Ravinia 2023 Issue 2

TRADITION Au r a l JEANNETTE SORRELL AND APOLLO’S FIRE KINDLE EARLY MUSIC’S EMOTIONS BY MARK THOMAS KETTERSON WHEN INTERNATIONALLY CELEBRATED conductor and harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell was a child in San Francisco, she practiced piano at home on a paper keyboard. The idea that Sorrell would someday become the mastermind behind Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s award-winning Baroque orchestra, wasn’t on anyone’s mind then; but her passion and ingenuity were already evident. A serious student of violin and ballet, Sorrell had long wanted piano lessons, but her family did not have an instrument. Finally, when lessons became possible through her grammar school, the then-9-year-old Sorrell ad- mits that “I lied, and said we had one. Then I made myself a paper keyboard and practiced on that. And I did that for a year”. ¶ Fast forward to adolescence, which found Sorrell living in the Shenandoah Valley, where she was first intro- duced to Southern shape-note harmonies and Shaker hymns that “are built on open fourths and fifths that almost sound medieval. I didn’t know much about early music at that point, but I was drawn to those harmonies and colors.” ¶ Fast forward a bit more to Aspen Music Festival, where the 18-year- old musician studied with the focused goal of determining if she wanted to continue with piano or become a conductor. Conducting won and became her major. She was required to have a second instrument and chose the harpsichord—initially because she thought it would be easier, given her keyboard experience. She soon realized that “this was my instrument.” RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 3 – JULY 16, 2023 76