Virtuoso Fireworks

[box]Dear Apollo’s Fire Friends & Patrons,

All of us at Apollo’s Fire wish you peace and well-being during this Coronavirus pandemic. As the shutdown continues, we must sadly announce, in accordance with the Governor’s ban, the cancellation of our performances of Virtuoso Fireworks in Akron, Cleveland Heights and Rocky River, on April 30, and May 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Though this news is disappointing, we look forward to bringing you this program in a future season.

In addition, our two Galas that had been planned for this spring have been postponed to September. We look forward to seeing you at our “TUSCAN SUN” Galas to benefit Apollo’s Fire on:

  • September 13 at the Cleveland Museum of Art and on
  • September 20 at Greystone Hall in Akron


Please save the date! Our Galas are integral to the financial well-being of Apollo’s Fire. We hope that we can count on your continued, spirited support of these occasions so that together, we may keep the fire burning.

We will continue to honor your wishes regarding your concert tickets. Three options are listed below. However, please know that our beloved musicians and guest artists are freelancers. They are not salaried, and are, therefore, facing a total loss of income in the months to come. Apollo’s Fire is committed – with Passion. Period. – to paying our musicians as much of their concert fees as possible. But we face $221,000 in lost ticket revenue and touring fees this spring. So it will be tough to help our musicians significantly, without your help.

Therefore, we humbly ask you to consider donating the cost of your tickets if you are able – so that we can pass the revenue along to our musicians (option 1).

TICKET OPTIONS:

  1. DONATE your ticket so that we can pay our St. Matthew musicians as much as possible. We will send you a tax-deduction receipt.
  2. EXCHANGE your tickets for a future Apollo’s Fire concert during the 2020-21 season or a future season.
  3. Receive a REFUND for the full value of the ticket. (Please let us know by April 30 if you choose this option.).

Our box office staff are standing by to fulfill your requests. Please email us at info@apollosfire.org or call 216-320-0012 x 1.

*NOTE: Our staff are working mostly remotely, but all voicemails and emails WILL BE RETURNED.

Just as Handel composed Messiah during a seasonal ban on opera performances, we wish to bring you musical inspiration during this pandemic shutdown. We hope you will enjoy our new “Music for the Soul” – a semi-weekly series of online programs featuring concert videos, interviews, and related reading – all for your pleasure at home. Click here.

Thank you for being part of the Apollo’s Fire family, and we wish you health and inspiration.

Sincerely,

Jeannette Sorrell, Artistic Director
Howard Bender, Executive Director[/box]


CD AVAILABLE!


Bach | Brandenburg Concertos nos. 4 and 5
Telemann | Concerto for Flute and Recorder
Bach | Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen

Sparks fly as Apollo’s Fire soloists take turns stepping into the virtuoso spotlight. The dazzling soprano Amanda Forsythe joins virtuoso trumpeter Steve Marquardt for Bach’s exhilarating cantata, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen – a Northeast Ohio period-instrument premiere!

“Forsythe brought gleaming warmth to Bach’s intricacies.”
– SEEN & HEARD INTERNATIONAL

PRE-CONCERT TALK with violinist Alan Choo and flutist Kathie Stewart, 1 hour before each concert.
[box]Also catch the preview event on April 26!
“Inside the Brandenburg Concertos”
Click here for details.[/box]

Hear the Music

Coming Soon!

Meet the Artists

  • AMANDA FORSYTHE
    AMANDA FORSYTHE
    soprano
  • OLIVIER BRAULT
    OLIVIER BRAULT
    violin
Amada Forsythe,soprano
Olivier Brault,violin
Jeannette Sorrell,director & harpsichord
Steve Marquadt,trumpet

These concerts are made possible by the generous support of Mrs. Astri Seidenfeld.

