Jeannette Sorrell

APOLLO’S FIRE

Award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell has been credited by the U.K.’s BBC Music Magazine for forging “a vibrant, life-affirming approach to the re-making of early music… a seductive vision of musical authenticity.” Sorrell made her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony in 2013 as conductor and soloist in the complete Brandenburg Concertos. With standing ovations every night, the event was hailed as “an especially joyous occasion” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). Other guest conducting engagements include the Seattle Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony (Miami), Utah Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), the Opera Theatre of St. Louis with the St. Louis Symphony, Omaha Symphony, and the Houston Early Music Festival where she filled in for British conductor Richard Egarr on five days’ notice, leading the complete Brandenburg Concertos and playing the harpsichord solo in Brandenburg No. 5.

Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire record for the British label AVIE RECORDS, and have released 24 commercial CDs, of which seven have been Top 10 bestsellers on the Billboard Classical chart. Her recordings include the complete Brandenburg Concerti and harpsichord concerti (with Sorrell as harpsichord soloist and director), which was praised by the London Times as “a swaggering version… brilliantly played by Sorrell.” She has also released four discs of Mozart, and was hailed as “a near-perfect Mozartian” by Fanfare Magazine. Billboard bestsellers include the Brandenburgs, the Monteverdi Vespers, and Sorrell’s 4 crossover/folk programs: Come to the River – An Early American Gathering; Sacrum Mysterium – A Celtic Christmas Vespers; Sugarloaf Mountain – An Appalachian Gathering; and Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews.

Sorrell has attracted national attention and awards for creative programming. She is a two-time recipient of the prestigious “American Masterpieces” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the research and production of early American music. Her awards include an honorary doctorate from Case Western Reserve University, the Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society of Early Music and the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, given for her work in reconstructing early American repertoire. As a teenager, Ms. Sorrell lived in the rural Shenandoah Valley, where she grew to love Appalachian music and Southern harmony.

René Schiffer

APOLLO’S FIRE

René Schiffer is a composer in historical styles as well as a leading baroque cellist in the international early music scene. A protégé of the great baroque cellist Anner Bijlsma, he toured internationally for 16 years as a member of La Petite Bande under Sigiwald Kuijken. He has also performed with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), and in over 50 projects with Tafelmusik (Toronto). His compositions and reconstructions in historical styles have been performed by orchestras in North America, Europe and Australia, and appear on several Apollo’s Fire CD recordings. He can be heard on the Harmonia Mundi, Philips, Virgin Classics, Erato, Sony and AVIE labels.

Amanda Powell

APOLLO’S FIRE

Amanda Powell has been praised for her “abundant vocal technique and infectious spirit” (ClevelandClassical.com) and enjoys a diverse career in the realms of classical, folk, and jazz. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Shenandoah Conservatory and a certificate in jazz improvisation from the Jazz in July Institute (University of Massachusetts). Ms. Powell’s solo performances with Apollo’s Fire in recent seasons have included Handel’s Messiah (mezzo soloist), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Second Lady), Praetorius Christmas Vespers (soprano soloist), and Liza Jane in the 2013 national tour of the acclaimed Come to the River program. Her work as an internationally recognized leader in the field of sacred world music has taken her to concert halls in Italy, Spain, France, Mongolia and China. Her debut solo album, entitled Beyond Boundaries, was released in 2015 and quickly sold out on Amazon. The album explores folk and jazz traditions of cultures around the world. Amanda spent her childhood summers riding through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the back of her grandpa’s pickup truck and later lived in the Shenandoah Valley, within sight of Sugarloaf Mountain.

Kathie Stewart

APOLLO’S FIRE

Kathie Stewart is a founding member and principal flutist of Apollo’s Fire. A faculty member of the Cleveland Institute of Music, she is also a Kulas Visiting Artist at Case Western Reserve University, as well as Curator of Harpsichords at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she taught baroque flute for nearly 20 years. She is an avid proponent of Celtic music, playing Irish flute on several AF recordings. She has also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Tafelmusik, Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, ARTEK, and the Bach Sinfonia in Washington, D.C.

Tina Bergmann

APOLLO’S FIRE

Tina Bergmann is one of the world’s leading exponents of the instrument and was described by folk musician Pete Seeger as “the best hammered dulcimer player I’ve heard anywhere.” Playing in the aural tradition as a child, she made her solo debut at age 12 and led her first string band at age 16. Since then, she has been in demand at folk festivals and has performed as soloist with several symphony orchestras. Her contradance bands, Strings & Things and Hu$hmoney, have explored traditional American and Celtic music. She can be heard on the Apollo’s Fire CDs Come to the River, Scarborough Fayre, and Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers.

