Bio Category: 2324 splendour in london

ASHLEE FOREMAN

Ashlee Foreman, soprano, has been hailed as “a real discovery… an important new singer. Her voice has a tremendous range and is deployed with theatrical assurance” (Seen & Heard International, UK). Her solo debut with Apollo’s Fire in 2020 was called “a tour-de-force” by Cleveland.com. She has also appeared as soloist with Apollo’s Fire on tour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Heideberg International Spring Festival (Germany), and in Chicago and San Francisco.

Ashlee received her Bachelor’s in music from Cleveland State University and her high school diploma from the Cleveland School of the Arts. While an undergrad, she served as Apollo’s Fire’s first Artistic Outreach Intern, singing in school workshops and Family Concerts. In 2020 she joined AF’s professional chorus, Apollo’s Singers. She has also performed with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Spire Chamber Ensemble (Kansas), and she sang the lead in Menotti’s opera The Telephone at the University of Akron.

JACOB PERRY

Jacob Perry Jr., tenor, based in the Washington Metro Area, receives praise for his “gorgeous and stylish” interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire. He has been featured as a soloist with Apollo’s Fire, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Mountainside Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, The Thirteen, Washington Bach Consort, and The City Choir of Washington. Mr. Perry was selected as the tenor participant of the Virginia Best Adams Masterclass of the 2020 Carmel Bach Festival (postponed).

Deeply immersed in vocal chamber music, Mr. Perry enjoys playing with Les Canards Chantants, a soloist-ensemble based in Philadelphia, as well as engagements with ensembles such as The Thirteen, the Art of Early Keyboard, New Consort, and Cathedra. Additionally, he can be heard singing with larger choirs such as Yale Choral Artists, The Clarion Choir, Washington Bach Consort, and the Choir of Washington National Cathedral. He has explored vocal works by contemporary composers through engagements with Third Practice, hexaCollective, and Great Noise Ensemble. As Co-Artistic Director of Bridge, a genre-defying vocal ensemble based in Washington, he draws on his instincts for theatricality and story-telling, as the group explores the connections between early masterpieces and ground-breaking new works.

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JOSEFIEN STOPPELENBURG

Dutch soprano Josefien Stoppelenburg is best known for her dazzling vocal agility and her passionate and insightful interpretations. Stoppelenburg has performed all over the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America as a Baroque Music and Oratorio specialist, and as a concert singer. Stoppelenburg has performed most major oratorio works by Handel, Haydn, Bach and Mozart. Last season Navona Records released her CD, ‘Modern Muses, contemporary treasures for soprano and cello’. The album won a Bronze Medal in the 2022 Global Music Awards.

Concerts this season include appearances in Houston (Harmonia Stellarum and Ars Lyrica) the Boston Early Music Festival with the Newberry Consort, a St Matthew Passion in the Netherlands and concerts at the Arizona Bach Festival, Bach Week Evanston, Indianapolis Early Music Festival and the St. Louis Bach Festival.

Stoppelenburg taught vocal masterclasses at Indiana University (Jacobs School of Music), the University of Colorado, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and Illinois State University. She has performed for the Dutch Royal family on several occasions.

Josefien is also a professional painter and just illustrated a children’s book.

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