Apollo’s Fire’s ISRAEL IN EGYPT takes audience on a compelling journey

 

As the story goes, “In 1991, Jeannette Sorrell was invited to interview for the position of Assistant Conductor with The Cleveland Orchestra.  Sorrell met with Music Director Christoph von Dohnányi who told her that there was no point in trying to find time in the orchestra's schedule for an audition because the audience in Cleveland would never accept a woman as a conductor. Sorrell replied that she had actually not sought this post and she really wanted to work with period instruments. Following this interview, the orchestra's artistic administrator, Roger Wright, offered to help Sorrell launch a period-instrument orchestra in Cleveland." 

With Wright's assistance, “Sorrell received start-up funding from The Cleveland Foundation. The ensemble made its debut in June 1992 under the name of Apollo's Fire - The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra. The debut concerts were sold out. Apollo's Fire began receiving touring invitations within a few months.”  

And, a legend was started. Apollo's Fire, with Sorrell as Music Director, has developed a national and international reputation.

Apollo’s Fire’s recent production, HANDEL’S ISRAEL IN EGYPT A DRAMATIC ORATORIO, a concert which is a new adaptation, took the audience on a triumphant musical journey from the Israelites being enslaved in Egypt, escaping with the aid of the plagues that were cast upon their oppressors, and Moses leading the assemblage crossing the Red Sea into what is now Israel. 

The piece, which has a “dramatic arc, from grief and lamentation, through fear and crisis to triumph,” is a display of the startling abilities of the orchestra’s musical sounds and solo and choral performances.  

The two-hour evening is divided into two segments.  “Part I. Lamentations of the Israelites for death of Joseph.” It starts with the chorus singing, “The sons of Israel do mourn, and they are in bitterness; all the people sigh, and hang down their heads to the ground,” and ends with, “But the waters overwhelmed their enemies, there was not one of them left.”

Part II: “Exodus” and Part III.  “Moses’s Song” begin with “I will sing unto the Lord” and ends “I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously.”

The printed program wisely provides a narration of the words being sung, which are easy to follow as the auditorium’s lights are left on.

ISRAEL IN EGYPT is different than many of the orchestra’s presentations as the music is played mostly by traditional Western instruments.  In contrast, in their recently released O JERUSALEM CITY OF THREE FAITHS, the musicians play regional and baroque instruments.  In addition, EGYPT is sung entirely in English, in contrast to many of the orchestra’s offerings in which a variety of languages are used.

The soloists, sopranos Margaret Carpenter Haigh and Molly Netter, tenor Jacob Perry Jr. and baritone Edward Vogel were excellent, singing meaning, not just words.  Daniel Moody captured the audience with his compelling countertenor tones.  Moody’s range, the highest male adult singing voice, was impressive in its pure tone.
 
Capsule judgment:  Whether you are a believer in the tale as a religious statement or as a piece of literature, the effect of Sorrell’s adaptation and arrangements and the quality of the Apollo’s Fire music and the singing, makes ISRAEL IN EGYPT a powerful emotional journey and an audience pleaser. 
 
Look forward to Virtuoso Bach & Vivaldi, March 18-22, 2022; and Mozart and the Chevalier, May 6-8, 2022. 

 

For information call 216-320-0012 or visit apollosfire.org.

Apollos Fire to present “O’Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths”

Jeannette Sorrell, Artistic Director of Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland-based Baroque Orchestra, started to study conducting and musical composition at age 16.  A trained pianist, the young lady, who has been called a “wunderkind” by “Audiophile Audition,” won first prize and the audience choice award in the 1991 Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against 70 uber-talented international musicians.  

Sorrell’s path to developing Apollo’s Fire included an interview for the position of Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra.  When the Maestro told her he would not give her an audition because she was a woman, the talented lady, who believes that a person must be true to yourself, replied that her first choice was to conduct baroque music on period instruments, rather than a symphony job. 

Proving that a woman could lead a world class orchestra, with seed-funding from the Cleveland Foundation, Sorrell has developed a musical assemblage that has sold out audiences in venues in London, Madrid, Washington, DC, New York, and, yes, at Severance Hall.

She always loved the beautiful and colorful sound of baroque music which she feels has universal emotional qualities, Sorrell indicated that this type of music has “Affekt,” a quality of emotional music common in the 17th and 18th centuries, but which, she feels, has been lost in the 19th and 20th centuries as people lost sight of the concept developed by rhetoricians, where the timing of the voice and timing of the sounds were stressed as important to appeal to the emotions.

The publicity for "O Jerusalem! – Crossroads of Three Faiths" describes the program as a "tour" (through music and poetry) of the 4 quarters of the old city of Jerusalem – Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Armenian.  And that Sorrell felt “compelled to create this program because of the urgent need for peace and understanding in the world and how music can cross social divides and bring people together in times of conflict.” 