Susanna Gilmore

APOLLO’S FIRE

Susanna Gilmore enjoys a multifaceted career as solo artist, chamber and orchestral musician. She is concertmaster of the Omaha Symphony, a position she previously held with the Memphis Symphony for fifteen years. Her chamber music performances have been featured on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, A Prairie Home Companion and America’s Music Festivals. Her recent classical solo performances include Jennifer Higdon’s The Singing Rooms (for violin, choir and orchestra) in Paris at the invitation of Ms. Higdon, as well as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Prokofiev and Korngold violin concertos with the Omaha Symphony. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in music from Oxford University (UK) and a Master’s degree in violin performance from the New England Conservatory (Boston). She learned to play Celtic fiddle in her youth through sitting in on Irish sessions during her years in Nashville and England, and for several years performed regularly with the Memphis-based Irish band Planet Reel.

Ross Hauck

APOLLO’S FIRE

Ross Hauck grew up in Ohio, but currently lives in Seattle with his wife and four children. He specializes in early music, sacred oratorio, and premieres of new works. A regular with Apollo’s Fire, Mr. Hauck has been heard as a soloist in Messiah, as Tamino in The Magic Flute, and as Johnny in the Come to the River tour, as well as being featured in the 2012 and 2013 Irish Countryside Concerts and Sugarloaf Mountain. He has sung with the symphonies of Seattle, Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago, Baltimore, Portland, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, and the National Symphony. An alumnus of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, he undertook further training at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Aspen Festivals and at the Wolf Trap Opera Company. He can be heard on the AVIE label on the Apollo’s Fire recording of Messiah and on the Naxos label in the world premiere of the song cycle Vedem by Lori Laitman. He is also a cellist and serves as a professor of voice on the faculty of Seattle University. He frequently programs sacred concerts for churches and Christian universities, and leads an arts ministry at his church in the Northwest.

Brian Kay

APOLLO’S FIRE

Brian Kay is a modern-day troubadour. He holds a Master’s degree in music from Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied lute and theorbo. He specializes in historical plucked instruments and ancient songs of various world traditions. He is a songwriter and poet, and also paints and plays a variety of percussion and wind instruments. Cleveland Classical.com called him “far-ranging,” “brilliant,” and “exciting,” and Early Music America called his work “phenomenal.” His newest album, Three Ravens, was released in January 2015.

Apollo's Fire

Named for the classical god of music and the sun, Apollo’s Fire was founded by its Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell, to revive 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 a BBC broadcast. Subsequent European tours took place in 2011, 2014, and 2015. European performances include sold-out concerts at the BBC Proms in London (with live broadcast across Europe), the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), Madrid’s Royal Theatre, Bordeaux’s Grand Théàtre de l’Opéra, and major venues in Lisbon, Metz (France), and Bregenz (Austria), as well as concerts on the Birmingham International Series (UK) and the Tuscan Landscapes Festival (Italy). AF’s London concert in 2014 was chosen by the DAILY TELEGRAPH as one of the “Best 5 Classical Concerts of The Year.”

North American tour engagements include sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall (2018), the Tanglewood Festival (2015 and 2017), the Ravinia Festival, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY (2013, 2014, and 2015), the Boston Early Music Festival series, and the Library of Congress, as well as concerts at the Aspen Music Festival, and major venues in Toronto, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The ensemble’s notable U.S. tours include two major tours of the Monteverdi Vespers (2010 and 2014); a 9-concert tour of the Brandenburg Concertos in 2013; and a semi-staged production of Monteverdi’s L’ORFEO in April 2018 (U.S. tour). Upcoming is an UK/Ireland tour in August 2018, including the Wexford Opera House, the National Concert Hall of Ireland (Dublin), and a return to the Aldeburgh Festival.

At home in Cleveland, Apollo’s Fire frequently enjoys sold-out performances at its subscription series, which has drawn national attention for creative programming.

Apollo’s Fire has released 26 commercial CDs 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 SUNDAY TIMES) and “the Midwest’s best-kept musical secret is finally reaching British ears” (THE INDEPENDENT). Eight of the ensemble’s CD releases have become best-sellers on the classical Billboard chart: the Monteverdi Vespers, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos & Harpsichord Concertos, a disc of Handel arias with soprano Amanda Forsythe titled “The Power of Love” (Billboard Classical #3, 2015), and Jeannette Sorrell’s four crossover programs: Come to the River – An Early American Gathering (Billboard Classical #9, 2011); Sacrum Mysterium – A Celtic Christmas Vespers(Billboard Classical #11, 2012); Sugarloaf Mountain – An Appalachian Gathering (Billboard Classical #5, 2015); and Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (Billboard World Music Chart #2 and Billboard Classical #5, Feb. 2016); and Songs of Orpheus (Billboard Classical #5, 2018).

Past Events

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October 2019

An Evening with Audra McDonald

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Garrick Ohlsson

November 2019

The Worcester Chorus — The English Cathedral

Dance Theatre of Harlem

December 2019

The Worcester Chorus — Handel’s Messiah

Welcome, Yule! The Worcester Chorus Women’s Ensemble

January 2020

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

Apollo’s Fire — Sugarloaf Mountain, An Appalachian Gathering

Music Worcester, Inc.

Jeannette Sorrell

René Schiffer

Amanda Powell

Kathie Stewart

Tina Bergmann

Susanna Gilmore

Ross Hauck

Brian Kay

Apollo's Fire