Resplendent Purcell
October 6 – October 9, 2016

Molly Netter & Amanda Powell, sopranos | Eric Brenner, countertenor
Karim Sulayman, tenor | Jeffrey Strauss, baritone
Apollo’s Singers

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Celebrate this Festival (Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary)
Funeral Music for Queen Mary
Highlights from King Arthur and Dido & Aeneas

The great Henry Purcell wrote his most majestic music for royal events at Westminster Abbey – from joyous birthday celebrations for the Queen to the heartbreakingly beautiful lamentations at her funeral. Vocal soloists, strings, lutes, recorders, trumpets, percussion, organ, and the acclaimed Apollo’s Singers join in this sumptuous program.

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*SATURDAY NIGHT: Toast the opening of the season at a light dessert reception with the performers. FREE! (Scroll down for concert dates.)

PRE-CONCERT TALK by John Lenti one hour before each concert

John Lenti’s lecture will focus on Purcell, the divine harmonist. Purcell’s harmonies are the most exquisitely wrought of any baroque composer, and the continuo section (keyboards, theorbo, and guitar) reinforces those harmonies by improvising a rich chordal accompaniment. Let John give you an insider’s view of how it works and how it feels to make up Purcell as you go along.

  • MOLLY NETTER
    MOLLY NETTER
    soprano
  • AMANDA POWELL
    AMANDA POWELL
    soprano
  • ERIC BRENNER
    ERIC BRENNER
    countertenor
  • KARIM SULAYMAN
    KARIM SULAYMAN
    tenor
  • JEFFREY STRAUSS
    JEFFREY STRAUSS
    baritone
These concerts are generously sponsored by
horizons_logo_200x40
and Herb & Jody Wainer

Thursday, October 6, 2016, 7:30PM
FAIRLAWN Lutheran
Friday, October 7, 2016, 8:00PM
First Baptist Church, SHAKER HEIGHTS
Saturday, October 8, 2016, 8:00PM
First Baptist Church, SHAKER HEIGHTS
*Afterglow Post-Concert Party
Sunday, October 9, 2016, 4:00PM
ROCKY RIVER Presbyterian Church
Purchase Tickets
ARTWORK: The Coronation of Joseph II (1741-90) as Emperor of Germany in Frankfurt Cathedral, 1764, Mytens or Meytens, Martin II (1695-1770) (after) / Weltliche und Geistliche Schatzkammer, Vienna, Austria / Bridgeman Images

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“The U.S.A.’s hottest baroque band.” –CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE (UK)

MOLLY NETTER
soprano

Molly Netter, soprano, enlivens complex and beautiful music, both old and new, with a voice described as “crisp and clear, white yet warm” (Seen and Heard International).

Known for having “exquisite poise” (NY Times) and “[embuing] every word of the text with signification” (The Examiner), she has performed as a soloist with the GRAMMY-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Les Canards Chantants, the Clarion Music Society, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, Yale Opera, Heartbeat Opera, and Experiments in Opera, as well as with Juilliard415 at Lincoln Center, touring internationally in Japan, Singapore and Burma under Masaaki Suzuki and with the Triplepoint contemporary/jazz ensemble.

Ms. Netter holds an ad hoc Bachelor of Music degree in composition and contemporary voice from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master’s degree in early music voice and oratorio from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where she studied with James Taylor. Between degrees, she taught English in Kyoto, Japan.

AMANDA POWELL
soprano

has been praised as “the star of the evening” (Seen and Heard International, UK) and “charismatic and theatrically arresting” (San Francisco Chronicle). A highly versatile musician, she is at home in repertoire from Monteverdi to Mozart to Ravel, and has toured internationally as soloist in baroque opera, oratorio, and crossover folk programs. Her tour performances with GRAMMY®-winning baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire (Jeannette Sorrell) include such venues as the National Concert Hall of Ireland in Dublin, the Irish National Opera House, the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, and Zellerbach Hall in San Francisco, among others. Her 2019 debut as Messiah soloist with the Calgary Symphony won kudos as “the soloist of the night… singing to perfection.”

As a recording artist, Ms Powell has been featured on several Apollo’s Fire albums including Sugarloaf Mountain, Sephardic Journey, and Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain, all of which received rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and debuted in the top ten on the BILLBOARD Classical Chart. Her 2015 solo debut album, Beyond Boundaries, is an intimate program of folk, jazz, and global music. She is a fluent improvisor and has collaborated with such artists as Bobby McFerrin and Sheila Jordan.

