July 4, 2009 |
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Sacred singers are bound for RomeChoirs from Our Lady of Lourdes Academy and St. Patrick Parish will perform at the Festival of Sacred Music and Art in Rome. 
MARLENE QUARONI | FC MIAMI BEACH | Crystal Coronel, 17, a member of the Our Lady of Lourdes Singers, and Jose Carbia, part of St. Patrick Parish’s adult choir, have something in common. Their singing groups, joined with other choirs from across the United States, will perform at the seventh annual Festival of Sacred Music and Art in Rome Nov. 22. They will premiere a work called “Requiem” by American composer Steven Edwards. “I’m super excited,” said Crystal. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” The Lourdes Academy senior and others from the school rehearsed in October together with the parish choir at St. Patrick on Miami Beach. Their conductor was Candace Wicke, former chair of the fine arts department, and director of choral and instrumental studies at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in South Miami. Since 2003, Wicke has been at Carnegie Hall, serving as conductor-in-residence for MidAmerica Productions. Wicke’s goal was to get the best from each soprano, alto, tenor and bass singer, who ranged in age from high school teens to senior citizens. She said she chose the two groups for their high musical quality. 
MARLENE QUARONI | FC “My concern is the choral integrity of the group,” said Wicke, who has invited a number of Miami choirs to perform at Carnegie Hall. While at Lourdes Acacemy, she also led the Lourdes Singers to performances in France and Italy. “Ninety percent of singing is mental preparation,” said Wicke, who is well known among choral conductors and will be the first woman to conduct at the Rome festival. She graduated from the University of Miami and Evangel University with majors in vocal and instrumental performance, music education and conducting. “The (Lourdes) girls create a beautiful contrast with the older St. Pat’s voices,” Wicke said. As Wicke waved her baton while directing the choral groups from the altar, the composer of “Requiem” sat on the steps of the altar watching his music come to life during rehearsal. Edwards is the founder and artistic director of Source In Sync, an independent musical library that licenses music to NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Miramax and others. He has scored 60 movies, from comedy to action, martial arts to documentaries. “The choirs are doing amazingly well,” said Edwards. He wrote “Requiem,” an emotional nine-part musical piece, in honor of his mother who died in 2006. Not long after that, his father died. He said his mother, a music teacher, led him into the music field. “She was my main influence.” Wicke had already rehearsed with choirs from New Jersey, Wisconsin, California and Pennsylvania before coming to Miami. Altogether, the Continuo Arts Symphonic Chorus will compromise about 170 singers. They will perform at the Basilica of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Campo Marzio as part of the festival, which features singers and musicians from around the world performing at various basilicas and churches throughout Rome. The festival is a very popular event. “The performances have been sold out for several weeks,” said Stacy Laffere, Wicke’s director of communications. “Most of the ticket proceeds go for restoring the ancient basilicas.”
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