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 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 2014 concert was praised as “an evening of superlative music-making… the group combines European stylishness with American entrepreneurialism” (THE TELEGRAPH, UK).  This concert was chosen by the TELEGRAPH as one of the “Best 5 Classical Concerts of 2014.”

North American tour engagements include the Tanglewood Festival (sold-out debut in 2015), the Aspen Music Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival series, the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), and major venues in Toronto, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  The ensemble has performed two major U.S. tours of the Monteverdi Vespers (2010 and 2014) and a 9-concert tour of the Brandenburg Concertos in 2013.  Apollo’s Fire is signed to Columbia Artists Management (CAMI) for exclusive representation in North and South America, and is managed in the U.K. by Intermusica (London). 

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 25 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 TIMES) and “the Midwest’s best-kept musical secret is finally reaching British ears” (THE INDEPENDENT). Seven 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).

APOLLO'S FIRE AND THE FOLK TRADITION

“Never think that classical music is boring – never, if it’s done as well as Apollo’s Fire does it.”
– CoolCleveland.com

For over 17 years, Apollo’s Fire and Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell have developed a unique ensemble of crossover artists who specialize in early traditional folk repertoire. Performing in a historically informed aesthetic but with the lively freedom of folk performers, these artists strive to break down the modern barrier between art music and popular music. They revive the “crossover” spirit of the 17th century – a time when great composers regularly wrote artful variations on street tunes and tavern songs.  

Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have won numerous distinctions for their pioneering work.  Sorrell’s premiere early American program, titled “Spirit of ’96,” received the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society for reconstructions of early American compositions and arrangements of Ohio folk songs.  In 2008, Sorrell was awarded a special grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to research and create “Come to the River:  An Early American Gathering,” which premiered in 2009 with 9 sold-out concerts in Northeast Ohio.  The program has since toured throughout the U.S, and the international CD released on British label AVIE became a top-10 bestseller on the Billboard classical chart.  In 2012, Sorrell collaborated with Sylvain Bergeron and Meredith Hall to create “Sacrum Mysterium:  A Celtic Christmas Vespers” which has performed to sold-out crowds at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as well as in Northeast Ohio.  This program was released on CD in 2013 and debuted at No. 11 on Billboard.  

In 2014, Sorrell created “Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering” which was released on CD in 2015 and debuted at No. 5 on Billboard.  Winning rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, the CD was praised as “music that asks questions about life and death, and bores into the American national psyche at visceral and emotional levels… profoundly spontaneous” (Gramophone). In 2014, Sorrell collaborated with Sephardic specialist Nell Snaidas to create “Sephardic Journey:  Wanderings of the Spanish Jews.” This was released on CD in 2016 and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard World Music chart, praised as “revelatory and first-class” (BBC Music Magazine).

Taken from apollosfire.org.