Apollo's Fire Announces 2013-2014 Season

Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, proudly announces its 22nd season under Music Director Jeannette Sorrell. Hailed as the "U.S.A's hottest baroque band" (Classical Music Magazine) Apollo's Fire has enjoyed enormous growth over the past three years both at home in Northeast Ohio and abroad. Four of the group's most recent CD releases have become Billboard Classical Chart Bestsellers - three of these have hit the Top 10 Chart! With an increased national and international following, Apollo's Fire will complete its third international tour in the Spring of 2014 in addition to its slated North American tour in October/November 2013.

The upcoming season includes seven subscription productions to be performed in Northeast Ohio spanning three counties plus additional "run out" performances throughout Ohio. The group will again tackle two holiday productions in December - offering nine local performances in December alone. Additionally AF will reprise its popular "Fireside Evening Concerts" - offering patrons the opportunity to engage in coffee and conversation with the artists after the performance. New for this season, AF will offer a Saturday matinee performance in Chagrin Falls, and will perform at two new local venues: Rockefeller's Restaurant in Cleveland Heights and The Temple - Tifereth Israel in Beachwood.

Subscription Series:

Apollo's Fire begins the season with performances of some of the colorful Desden Concertos of J.D. Heinichen written for the famous virtuoso orchestra of the Dresden palace. Virtuoso Orchestra also features some of the liveliest concertos of J.S. Bach, Telemann, Geminiani and Vivaldi. Canadian recorder virtuoso Francis Colpron joins AF favorites Kathie Stewart on traverso and Debra Nagy on oboe.

November concerts feature "tour?de?force"(Cleveland Plain Dealer) René Schiffer opposite Mimé Brinkman, both performing on cello and viola da gamba in Tangos & Fandangos. This

July 18, 2013Mediterranean romp features nine musicians, dueling cellos and guitars, the music of Boccherini, and an original composition by AF's own René Schiffer "Tango Conerto for two Viola da Gambas." This series of concerts is generously sponsored by The Friends of Apollo's Fire.

In December AF presents two holiday programs, December 3 - 16. A reprise of Sorrell's Billboard? charting crossover program, Sacred Mysterium (Sacred Mystery): A Celtic Christmas will perform in Cleveland and Akron venues December 3 ? 8. This celebration of Celtic artistic traditions interweaves renaissance choral music with ancient pagan carols, folk dances and joyous fiddle tunes. It features Canadian soprano Meredith Hall and dancer/guitarist Steve Player backed by a colorful band of bagpipes, flutes, strings, and Celtic harp. The exquisite Apollo's Singers and Sylvain Bergeron's Ensemble La Nef of Montreal complete this Celtic journey.

AF will also perform Christmas Vespers, The Music of Michael Praetorius December 13?16. Having performed to sold?out crowds around Cleveland in 2005 and 2009, this program features the stunning music of 17th?c. composer Michael Praetorius, woven into a Vespers service by Jeannette Sorrell. The cathedral resounds with the splendor of trumpets, sackbuts, cornettos, antiphonal choirs, lutes, strings, recorders and children's choir. Renowned sopranos and AF audience favorites Nell Snaidas, Teresa Wakim and Amanda Powell join forces for this haunting and joyous celebration of the Christ child.

In January, AF reprises its "Fireside" Evenings - Concerts, Coffee & Conversation. Last year, these cozy 90?minute concerts followed by coffee with the artists brought audience members the unique opportunity to socialize with the musicians? an after?party with friends! This year, AF unveils a new program for the popular series: Drive the Cold Winter Away features delightful soprano Meredith Hall performing Ballads from Old England including the music of Dowland and Purcell. Grammy award?winning lutenist, Ronn McFarlane, leads a group of colleagues in the lively instrumental tunes of the Elizabethan England. These concerts are generously underwritten by Rockefeller's Restaurant in Cleveland Heights.

