professional choir and a Miami Herald Miami-Dade Favorites Gold Award winner, Seraphic Fire believes extraordinary music should inspire the next generation as much as it inspires audiences today.
Join Us This Sunday at The Parker
Pure Imagination is for the young and the young at heart.
Bring your children. Bring your grandchildren. Bring the Disney fan in your family. Bring someone who has never heard Seraphic Fire before.
You may come because you love Frozen, Toy Story, The Sound of Music, or The Wizard of Oz.
We think you will leave having discovered something new about the power of the human voice.
Pure Imagination
Sunday, September 13 at 2:00 PM
The Parker | Ft. Lauderdale
Tickets are available now through Ticketmaster. Reserve your seats today and join Seraphic Fire for an afternoon filled with music your family already loves, performed in a way you may never have heard before.
