Virtuoso Bach
An Instrumental Extravaganza
February 16 – February 20, 2017

Debra Nagy, oboe

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AF players take turns in the spotlight for this evening of overflowing virtuosity. From J.S. Bach’s sunny Orchestral Suite No. 1 to the darkly brooding Oboe Concerto in G minor, to the sparkling and beloved Brandenburg Concertos No. 3 and 4… No one plays Bach like Apollo’s Fire!

“These excellent musicians bring across their music with an exuberant musicality, like wind through a forest.” – The Boston Globe

[NEW!] BEHIND THE SCENES: Acclaimed oboist Debra Nagy prepares for next week’s concerts. Read the interview.

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*FRIDAY, & MONDAY: Discuss the concert with the musicians over drinks and a light dessert. FREE! (Scroll down for concert dates.)

  • DEBRA NAGY
    DEBRA NAGY
    oboe
  • JEANNETTE SORRELL
    JEANNETTE SORRELL
    conductor & harpsichordist
Pre-concert talk by flautist Kathie Stewart, one hour before each performance. FREE![divider]These concerts are generously sponsored by
The Sersig/Brandt Family Fund of the Cleveland Foundation

Thursday, February 16, 2017, 7:30PM
Lake Erie College, PAINESVILLE
*Lake County residents receive 20% discount in Painesville, with ID
Friday, February 17, 2017, 8:00PM
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, CLEVELAND HEIGHTS
*Afterglow Post-Concert Party
Saturday, February 18, 2017, 8:00PM
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, CLEVELAND HEIGHTS
Sunday, February 19, 2017, 4:00PM
ROCKY RIVER Presbyterian Church
Monday, February 20, 2017, 7:30PM
The BATH Church (UCC)
*Afterglow Post-Concert Party
Purchase Tickets
Hearing, 1617 (oil on panel) / Brueghel, Jan the Elder (1568-1625) / Prado, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images

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

DEBRA NAGY
oboe

Praised for her “dazzling technique and soulful expressiveness,” (Rocky Mountain News), and a musical approach that’s “distinctly sensual…pliant, warm, and sweet,” (New York Times), Debra Nagy is one of North America’s leading performers on the baroque oboe. She plays principal oboe with the American Bach Soloists, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and Apollo’s Fire, and is a regular guest with the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Early Music Festival, and Portland Baroque Orchestra, among other ensembles. A dedicated chamber musician, Debra is the founder of Les Délices (whose debut recording was named “One of the Top Ten Early Music Discoveries of 2009”) and performs late-medieval music as a regular guest with Boston’s acclaimed Blue Heron and the Newberry Consort. Following studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Conservatory of Amsterdam, and Case Western Reserve University, Debra has received many awards for her creative and scholarly pursuits including first-prize in the American Bach Soloists Young Artists Competition, a 2009 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a 2010 Creative Workforce Fellowship from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. She has recorded over 30 CDs with repertoire ranging from 1300-1800 on the Chandos, Avie, CPO, Capstone, Bright Angel, Naxos, and ATMA labels, and has had live performances featured on CBC Radio Canada, Klara (Belgium), NPR’s Performance Today, WQXR (New York City) and WGBH Boston.

A dedicated and inspiring teacher, Debra serves on the artist faculties of the American Bach Soloists’ Summer Academy and has given masterclasses at Juilliard, the Cleveland Institute of Music, San Francisco Conservatory, Cincinnati Conservatory, and University of Washington. She is also committed to service and to fostering the next generation of leaders through her work as a board member of Early Music America and liason to its Youth Advisory Board.

In her spare time, Debra cooks prodigiously (including much canning and pickling), and she loves commuting by bicycle from her home in Cleveland’s historic Ohio City neighborhood.

WEBSITE

JEANNETTE SORRELL
conductor & harpsichordist

“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 a leading creative voice among early-music conductors. She has been credited by the U.K.’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. Her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony in 2013 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). She has also appeared as conductor or conductor/soloist with the New World Symphony (Miami), the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis with the St. Louis Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), the Omaha Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, 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. In 2015 she returned to the Pittsburgh Symphony as conductor/soloist.

Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have released 24 commercial CDs, of which six 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; Sacrum Mysterium – A Celtic Christmas Vespers; Sugarloaf Mountain – An Appalachian Gathering, and most recently, Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews.

Sorrell has attracted national attention and awards for creative programming. She holds an 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. Passionate about guiding the next generation of performers, Ms. Sorrell has led many baroque projects for students at Oberlin Conservatory.

WEBSITE

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