February sees a return of favorite soprano Nell Snaidas to the stage as both performer and co? director in another new program: Sephardic Journey: Wanderings of the Spanish Jews. This program recounts Jewish travels absorbed into a colorful musical heritage - featuring accents of Italy, Turkey and North Africa. A tapestry of Sephardic folk song gives way to mystical prayers, as well as Monteverdi?like Hebrew choral works by Jewish composer Salamone Rossi. Baritone Jeffrey Strauss and tenor Karim Sulayman lend their soulful voices to haunting cantor melodies, while exotic percussionist Rex Benincasa highlights the rhythms representing the life and love of a wandering people.

Hailed in Europe as "the discovery of the evening" (Financial Times), soprano Amanda Forsythe returns to the AF stage to traverse the lovesick pathos and fire of baroque opera. In the final subscription program of the season The Power of Love, she evokes the passions of Handel and Vivaldi in virtuosic arias. Concertmaster Olivier Brault and cellist René Schiffer set sparks flying in Vivaldi concertos.

Touring: Apollo's Fire announces its recent signing with Columbia Artist Management (CAMI) for exclusive tour management in North and South America, beginning with the 2014?15 season. AF

will be represented at CAMI by Senior Vice President Doug Sheldon, who also manages such artists/ensembles as Anne?Sophie Mutter, conductor Valery Gergiev, and the New York Philharmonic. AF will also debut at the BBC PROMS in London in September of 2015 as part of a tour under AF's European tour agent, Intermusica, based in London.

This fall, AF undertakes a major North American tour of the ensemble's critically acclaimed rendition of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. When Apollo's Fire takes up the Brandenburg Concertos, the results are "brilliant and swaggering" (THE LONDON TIMES). North American stops during October and November include: Berkeley/San Francisco (Cal Performances series); Los Alamos, New Mexico; Waterloo, Ontario; The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; Penn State University at State College; and the University of Illinois at Champaign?Urbana.

In May of 2014, AF embarks on its third international tour, this time collaborating with award? winning French soprano, Sandrine Piau. This program of the music of Handel and Vivaldi is slated to perform in London and Birmingham (UK); Bregenz (Austria); and others.

For updated touring information, please visit: http://www.apollosfire.org/touring/touring.html

Subscriptions & Tickets: On sale beginning JULY 24, are SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGES for the 2013?2014 Season, which include ticket discounts of up to 25%. Four?concert, five?concert, six?concert, and seven?concert subscriptions range from $37?$384.

Single Tickets range from $20?$70 with special rates for students, seniors, and young adults (under 30). Single tickets are available for purchase online beginning SEPTEMBER 16th. For more information or to request a season brochure, please visit the website at www.apollosfire.org or call Apollo's Fire at (216) 320?0012 or (800) 314?2535.

Dates and locations of the programs are as follows:

VIRTUOSO ORCHESTRA

October 10?13, 2013 Thursday, October 10, 7:30 PM

Friday, October 11, 8:00 PM Saturday, October 12, 8:00 PM Sunday, October 13, 4:00 PM

TANGOS & FANDANGOS

WITH BOCCHERINI & FRIENDS November 15?19, 2013

Friday, November 15, 8:00 PM Saturday, November 16, 2:00 PM* Saturday, November 16, 8:00 PM Sunday, November 17, 4:00 PM Tuesday, November 19, 7:30 PM

First United Methodist Church, AKRON Fairmount Presbyterian, CLEVELAND HTS. Fairmount Presbyterian, CLEVELAND HTS. ROCKY RIVER Presbyterian Church

Fairmount Presbyterian, CLEVELAND HTS. Federated Church, CHAGRIN FALLS Fairmount Presbyterian, CLEVELAND HTS. ROCKY RIVER Presbyterian Church

First United Methodist Church, AKRON

THESE CONCERTS ARE GENEROUSLY UNDERWRITTEN BY THE FRIENDS OF APOLLO'S FIRE. *NEW Saturday Matinee Offering: 1 hour, 20 minute version.

