Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

APOLLO’S FIRE Grammy-winning period-instrument orchestra—led by award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell—is dedicated to the baroque concept of moving the passions of the listeners. In Eu- rope and the UK, Apollo’s Fire has performed six tours, including sold-out concerts at the BBC Proms in London, the Aldeburgh Festival, Madrid’s Royal Theatre, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and Bordeaux’s Grand Théàtre de l’Opéra, as well as acclaimed appearances at the Heidelberg Spring Festival, Irish Na- tional Concert Hall (Dublin), Irish National Opera House (Wexford), and venues in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and Portugal. The ensemble has given many live radio broadcasts across Europe. North American tour engagements include Carnegie Hall (2018 and 2022), Tanglewood (2015, 2017, and 2021), Ravinia (4 times), New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (numerous times), the Boston Early Music Festival series, the Library of Congress, the Aspen and Caramoor Festivals, and major venues in Toronto, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Apollo’s Singers have twice performed with the New York Philharmonic under Sorrell’s baton, winning rave reviews. At home in Cleveland and Chicago, Apollo’s Fire frequently enjoys sold-out performances on its subscription series, which have drawn national attention for cre- ative programming. With over 17 million views of its YouTube videos, Apollo’s Fire is one of the most popular baroque orchestras on the internet. The ensemble also launched a Watch-at-Home Series in 2020, bringing its subscription concerts to patrons around the world. Apollo’s Fire has released 32 com- mercial CDs, winning a Grammy Award in 2019 for the album Songs of Orpheus with tenor Karim Sulay- man. Recordings of Bach’s St. John Passion, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons , and Monteverdi’s Vespers have been named best in the field by London’s Sunday Times (2020 and 2021) and BBC Magazine (2022). Twelve of the ensemble’s albums have become bestsellers on Billboard ’s Classical chart, including Biber’s Mystery Sonatas , Vivaldi’s Four Seasons , Monteverdi’s Vespers, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Harpsichord Concertos, The Power of Love featuring Handel arias with soprano Amanda Forsythe, Songs of Orpheus , and five of Jeannette Sorrell’s multicultural programs: Come to the River – An Early American Gathering ; Sacrum Mysterium – A Celtic Christmas Vespers ; Sugarloaf Mountain – An Appalachian Gathering; Sep- hardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews ; and Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain . Violin I Alan Choo concertmaster Susanna Perry Gilmore assoc. concertmaster Andrew Fouts Chiara Fasani Stauffer Violin II Emi Tanabe principal Kiyoe Matsuura Hanna Bingham Viola Nicole Divall principal Elizabeth Hagen Cello René Schiffer principal Rebecca Landell Contrabass Tracy Rowell Traverso Kathie Stewart principal Ellen Sauer Tanyeri Lutes & Guitar William Simms Baroque Harp Anna O’Connell Harpsichord Jeannette Sorrell Percussion Martins Daukss wind machine Kathie Stewar, thunder sheet Jeannette Sorrell is internationally recognized as one of today’s most compelling interpreters of Ba- roque and Classical repertoire. The subject of the documentary Playing with Fire—Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting , created by Os- car-winning director Allan Miller and commercial- ly released in 2023, Sorrell studied conducting with Leonard Bernstein, Roger Norrington, and Robert Spano, one of the youngest students ever accepted into the conducting programs at Tanglewood and Aspen. She also studied harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam, later winning the top prize of the 1991 Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, which comprised over 70 musicians from across four continents. In demand as a guest conductor with orchestras and period ensembles, Sorrell earned rave reviews in her 2021 New York Philharmonic debut and returned last year. She makes debuts with the Baltimore, Indianapolis, and New Jersey Symphonies, the Orchestra of St Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, and the Lincoln Center Summer Festival Orchestra during 2024, and the Philadelphia Orchestra (for Handel’s Messiah ) and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (for Bach’s Saint John Passion) recently welcomed Sorrell for the first time. She has been a returning guest with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, Florida Orchestra, and Pittsburgh, Seattle, Utah, and New World Symphonies, and she has also led the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Houston Symphony, the Na- tional Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), National Symphony at The Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Cham- ber Orchestra, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis with the Saint Louis Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, among other ensembles . Vi ol i n ist Al an Choo appears on the global stage as a leading soloist, chamber musician, and historical spe- cialist. He made his solo debut with Apollo’s Fire at Tanglewood and Ravinia in 2017. He then served as an Artistic Leadership Fellow under the guidance of Jeannette Sorrell for four years before being named Concertmaster and Assistant Artistic Director for the ensemble in September 2022. Choo is also the founder and Artistic Director of Red Dot Baroque, Singapore’s first professional period ensemble, which is Ensemble-in-Res- idence at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. He has performed as guest concertmas- ter and soloist with the Shanghai Camerata in China and as a soloist with the FVG Orchestra (Italy), Saint Petersburg Symphony and Singa- pore Symphonies, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Orchestra of the Music Makers, and more. He won first prize in the Singapore National Piano and Violin Competition in 2011. Choo has given masterclasses and lectures at the Cleveland In- stitute of Music, Michigan State University, and other colleges in the US and Singapore. He holds a doctorate in historical performance from Case Western Reserve University, as well as degrees from the Peabody and Yong Siew Toh Conserva- tories. His solo-debut album with Apollo’s Fire, the complete Mystery Sonatas by Heinrich Biber, was released on AVIE Records in 2024 and de- buted at no. 2 on the Billboard Classical chart. Kathie Stewart , traverso , is Curator of Histori- cal Keyboards, Visiting Academic Specialist in Historical Performance, and Teacher of Baroque Flute at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. She is a founding member and principal flutist of Apollo’s Fire, and has performed with such ensembles as the Cleveland Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and Philharmonia Baroque. She is also Assistant Director of the Seattle Baroque Flute Workshop. Stewart is an avid proponent of Celtic music, playing Irish and Baroque flutes on several Apollo’s Fire recordings. Ellen Sauer Tanyeri , traverso , is a historical flute and recorder player based in Cleveland, where she is earning a PhD in musicology at Case Western Reserve University. She previous- ly studied music at the University of Michigan and The Juilliard School, where she worked with esteemed artists including Jed Wentz, Rachel Podger, Masaaki Suzuki, and William Christie. She is also a member of Nuova Pratica, a cham- ber ensemble composing and performing origi- nal works in Baroque styles. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 85 SISIBURN(SORRELL)