“Schubertiade”
CHAMBER CONCERT
April 29, 2017

First Baptist Church (Spahr Center)

An intimate program evoking the famous house concerts in early 19th-c. Vienna, where Schubert and his friends played and sang. AF favorite tenor Karim Sulayman sings poignant lieder selections, including Der Erlkönig and songs from Schubert’s great song cycle, Die Winterreise. Violinist Olivier Brault leads a delightful romp through the famous “Trout” Quintet, with colleagues Karina Schmitz, René Schiffer, and Sue Yelanjian. Guest fortepianist Yi-heng Yang (of the Juilliard faculty) joins AF for this special concert, playing a beautiful Bösendorfer-Graf fortepiano.

  • KARIM SULAYMAN
    KARIM SULAYMAN
    tenor
  • OLIVIER BRAULT
    OLIVIER BRAULT
    violin
  • RENÉ SCHIFFER
    RENÉ SCHIFFER
    cello
  • YI-HENG YANG
    YI-HENG YANG
    fortepiano
  • KARINA SCHMITZ
    KARINA SCHMITZ
    viola
  • SUE YELANJIAN
    SUE YELANJIAN
    contrabass

Schubertiade Program

Die Forelle (The Trout), D. 550
Abends unter der Linde, D. 235

From Die Winterreise
Der Lindenbaum
Letzte Hoffnung
Die Nebensonnen
Der Leiermann

Die Sterne, D. 939
Nacht und Träume, D. 827
Der Vater mit dem Kinde, D. 906
Erlkönig, D. 328

Piano Quintet in A Major, op. 114,
“The Trout”
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25th ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

BEETHOVEN THE REVOLUTIONARY

VIENNESE PARLOR DANCING

CHAMPAGNE BRUNCH & PANEL DISCUSSION

Saturday, April 29, 2017, 3:00PM
First Baptist Church, SHAKER HEIGHTS
APOLLO’S FIRE 25th ANNIVERSARY FESTIVAL

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

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

OLIVIER BRAULT
violin

hails from Terrebonne in Québec and brings communicative enthusiasm and scholarship to concerts throughout North America and Europe. In addition to directing the chamber ensemble Sonate 1704, he performs as Music Director with Les Goûts Réunis in Luxembourg, as a member of Four Nations Ensemble in New York, and as soloist with many Montréal-based ensembles including the Ensemble Caprice, Les Boréades de Montréal, Quatuor Franz Joseph, and Les Idées heureuses. He holds a Doctorate from the Université de Montréal, where he specialized in 18th-century violin repertoire. He has led workshops and masterclasses at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, CWRU, Oberlin Conservatory, Penn State University, University of Michigan, the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles and The Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He has participated in over 65 recordings, many award-winning. In 2011 he received the medal of the Assemblée Nationale de Québec for cultural contributions to his nation. Mr. Brault joined the early music faculty of McGill University in Montréal teaching baroque violin in 2017.

RENÉ SCHIFFER
cello

is a composer in historical styles as well as a leading baroque cellist in the international early music scene. A protégé of the great baroque cellist Anner Bijlsma, he toured internationally for 16 years as a member of La Petite Bande under Sigiwald Kuijken. He has also performed with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), and in over 50 projects with Tafelmusik (Toronto). His compositions and reconstructions in historical styles have been performed by orchestras in North America, Europe and Australia, and appear on several Apollo’s Fire CD recordings. He can be heard on the Harmonia Mundi, Philips, Virgin Classics, Erato, Sony and AVIE labels.

YI-HENG YANG
fortepiano

has been noted for “astonishing skill and vividness” (The New York Times) and “absolute mastery” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). She has appeared at The Friends of Mozart Series, The Boston Early Music Festival, The New York Philharmonic Ensembles Series at Merkin Hall, The Serenata of Santa Fe Series, Sunday Chatter Albuquerque, The Dayton Early Music Series, The Frederick Collection, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She recently recorded Mendelssohn’s complete violin and piano sonatas with Abigail Karr on period instruments for the Olde Focus label.

The first prize winner at the Amsterdam Virtuosi Festival in 2011, Ms. Yang holds a doctorate in piano from the Juilliard School where she studied with Robert McDonald, Julian Martin, and Veda Kaplinsky. She studied fortepiano with Audrey Axinn, and with Stanley Hoogland at the Amsterdam Conservatory. She has received grants from The Mustard Seed Foundation’s Harvey Fellowship, and The Dutch Ministry of Culture’s Huygens Award. Ms. Yang is on the piano faculty at The Juilliard School Evening Division and Pre-College.

KARINA SCHMITZ
viola

holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her early music studies began at Oberlin Conservatory with Marilyn McDonald, Miho Hashizume, and David Breitman. She continued her training in the Apollo’s Fire Apprentice Program while serving as Concertmaster of the Case Baroque Orchestra. She is currently Principal Second Violin with Tempesta di Mare in Philadelphia, Assistant Principal Violist of the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra, and violist with the Coriolan String Quartet, a period ensemble based in Boston.

SUE YELANJIAN
contrabass

attended Oberlin Conservatory and received degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Boston University. She has performed and toured nationally and internationally with Apollo’s Fire and Tafelmusik and has also worked with the Drottningholm Opera Theater in Sweden, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Chatham Baroque, and Washington Bach Consort. She appears on numerous recordings on the Koch, Analekta, Electra, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation labels.

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