SACRUM MYSTERIUM

SACRED MYSTERY, A CELTIC CHRISTMAS December 3 - 8, 2013

Tuesday, December 3, 7:30 PM Wednesday, December 4, 7:30 PM Thursday, December 5, 7:30 PM Saturday, December 7, 8:00 PM Sunday, December 8, 4:00 PM

CHRISTMAS VESPERS

MUSIC OF MICHAEL PRAETORIUS December 13 - 16, 2013

Friday, December 13, 8:00 PM Saturday, December 14, 8:00 PM Sunday, December 15, 4:00 PM Monday, December 16, 7:30 PM

DRIVE THE COLD WINTER AWAY

BALLADS FROM OLD ENGLAND January 31 - February 3, 2014

Wednesday, January 22, 7:30 PM Thursday, January 23, 7:30 PM Friday, January 24, 8:00 PM Saturday, January 25, 8:00 PM Sunday, January 26, 4:00 PM

St. Mary of the Falls, OLMSTED FALLS BATH Church, UCC Trinity Cathedral, CLEVELAND First Baptist Church, SHAKER HTS.

St. Noel Church, WILLOUGHBY HILLS

Trinity Cathedral, CLEVELAND First Baptist Church, SHAKER HTS. St. Christopher's Church, ROCKY RIVER Westminster Presbyterian Church, AKRON

First United Methodist Church, AKRON Rockefeller's Restaurant, CLEVELAND HTS. Rockefeller's Restaurant, CLEVELAND HTS. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, CLEVELAND HTS. ROCKY RIVER Presbyterian Church

THESE CONCERTS ARE GENEROUSLY UNDERWRITTEN BY ROCKEFELLER'S RESTAURANT IN CLEVELAND HEIGHTS.

SEPHARDIC JOURNEY

WANDERINGS OF THE SPANISH JEWS February 20 ? 25, 2014

Thursday, February 20, 7:30 PM Friday, February 21, 8:00 PM Saturday, February 22, 8:00 PM Sunday, February 23, 4:00 PM Tuesday, February 25, 7:30 PM

THE POWER OF LOVE

PASSIONS OF HANDEL & VIVALDI April 24 - 27, 2014

Thursday, April 24, 7:30 PM Friday, April 25, 8:00 PM Saturday, April 26, 8:00 PM Sunday, April 27, 4:00 PM

FAIRLAWN Lutheran Church St. Paul's Episcopal Church, CLEVELAND HTS. The Temple - Tifereth Israel, BEACHWOOD ROCKY RIVER Presbyterian Church The Temple - Tifereth Israel, BEACHWOOD

FAIRLAWN Lutheran Church St. Paul's Episcopal Church, CLEVELAND HTS. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, CLEVELAND HTS. ROCKY RIVER Presbyterian Church

About Apollo's Fire: Named for the classical god of music and the sun, Apollo's Fire was founded in 1992 by the award? winning young harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell. Sorrell

envisioned an ensemble dedicated to the baroque ideal that music should evoke the various Affekts or passions in the listeners. Apollo's Fire is a collection of creative artists who share Sorrell's passion for drama and rhetoric.

Hailed as "one of the pre?eminent period?instrument ensembles" (THE INDEPENDENT, London), Apollo's Fire made its London debut in 2010 in a sold?out concert at Wigmore Hall, with BBC broadcast. Apollo's Fire returned to Europe in fall 2011, as part of a major international tour with French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky. The ensemble was met with standing ovations in Madrid (Royal Theatre), Bordeaux (Grand Théàtre de l'Opéra), Lisbon, Metz, Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Apollo's Fire has also toured throughout North America, appearing at the Aspen Music Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival series, the Library of Congress, the Tropical Baroque Festival in Miami, and the Ojai International Festival in California. In October 2010 the ensemble performed the Monteverdi Vespers in an 11?concert national tour. At home in Cleveland, Apollo's Fire enjoys sold?out performances at its subscription series, which has drawn national attention for creative programming.

Apollo's Fire has released 20 commercial CD's, and currently records for the British label AVIE. Since the ensemble's introduction into the European CD market in 2010, the recordings have won rave reviews in the London press: "a swaggering version, brilliantly played" (THE TIMES) and "the Midwest's best?kept musical secret is finally reaching British ears" (THE INDEPENDENT). Four of the ensemble's CD releases have become best?sellers on the classical Billboard chart: the Monteverdi Vespers, Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, and Jeannette Sorrell's two crossover programs, "Come to the River" and "Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers."

To post a comment, you must register and login.