Quire Cleveland is a professional vocal ensemble established in 2008 to showcase the vast and timeless repertoire of choral music from the medieval and Renaissance periods. Quire Cleveland plays a unique and vital role in the cultural landscape of Northeastern Ohio as the only professional acapella vocal ensemble in the area that specializes in earlier repertoires. The singers of Quire Cleveland a
re highly skilled performers of choral music, many of whom have completed specialized advanced degrees in the historical performance practice of early music. Our intentional focus and greatest strength as an ensemble is the historically-informed performance of unaccompanied vocal music from the Renaissance and earlier periods. Founding Artistic Director, musicologist Dr. Ross Duffin, led Quire through its first ten seasons, and, on his retirement in mid-2018, was succeeded by Dr. Jay White, a professional countertenor who sang eight seasons with the internationally-acclaimed acapella ensemble Chanticleer. Now in its fourteenth season, Quire Cleveland is managed by a working volunteer Board of Directors. Quire Cleveland presents concerts for live audiences in the northeastern Ohio area, sharing professional recordings from our concerts online via our website (quirecleveland.org), page, and email subscription list, as well as via broadcasts by local public media channels. Recorded music from our first decade is available via YouTube, on eight CDs, and through numerous download/streaming services. Since 2008, Quire Cleveland has earned both critical and popular acclaim for their “stunning panache” (ClevelandClassical.com) and “rich mosaic of music” (Early Music America Magazine), as they “combine stylistic truth with vocal elegance” (Cleveland Plain Dealer).
