Seraphic Fire recorded an album of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 in a little stone chapel in Kalamazoo, omitting the optional giant Baroque accompaniment the piece is typically performed with. When no record label would take their album, they released it themselves and put it on iTunes.

When it got featured in iTunes, conductor Patrick Dupre Quigley took a screen capture and posted it on facebook, tagging each of the performers in the image. By the end of the day it had moved into the 18 best selling classical albums on iTunes. Within 36 hours it was number six (sandwiched between Yo-Yo Ma and the London Philharmonic Orchestra).

Here’s their album on iTunes,

here’s photos and video of the production of the album,

and here’s the story in NPR.

Brilliant.

And the best part? I have tickets to see Seraphic Fire when they come to Green Bay in January! WOOO HOOO!
If you’re interested, you can get Brown County Civic Music Association season tickets here: http://www.bccivicmusic.org/tickets/ (Individual tickets are available if you call Civic Music or buy at the door.)