Gabrielle Tinto and Jamie Tagg, Syracuse Children’s Choir alums, up for Grammy awards

Gabrielle Tinto and Jamie Tagg sometimes would stand shoulder to shoulder, singing their hearts out during Syracuse Children’s Choir rehearsals and performances more than 20 years ago.

Now, Tinto, a soprano, and Tagg, a recording engineer, have been nominated for Grammys as part of the Seraphic Fire choral ensemble.

The Miami-based group was nominated last week for two Grammy awards for its Brahms’ German Requiem in the categories of Best Choral Performance of the Year and Best Producer of the Year (for Peter Rutenberg).

Its “A Seraphic Fire Christmas” is up for Best Small Ensemble Performance. The Grammy nods are the first for the two Central New York natives.

Tinto, a soprano, has been with the choral group since Peter Dupre Quigley, its artistic director, founded it in 2002. She says a serendipitous encounter with Tagg brought about his involvement as an engineer, recording, editing, mixing and mastering Seraphic Fire’s CDs.

On the campus of the University of Miami in 2002, Tinto, then a graduate student, says she was talking with a friend when she saw a familiar face walking by. Tagg, then an Miami under grad, says, “I sort of did a double take” and recognized his former chorister. Tinto, who received a master’s in music at Miami, recommended Tagg as a recording engineer for Seraphic Fire in 2005.

Tinto says Seraphic Fire is known for performing “pared-down versions of masterworks.” The group’s repertoire ranges from classical and contemporary to sacred and secular choral works. For Seraphic Fire’s performances, the professional singers come together as a group for concerts in Florida or on tour.

Tagg, 32, has worked as a recording engineer for quite some time. “I was working as a professional in the field before I got a degree,” says Tagg in a phone interview at his home in Nashua, N.H. He is in graduate school at University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Tinto, daughter of Patricia and David Tinto, is a Nottingham High School Class of 1996 graduate. She studied voice with the late Helen Boatwright. The 33-year-old singer is temporarily based in Syracuse as she prepares to relocate to Irvine, Calif. She plans to attend the Grammy ceremony for her categories, which is separate from the televised presentation on Feb. 12 in Los Angeles.

Tagg, son of Syracuse Children’s Choir founder Barbara Tagg and David Tagg, of Camillus, doesn’t plan to make the trip.

“I’m a poor grad student,” says Tagg, who graduated from Manlius Pebble Hill in 1998.