BWW Preview: 'O JERUSALEM! – CROSSROADS OF THREE FAITHS” at Apollo's Fire

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 19thand 20thcenturies 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-shapedstringed 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/

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