WEBSITE

ERIC BRENNER
countertenor

RESPLENDENT PURCELL

Hailed for his “astonishing solo singing” and “penetrating eloquence” (New York Times), countertenor Eric S. Brenner has been privileged to perform on many of the world’s premier halls with many of the world’s finest conductors. Eric made his solo debut in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms at Cornell University. He has sung the work many times since then, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola with Sacred Music in a Sacred Space. Some of Eric’s current projects include eight sold-out performances in the role of Doodle in Stefan Weissman’s and David Cote’s highly acclaimed chamber opera, Scarlet Ibis; singing opposite actress Lili Taylor in Suzanne Bocanegra’s Bodycast at CounterCurrent, Houston, TX; world premieres by Jessica Meyer and Doug Balliet with the Colonials; Volpino in Haydn’s Lo Speziale in Rochester, NY; and Tolomeo in Händel’s Giulio Cesare in Roanoke, VA. Eric also covered David Daniels in the role of Didymus in Händel’s Theodora on tour with the choir of Trinity Wall Street and English concert under Maestro Harry Bickett.

Eric is a frequent alto and soprano soloist in Händel’s perennial favorite, Messiah. Featured performances include Alice Tully Hall – “unearthly purity” (Wall Street Journal), “remarkable” (Downtown Express) – with the choir of Trinity Wall Street, directed by Julian Wachner; at St. Thomas Church with John Scott – “graceful line” (New York Times); and at St. John’s Cathedral in New Mexico as the soprano in an all-male solo quartet – “His aria…glowed with an angelic reverence” (Albuquerque Journal).

WEBSITE

KARIM SULAYMAN
tenor

is consistently praised for his sensitive musicianship, vivid portrayals, and beautiful voice. With a vast repertoire that spans from the Renaissance to contemporary music, he has firmly established himself as a sophisticated and versatile artist of his generation. Recent highlights include engagements at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Aldeburgh Festival and Snape Proms, the Casals Festival, Aspen Music Festival and the International Bach Festival. Mr. Sulayman recently completed three seasons at the Marlboro Music Festival collaborating with Mitsuko Uchida and Richard Goode, and continues to focus on championing vocal chamber music under the auspices of Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Cleveland ChamberFest, among other esteemed presenters, and earlier this season performed programs of French chamber works at the Roman River Festival in the UK which were recorded by the BBC. Also in the 2016-2017 season he debuted with Houston Grand Opera as Albert in the world premiere of Laura Kaminsky’s Some Light Emerges.

This season he looks forward to debuts with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Messiah, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra as Testo in Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, his professional acting debut in Karin Coonrod’s groundbreaking production of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (Off Broadway), and to a US national tour as the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, along with the release of his debut solo album, Songs of Orpheus, of 17th-century Italian composers on the AVIE label. Next season he plays the role of Claudio Monteverdi at Stockholm’s beloved Drottningholms Slottsteater in the world premiere of The Voice of Europa. He also appears and sings “I go on” from Mass in the upcoming ARTE documentary Leonard Bernstein – The Composer, to be aired throughout Europe in the summer of 2018 and subsequently released on DVD.

His growing discography includes the title role in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and two releases for NAXOS in works of Philidor and Grétry, as well as the release of Sephardic Journey with Apollo’s Fire on AVIE which debuted at the Number 2 slot on the Billboard World Music Chart and Number 7 on the Classical Chart. He is also featured on the album of Jonathan Dawe’s 21st-century chamber works, Piercing are the Darts, on the Furious Artisans label and on the future EP release of Matt Frey’s new chamber opera 111 Heavy with the ensemble Hotel Elefant.

Mr. Sulayman’s musical education began with violin studies at age three, and years as a boy alto soloist, which included performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti and the St. Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Rice University and also studied improvisation at the Second City Training Center in Chicago.

WEBSITE

JEFFREY STRAUSS
baritone

Praised as “an authoritative artist” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and “an elegant and energetic singer” (Seen and Heard International), baritone Jeffrey Strauss has performed with leading period music ensembles including Tafelmusik, the Consort of Musicke with Emma Kirkby and Anthony Rooley, the Taverner Consort under Andrew Parrott, The Handel & Haydn Society, Seattle Baroque, The Newberry Consort, and Tempesta di Mare, among many others. Trained at an early age in Jewish liturgical music by Cantor Daniel Gildar, he later studied voice and art song in London with Yvonne Rodd-Marling and Martin Penny, and in Paris with Gérard Souzay. He has been a regular soloist with Apollo’s Fire since 1995, and is especially known for his appearances in Handel’s Messiah, the Bach St. John and St. Matthew Passions, Sephardic Journey, O Jerusalem!, and music of Monteverdi including the 1610 Vespers, Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, and the title role in L’Orfeo. A longstanding proponent of contemporary music, he has collaborated with Ralph Shapey and the Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago (Contempo), the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Pacifica Quartet, and Eighth Blackbird, and has premiered works by Babbitt, Bernstein, Axelrod, and Shapey. He has appeared twice with the Omaha Symphony, and performed the role of Mephistopheles in Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust. An accomplished stage actor, his 2014 performance as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof at the Lancaster Opera House—reprising a role he first played at age 17—was hailed as “masterful” (Buffalo News).

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