The concert takes a broad look at the people who have inhabited Jerusalem, allowing us to peek into a mosque, a synagogue and a cathedral…interweaving of the sounds and illustrating how they influence each other.   The concert often juxtaposes music from one source upon the other. 

The concert will show the music and poetry that all groups share.

She believes that “we all want to live with love and brotherhood.” To put this into action the concert includes “Israeli, Palestinian and Persian performers, a multi-cultural group who love each other and love making music together.”

Besides the music, Sorrell thinks people will also enjoy seeing some “cool” instruments on stage, including the Oud, a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped stringed instrument, the Tanbur, a long-necked, string instrument originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia, along with other middle eastern instruments, and a medieval harp.

"O Jerusalem! – Crossroads of Three Faiths” will be presented Saturday, November 10 at 8pm at The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood; Monday, November 12, 7;30 pm @ St. Paul’s Episcopal, Cleveland Heights; Friday, November 16 ,8pm @ Fairlawn Lutheran Church; Saturday, November 17, 8pm @ Cleveland Institute of Music’s Kulas Hall; and Sunday November 18 @ 4pm at Avon Lake Church UCC.

For tickets and information call 26-320-0012 or go on-line to http://www.apollosfire.org/

Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s award winning Baroque orchestra, opens new season with “Israel in Egypt”

After selling out concerts at Tangelwood, in Madrid, Spain and BBC programs in London, Apollo’s Fire comes home to open its 2017-2018 season with “Israel in Egypt.”

“Israel in Egypt” Handel’s Oratorio vividly traces the Israelites’ escape from Egypt.  Filled with sumptuous music, the adaptation by Jeanette Sorrell, the orchestra’s musical director, will feature Apollo’s Singers as well as performances by soprano Erica Schuller, countertenor Daniel Moody, tenor Ross Hauck and baritone Jeffrey Strauss.

Fitting nicely into the high holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kipper season, the concert continues the tradition of showcasing Jewish themes by the orchestra which previously performed “Sephardic Journey,” which, in its recorded version, made Billboard’s Top 10 list. (To read a review of the “Sephardic Journey” concert and a bio of soloist Jeffrey Strauss, go to www.royberko.info, and enter Apollo’s Fire in the search box in the upper right side.)

The orchestra, which is named after the classical god of music and sun, was founded in 1992 by Sorrell with a grant from the Cleveland Foundation.  The musical director envisioned an ensemble dedicated to the baroque ideal that music should evoke the passions of the listeners through drama and rhetoric.  She has succeeded!

The group, whose recordings are often best sellers, frequently broadcast on National Public Radio and can be heard throughout North America and Europe. 

Using period instruments, the ensemble includes a pool of music specialists and singers who create a unique sound and features innovative programming.

Besides their sneak peek and regular concerts, the orchestra presents “Music Alive,” a series of free concerts at the Akron Art Museum, under the sponsorship of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Their “Israel & Egypt” sneak peek will be held on Sunday, October 1 at 3:00 pm in the Gallery.

The group will make its Carnegie Hall, New York, debut on March 22, 2018 and then travel to Boston for a Boston Early Musical Festival on March 24.

Apollo’s Fire dedication to nurturing the next generation of musical appreciators and performers is highlighted by an intimate artistic learning experience, which centers on free family concerts, a Treble Youth Choir and a Young Artist Apprentice Program.

Performances of “Israel in Egypt” are: Thursday, October 12, 7:30 pm @ St. Paul’s Episcopal, 1361 West Market Street, Akron; Friday, October 13, 8 pm @ First Baptist Church, 3630 Fairmount Boulevard, Shaker Heights; Saturday, October 14, 8pm @ The Temple-Tifereth Israel, 26000 Shaker Boulevard, Beachwood; and, Sunday, October 15, 4pm @ Avon Lake Church, UCC, 32801 Electric Boulevard, Avon Lake.
 
Information about Apollo’s Fire and tickets may be purchased at http://www.apollosfire.org/ or by calling 216-320-0012.

Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s “other” internationally recognized orchestra presents “Sephardic Journey”

Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s “other” orchestra is credited with having built the largest audience in the nation for “early-music” (Renaissance, Baroque and early Classical).  Headed by Jeannette Sorrell, the orchestra is forging “a vibrant approach to the re-making of authenticity.”

Founded in 1992, Apollo’s Fire has not only developed a large Cleveland following, but has played to sold-out audiences in such U.S. venues as Tanglewood and The Aspen Music Festival, as well as in international settings including the cities of London, Madrid and Bordeaux.

To date, Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire has released over 20 commercial CDs, some of which have been bestsellers on the “Billboard” classical music chart.

Sorrell is noted for her creative programming.   Next up is “Sephardic Journey, Wanderings of the Spanish Jews,” which will weave the exotic sounds of Spanish Jews, who, after being expelled from their homeland in 1492 traveled and absorbed the musical accents and sounds of other cultures, including the tones of Italy, Turkey and North Africa. 

