Handel’s Israel in Egypt
A Dramatic Oratorio
October 12 – October 15, 2017

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From plagues and pyramids to the crossing of the Red Sea… the gripping story of the Israelites’ escape from Egypt comes to life with reverence and triumph through Handel’s sumptuous music.

Adaptation by Jeannette Sorrell, runs 2 hrs.

PRE-CONCERT TALK by Rabbi Roger Klein, one hour before each performance.

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*FRIDAY & SATURDAY NIGHTS: Enjoy Middle Eastern baklava and sparkling cider as the musicians lead a Q&A. FREE!

“Presented with a sense of theatre as Handel intended… scintillating and superb.”
—CLEVELANDCLASSICAL.COM

“When Jeannette Sorrell plays Handel, the audience is the winner. If Handel’s Messiah transcends the usual categories to be a fixture of our general culture, so Jeannette Sorrell transcends mere historicism in her performances of this music. A triumph.”
–PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

“A revelation. Handel’s Messiah has seldom seemed so dramatic, so alive with detail. The soloists… were not mere musical performances but singing actors propelling the story. The choruses were models of clarity and blend. Throughout, it was Jeannette Sorrell’s vision which led to an uncommonly unified success. This will last in my memory for a very long time.”
– BACKTRACK.COM (international classical music website based in Europe), 2014

Hear the Music

1. The Plague of the Hailstones
John Eliot Gardiner: English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir

 
2. The Plague of the Flies
Various Artists: Trinity Wall Street

 
3. The Horse and his rider He threw into the sea
John Eliot Gardiner: English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir


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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 12:30pm – Nighttown Restaurant, CLEVELAND HEIGHTS
Israel in Egypt: The People and the Music Behind Handel’s Oratorio (click here for details)
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  • ERICA SCHULLER
    ERICA SCHULLER
    soprano
  • MOLLY NETTER
    MOLLY NETTER
    soprano
  • DANIEL MOODY
    DANIEL MOODY
    countertenor
  • ROSS HAUCK
    ROSS HAUCK
    tenor
  • JEFFREY STRAUSS
    JEFFREY STRAUSS
    baritone
  • JEANNETTE SORRELL
    JEANNETTE SORRELL
    conductor

These concerts are generously sponsored by
Robert A. & Judith M. Weiss
and

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Thursday, October 12, 2017, 7:30PM
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, AKRON
Friday, October 13, 2017, 8:00PM
First Baptist Church, SHAKER HEIGHTS
FREE Afterglow!
Saturday, October 14, 2017, 8:00PM
The Temple-Tifereth Israel, BEACHWOOD
FREE Afterglow!
Sunday, October 15, 2017, 4:00PM
AVON LAKE United Church of Christ
Erica Schuller & Molly Netter,soprano
Daniel Moody,countertenor
Ross Hauck,tenor
Jeffrey Strauss,baritone
Apollo’s Singers
The Delivery of Israel – Pharaoh and his Hosts overwhelmed in the Red Sea, 1825, Danby, Francis (1793-1861) / Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Lancashire, UK / Bridgeman Images

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

ERICA SCHULLER
soprano

Praised for her lively personality, abundant charm, and luscious vocalism (Chicago Tribune), soprano Erica Schuller is a versatile performer, bringing committed artistry to a broad musical repertory. Her particular affinity for Baroque repertoire has brought her increasing attention from some of the country’s finest Early Music ensembles. Upcoming engagements include roles with The Boston Early Music Festival and a concert appearance with The Haymarket Opera Company’s Summer Workshop.

This past season, Ms. Schuller performed leading and supporting operatic roles with The Boston Early Music Festival, The Haymarket Opera Company and Opera Siam. In Boston, Ms. Schuller performed the roles of La Fortuna and Damigella in the 2015 Festival centerpiece opera L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and was praised for bringing beauty and bearing to her roles (Boston Globe). As Oriana in The Haymarket Opera Company’s production of Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula, Chicago Classical Review praised “her warm, agile soprano, full of passion and depth.” She also created the roles of Joan Strasinsky and Princess in the world premiere of the newly composed opera The Snow Dragon by award winning novelist and composer Somtow Sucharitkul, and was described as “ethereal” by Broadway World Magazine. She reprised these roles in Thailand with Opera Siam. Ms. Schuller also made her debut performance with Great Lakes Baroque this season, under the direction of renowned harpsichordist Jory Vinikour. Additional performances include a recital of English Baroque lute songs with The Church of Beethoven, a presentation of Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres through St. Chrysostom’s Church Concert Series in Chicago, and engagements with Second City Musick and Bella Voce ensembles.

WEBSITE

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.

DANIEL MOODY
countertenor

Countertenor Daniel Moody has garnered widespread acclaim for his “sweet and melancholy sound” (The Washington Post) and his ability to “pierce hearts” and “utterly silence a room” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer). Cited for a “vocal resonance, [that] makes a profoundly startling impression” (The New York Times) and for his “vivid and powerful” voice (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), Mr. Moody is equally celebrated for his interpretations of contemporary and baroque works.