Fireworks on the Elbe on the Occasion of the Visit of the King of De­nmark, 6 June 1709, c.1709, Fritzsche, C. H. (fl.c.1709) / © Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany / Herbert Boswank / Bridgeman Images

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

AMANDA FORSYTHE
soprano

The American soprano Amanda Forsythe, highly praised for her performances on both sides of the Atlantic, sang Euridice on the recording of Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers with the Boston Early Music Festival which won the 2015 GRAMMY® AWARD for Best Opera Recording. Her highly acclaimed CDs have included her début solo album of Handel arias “The Power of Love” with Apollo’s Fire on the AVIE label. She recently toured with the outstanding French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, performing works based on the Orfeo myth, and subsequently recorded the role of Euridice in a new edition of Gluck’s Orfeo for the ERATO label.

Equally at home on the concert platform and on the opera stage, in recent seasons Amanda Forsythe’s major engagements have included Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Boston Symphony under Andris Nelsons and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki, Handel’s Sileti venti and Laudate pueri with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas Kraemer, Messiah with Seattle Symphony, Bach’s Magnificat and concert performances as Marzelline Fidelio with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Sir Antonio Pappano. Following performances as Amour in Gluck’s Orphée at London’s Royal Opera House, she participated in tours of this work, and of Mozart’s C Minor Mass and Requiem with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

She is a regular soloist with the highly acclaimed baroque ensembles Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO), Apollo’s Fire, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Pacific Musicworks, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra. She sang the title role of Teseo with PBO at the Tanglewood and Mostly Mozart Festivals under Nicholas McGegan, and made her début at the Oregon Bach Festival in Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Magnificat under Matthew Halls.

Amanda Forsythe made her USA stage début with the Boston Early Music Festival, where her many roles have included Poppea and Drusilla L’incoronazione di Poppea, Niobe and Manto (recording) in Steffani’s Niobe, regina di Tebe, Aglaure in Psyché (Lully), Venus in Venus and Adonis (John Blow), Pallas in The Judgment of Paris (Eccles), Isabelle in Le Carnaval de Venise (Campra), Serpina in La serva padrona and Edilia in Almira, Königin von Castilien, for which she received rave reviews. Having made her début at Seattle Opera as Iris in Semele, Amanda Forsythe recently returned there to sing Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. Her operatic repertoire also includes Poppea in Agrippina, the title role in Partenope, Dorinda in Orlando, Amenaide in Tancredi, Bastienne in Bastien und Bastienne, Ninfa/Proserpina in Orfeo, Amore in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Oberto in Alcina, Dafne in Apollo e Dafne, Atalanta in Xerxes, Vagaus in Juditha Triumphans and roles in Les Indes Galantes and The Fairy Queen.

She made her European operatic début in the role of Corinna in Il viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, subsequently returning to perform Rosalia in L’equivoco stravagante, and Jemmy in Guillaume Tell, described by one critic as “…the best singing of this crucial part I’ve ever encountered…”. At her invitation, Amanda Forsythe joined the distinguished American mezzo-soprano Joyce di Donato in a performance of Bellini duets in the festival’s ‘Malibran’ recital.

Major European opera house engagements have included Dalinda in Ariodante in Geneva and Munich and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, Manto in Steffani’s Niobe, regina di Tebe, Amour in Gluck’s Orphée and Nannetta in Falstaff at London’s Royal Opera House. Her performance as Nannetta was described by Gramophone Magazine as “meltingly beautiful”.

Amanda Forsythe’s recordings include Venus in Venus and Adonis, Aglaure in Lully’s Psyché, and La Grande Pretresse in Lully’s Thésée with the Boston Early Music Festival (all for CPO), Manto in Steffani’s Niobe with BEMF (Erato), the title role in Handel’s Teseo with Philharmonia Baroque (PBO’s own label), Bach’s St. John Passion and Messiah with Apollo’s Fire (AVIE), Dorinda Handel’s Orlando with Early Music Vancouver (ATMA) and Haydn’s Creation with Boston Baroque (Linn). She also sings on the DVD recordings of the Pesaro productions of L’equivoco stravagante and Guillaume Tell as well as Manto in the Royal Opera production of Steffani’s Niobe (Opus Arte). Her latest CD of Steffani duets with the Boston Early Music Festival was awarded the Diapason d’Or in January 2018.

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.

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