The program will interweave Sephardic folk songs and choral works, as well as the daily sounds of the rhythms of love and life, rejection, celebration and mystical prayers. 

Using authentic instruments such as the shawm, oud, harp, hammered dulcimer (zither) and exotic percussion, along with the 15-voice ensemble, the program will include the Hebrew choral work, “Songs of Solomon.”

Lead vocalists are Nell Snaidas, soprano (and guest co-director for this program), Karim Sulayman, tenor and Jeffrey Strauss, baritone.

A recent interview with Strauss, who now resides in Chicago, but considers Cleveland his “semi home,” due to his almost twenty year connection with Apollo’s Fire, has required him to spend a great deal of time in this area.  He commented that he is amazed by the “unbelievable changes” he has seen in Greater Cleveland.

A Buffalo native, he was exposed to music at a young age.  His mother was a high operatic soprano and a fine pianist who taught music to children.  Being a typical mid-century housewife, “she didn’t pursue her singing as much as her talent would have allowed,  but music, and musicians, were always in the house.” 

The talent and exposure paid off as not only Jeffrey, who sang with the Buffalo Philharmonic at age 17, but his sister Deborah too chose music as career.  She is a “renowned Klezmer violinist, who found her voice in old style Eastern European violin music.” 

As a boy, Jeffrey studied Hebrew and, because of the quality of his voice, received special training for his bar mitzvah by his Temple’s cantor.  When the Temple built a new building, and also retained their inner city facility, Jeffrey was asked to lead Sabbath services as cantor at the old building, learning to “daven” [pray] and wound up with his “first paying singing job.”   Though trained as a lawyer, his professional singing career includes concerts with renowned baroque groups in London and the U.S., including Apollo’s Fire.

The music to be used in “Sephardic Journey” may sound a little different to many Jews who attend the concert.  Most Cleveland area Jews are Ashkenazi, whose ancestors came from Central and Eastern Europe.  This group developed customs, pronunciation patterns and prayer rituals different from the other major group of Jews, the Sephardim, who lived mostly in Spain and Portugal and then migrated to Africa, the Middle East and southern Europe.

What is Jeffrey’s role in the “Sephardic Journey” concert?  He relates that “Jeannette is brilliant at constructing programs that have a narrative arc both on the page and as a concert experience.”  When she decided to do the “Journey” she asked Jeffrey for assistance in finding and translating Hebrew liturgical texts that could be used with the chant melodies she had chosen.  An Ashkenazi Jew, whose family came from Russia, Poland, and Germany, Jeffrey was not an expert in Sephardic folk music, so he did “a lot of reading and listening.” and even went to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York to experience a modern Sephardic Shabbat service first-hand. Jeffrey serves as the “cantor” and spiritual voice of the program, while Nell Snaidas is the featured voice in the Ladino songs of love, romance, and feasting.  Jeannette Sorrell served as the overall architect of the program, designing the arc and flow of the “journey” and arranging most of the music. 

“The program will offer a mix of traditional folk, ritual music from the synagogue and composed songs.  It’s an emotional journey interweaving daily life with sacred elements:  the music of the Temple and the songs of the Sabbath,” Jeffrey said. “The concert starts with the solo voice of a cantor [Jeffrey], using traditional call-and-response chant to  calling  the people to prayer and inviting them to return to Jerusalem—Yerushalayim—not necessarily the physical city, but the sacred place, a place we carry with us in our heart and soul.”  

This is followed by a Ladino tune celebrating the birth of Abraham (said to be a song the Sephardim sang as they left Spain following their expulsion in 1492).  A set called “The Temple” includes 17 th century vocal and instrumental art music by the famous Italian Jewish composer Salamone Rossi, and liturgical prayers for Shabbat.  Other sets called “Love & Romance” and “Feasting & Celebration” include Ladino love songs, and it “ends with a wild ride with percussion, which will make everyone want to get up and dance.”

Jeffrey, who has been praised as an “authoritative artist,” considers himself to be “a storyteller, first and foremost,” and finds his cantorial role in “Sephardic Journey” to be true to his philosophy of music and singing style and his family’s spiritual tradition.

It is fitting that Sephardic Journey will be the first public professional concert to be given at the new Maltz Performing Arts Center, which for many years was the home of Temple Tifereth-Israel.

Apollo’s Fire’s “Sephardic Journey:  Wanderings of the Spanish Jews” will be presented on Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 7:30 pm at the Fairlawn Lutheran Church (Smith Road); on Friday, February 5 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (2747 Fairmount Blvd, Cleveland Heights) at 8 pm; Saturday, February 6 at 8 pm at the Maltz Performing Arts Center (1855 Ansel Road, Cleveland); and Sunday, February 7 at 4 pm at Baldwin Wallace University (275 Eastland Road, Berea).

For tickets or information go to:  216-320-0012 x 1 or http://apollosfire.org/