Moody’s opera appearances have included the title roles in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, Arsamene in Xerxes, Lichas in Hercules, Didymus in Theodora, Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, L’Enfant in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges, and as the “eerie yet forceful” (Broadway World) leading role of Man #1 in the world premiere of Desire by composer Hannah Lash. Moody recently appeared as Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at Cincinnati Opera. American Record Guide raved about “how versatile (Moody) and his voice have become,” and spoke of “numerous moments of utter beauty…where he would start singing ever so sweetly and then just let his voice blossom out into something big and round and smooth.”

Moody’s upcoming performances include debuts with Opera Lafayette (Venus and Adonis) and Minnesota Orchestra (Messiah), a tour of St. Matthew Passion with Apollo’s Fire, Handel’s Orlando at Staunton Festival and the premiere of Elena Ruehr’s Cosmic Cowboy, to be performed in the fall of 2020 with White Snake Projects.

“Moody delivered a combination of tenderness and theatrical verve” (San Francisco Chronicle) in his recent duet concert with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Nicholas McGegan), and his performance of the title role in Handel’s Rinaldo led the San Diego Story to declare, “Moody’s voice grows stronger and brighter as it ascends. He may help create a new operatic vocal category: Helden Countertenor.” Daniel has also performed roles in Mark Morris’ productions of Britten’s Curlew River and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at BAM (Howard Gilman Opera House) and at the Tanglewood Music Festival where the Financial Times noted his “inspired and absorbing performances.”

Moody recently made his Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium debut with Oratorio Society of New York and also with Musica Sacra (Kent Tritle), and has performed as soloist with the Atlanta Symphony (Thomas Søndergård conducting), Les Violons du Roy in Québec City, (Bernard Labadie), Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra (Jeannette Sorrell), the Portland Baroque Orchestra (David Hill), and symphonies of Illinois, Charleston (Ken Lam), and Winston-Salem (Robert Moody). He gave the American premiere of George Benjamin’s intricate Dream of the Song (Stefan Asbury) at the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood Festival. He has also appeared with numerous early music groups including Boston, Indianapolis and Washington Early Music Festivals, renowned group Acronym at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Mountainside Baroque (Maryland) and La Fiocco (Pennsylvania).

WEBSITE

ROSS HAUCK
tenor

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.

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).

JEANNETTE SORRELL
conductor

“Under the inspired leadership of Jeannette Sorrell, Apollo’s Fire has become one of the pre-eminent period-instrument ensembles, causing one to hear baroque material anew.”
–THE INDEPENDENT, London

Jeannette Sorrell is recognized internationally as one of today’s most creative early-music conductors. She has been credited by the UK’s BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE for forging “a vibrant, life-affirming approach to the re-making of early music… a seductive vision of musical authenticity.”

Hailed as “one of the world’s finest Baroque specialists” (ST. LOUIS DISPATCH), Sorrell was one of the youngest students ever accepted to the prestigious conducting courses of the Aspen and the Tanglewood music festivals.  She studied conducting under Robert Spano, Roger Norrington and Leonard Bernstein, and harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam. She won both First Prize and the Audience Choice Award in the 1991 Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from Europe, Israel, the U.S., and the Soviet Union.

Sorrell founded Apollo’s Fire in 1992. Since then, she and the ensemble have built one of the largest audiences of any baroque orchestra in North America. She has led AF in sold-out concerts at London’s BBC Proms and London’s Wigmore Hall, Madrid’s Royal Theatre (Teatro Real), the Grand Théâtre de l’Opéra in Bordeaux, the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), the Tanglewood Festival, Boston’s Early Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Library of Congress, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), among others.

As a guest conductor, Sorrell has worked with many of the leading American symphony orchestras and is represented by Columbia Artists Management (CAMI). In December she will make her Kennedy Center debut conducting the National Symphony in performances of Handel’s Messiah. Her 2013 debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as conductor and soloist in the complete Brandenburg Concertos was met with standing ovations every night, and hailed as “an especially joyous occasion” (PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW). The same occurred with her recent debut with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where the TWIN CITIES PIONEER PRESS wrote, “Other masters of the [baroque] style have been paying visits, but none has summoned up as much energy, enthusiasm and excitement from the orchestra as Sorrell.” She has also appeared as conductor or conductor/soloist with the New World Symphony (Miami), the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis with the St. Louis Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), and has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra as guest keyboard artist. In 2014 Ms. Sorrell filled in for British conductor Richard Egarr on 5 days’ notice, leading the complete Brandenburg Concertos and playing the harpsichord solo in Brandenburg no. 5, for the closing concert of the Houston Early Music Festival. This summer she returns to Utah Symphony and makes her debut with Grand Teton Festival.

Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have released 25 commercial CDs, of which seven have been bestsellers on the Billboard classical chart. Her recordings include the complete Brandenburg Concerti and harpsichord concerti of Bach (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 RECORD MAGAZINE.  Other recordings include Handel’s Messiah, the Monteverdi Vespers and four creative crossover projects: 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).

Sorrell has attracted national attention and awards for creative programming.  She holds an Artist Diploma from Oberlin Conservatory, and honorary doctorate from Case Western University, two special awards from the National Endowment for the Arts for her work on early American music, and an award from the American Musicological Society, and two different awards from the Cleveland Arts Prize. Passionate about guiding the next generation of performers, Ms. Sorrell has led many baroque projects for students at Oberlin Conservatory and is a frequent guest coach at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is the architect of AF’s highly successful Young Artist Apprentice Program, which has produced the majority of the leading young baroque professionals in the country today.

WEBSITE

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