Handel’s MESSIAH
December 1December 3, 2018
Praised on both sides of the Atlantic for their “visionary” approach, conductor Jeannette Sorrell and her actor-singers take Handel’s masterpiece back to its roots as a theatrical and spiritual journey. No one does Messiah like Apollo’s Fire! An inspiring holiday tradition.
 
“Sorrell succeeded in drawing the audience into another world.”
– The Plain Dealer
 
PRE-CONCERT TALK with trumpeter Steve Marquardt, 1 hr. before each concert. FREE!
 
afterglow_300

SUNDAY EVENING! Sample Christmas fruitcake and hot cider, and meet the musicians. FREE!

[box]NEW! Mini-Matinée: 1-hr version
Saturday, December 1, 3:00pm – First Baptist Church, SHAKER HEIGHTS

Full Christmas portion + Hallelujah Chorus
Tickets $15-38; Young Adults (under 40) $10
Students $10 in advance, FREE at the door.
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Hear the Music

CD AVAILABLE!
“The players take their namesake ‘Fire’ to heart.”
– THE NEW YORK TIMES


Watch Video


Meet the Artists

  • AMANDA POWELL
    AMANDA POWELL
    soprano
  • DANIEL MOODY
    DANIEL MOODY
    countertenor
  • ROSS HAUCK
    ROSS HAUCK
    tenor
  • DAVID MCFERRIN
    DAVID MCFERRIN
    baritone

These concerts are generously sponsored by
Gretchen & Brian Colleran

Saturday, December 1, 2018, 3:00PM
First Baptist Church, SHAKER HEIGHTS
NEW! Mini-Matinée Performance (1 hr)
Sample your favorite Messiah highlights!
Saturday, December 1, 2018, 8:00PM
First Baptist Church, SHAKER HEIGHTS
Sunday, December 2, 2018, 4:00PM
St. Raphael Catholic Church, BAY VILLAGE
FREE Afterglow!
Monday, December 3, 2018, 7:30PM
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, AKRON
Amanda Powell,soprano
Daniel Moody,countertenor
Ross Hauck,tenor
David McFerrin,baritone
Fame (oil on canvas), Sementi, Giovanni Giacomo (1583-1636) / Galleria Sabauda, Turin, Piedmont, Italy / Bridgeman Images

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

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

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.

DAVID MCFERRIN
baritone

Praised by The Miami Herald for his “commanding stage presence and a voice of seductive beauty,” baritone David McFerrin has won critical acclaim in a wide variety of repertoire.

On the opera stage David has been featured in several recent productions with the Boston Lyric Opera. His performances as the Officer in last season’s BLO production of Philip Glass’ gripping two-character drama In the Penal Colony were widely admired — the Wall Street Journal hailed his portrayal as “disturbingly eloquent.” Other roles with BLO have included King Mark in Martin’s The Love Potion, Cascada in Lehar’s The Merry Widow, Johann in Massenet’s Werther, and Jason McFarlane in Beeson’s Lizzie Borden, performed both in Boston and at the Tanglewood Music Festival. David has also sung with Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Boston, Sarasota Opera, and the Rossini Festival in Wildbad, Germany. His roles include Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Taddeo in L’Italiana in Algeri and the title role in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde. This season he makes his debut with Boston Baroque as Achilla in Handel’s Giulio Cesare.

David’s solo concert engagements have ranged from Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice to the music of Cole Porter with the Boston Pops. Upcoming highlights include Bach and Monteverdi with the Handel and Haydn Society, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, and a concert performance of Stephen Paulus’ one-act opera Three Hermits. Last season David was a featured Adams Fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival in California; debuted with the Vermont Symphony and Boston’s groundbreaking chamber orchestra, A Far Cry; returned to the Artist Series of Sarasota in a set of pops performances; and appeared with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, Canada, and California. He was also runner-up in the Oratorio Society of New York’s 2016 Lyndon Woodside Solo Competition, the premier contest for this repertoire. Past concert credits include a Carnegie Hall debut with Gustavo Dudamel and the Israel Philharmonic, as well as performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Seraphic Fire in Miami, New York’s TENET, and at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. David’s concert repertoire includes Bach’s St. John Passion, B Minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio; Handel’s Messiah, Joshua, and Samson; Haydn’s Creation and Mass in Time of War; Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem; and the requiems of Brahms, Fauré and Duruflé. He is also a regular soloist and baritone section leader for the choirs of Trinity Church Boston, and performs around the country with the renaissance ensemble Blue Heron.

An avid recitalist, David has performed at the Caramoor Festival, the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, and as a Stern Fellow at SongFest in California. He has appeared with Five Boroughs Music Festival and the New York Festival of Song, and completed four summer chamber music residencies at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. This fall he is curating and performing a program of songs from World War I with soprano Deborah Selig and pianist Clifton J. Noble, Jr., to be presented on Veterans Day in Northampton, Massachusetts.

David’s childhood in western Massachusetts was full of music: his choral director mother took him to her rehearsals in a bassinet! He started violin lessons at age five, soon joined a children’s choir, and spent his teen-age years fitting orchestra, musical theatre and a capella group rehearsals around ultimate frisbee practices and outing club treks. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Carleton College in music and political economy, he earned graduate degrees at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School. In 2008 he won 2nd place in the Metropolitan Opera National Council New England Region, and was awarded a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, annually given to promising young American singers. He lives in the Boston neighborhood of Roslindale with his wife Erin, a preservationist with the Massachusetts Historical Commission, and their black lab Holly.

WEBSITE

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