9 minute read
TUSCAN SUN | Rustic Music from Baroque Italy
Amanda Powell, soprano
Jeannette Sorrell, harpsichord/direction
Advertisement
Brian Kay, vocals & plucked instruments
Andrew Fouts, violin
Jamey Haddad, percussion
Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello/gamba
PROGRAM
MARCO UCCELLINI (1603-1680) | La Bergamasca, from Sonate, Arie & Corrente, Op. 3
GIRALOMO FRESCOBALDI | (1583-1643) Se l’aura spira tutti vezzosa (If the breezes blow charmingly)
DIEGO ORTIZ (1510-1670) | Recercada no. 7 sobra la Romanesca (Theme from Rome) Recercada no. 2 sobre tenores Italianos (Themes from Italy)
GASPAR SANZ (1640-1710) | Canarios for Solo Guitar, from Musica de cifras sobre la guitarra Española, Bk 2
Tarantella | Anonymous Spanish 18th c., arr. R. Schiffer
Alla Boara & Zumba Lariula | Trad. Italian/Sicilian folk songs
TARQUINIO MERULA (1591-1665) | Foll’ è ben che si crede (Crazy to think anyone could turn me from you) arr. J. Sorrell & A. Powell
ANTONIO BERTALI (1605-1669) | Ciaccona for Violin
Sogna fiore mio (Dream, my flower) | Trad. Italian, arr. R. Schiffer
Pizzica di San Vito Trad. | Italian folk dance from the Tarantella family
These concerts are generously sponsored by Ann Fairhurst & Mark Cipra
ARTIST PROFILES
AMANDA POWELL, soprano, has been praised as “the star of the evening with a performance so tender it could make a stone cry” (SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL). Noted as “Bright-toned, charismatic and theatrically arresting” (SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE), she enjoys a diverse performance career including classical, folk, jazz, and global music. As a frequent soloist artist with Apollo’s Fire, she has appeared in Northeast Ohio and on tour in programs including Monterverdi’s L’Orfeo, Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Handel’s Messiah. She has a special affinity for bringing early music artistry to traditional folk repertoire and has appeared as lead female vocalist in Apollo’s Fire’s cross-over programs Come to the River and Sugarloaf Mountain, (including the August 2018 tour to Ireland and the UK). She was guest co-director/ creator for Apollo’s Fire’s Mediterranean Roots cross-over program in 2017. Ms. Powell has been featured on numerous recordings including Sugarloaf Mountain and Sephardic Journey, both of which are top ten BILLBOARD bestselling CDs. In 2015 she released her solo debut album, Beyond Boundaries. She holds a degree in vocal performance from Shenandoah Conservatory and a certificate in jazz improvisation from the Jazz in July Institute (University of Massachusetts). She has collaborated with artists such as Bobby McFerrin and Sheila Jordan.
BRIAN KAY, vocals & plucked instruments, is a modernday troubadour. He is the first Artistic Leadership Fellow of Apollo’s Fire and in 2019, won a Grammy® Award for his work on the CD Songs of Orpheus. He has performed throughout the world at venues such as the National Concert Hall of Dublin, Belfast Castle (Ireland), Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center. His live radio appearances include NPR, WYPR and 98ROCK (Baltimore), WGBH (Boston), and WCLV (Cleveland). He has recorded for AVIE and Sono Luminus labels, and has been heard on more than ten album releases. He is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, traditional and historical music specialist, poet, and painter.
ANDREW FOUTS, violin, has been noted for his “mellifluous sound and sensitive style” (WASHINGTON POST) and as “an extraordinary violinist” who exhibits “phenomenal control” (BLOOMINGTON HERALD-TIMES). In 2008, he won first prize at the American Bach Soloists’ International Baroque Violin Competition and joined Pittsburgh’s Chatham Baroque. He performs regularly with American Bach Soloists and as concertmaster of the Washington Bach Consort. He has taught at the Madison Early Music Festival and the Oficina de Música de Curitiba, Brazil.
KIVIE CAHN-LIPMAN, cello, is the founder and lironist of ACRONYM and a founding member of LeStrange Viols and the International Contemporary Ensemble. His more than fifty recordings on over a dozen labels include the complete cello suites of J.S. Bach, which have been praised for their “eloquent performances,” “fresh thinking,” and “energy and zeal” (THE STRAD). He holds degrees from Oberlin, Juilliard, and the University of Cincinnati, has served on the faculties of Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges and The College of New Jersey, and currently teaches cello at Youngstown State University.
JAMEY HADDAD, percussion, is regarded as one of the foremost world-music and jazz percussionists today. A Cleveland native, he has collaborated with artists including Paul Simon, Michael League and Bokante, Osvaldo Golijov, Yo Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, and Esperanza Spalding. His group Under One Sun released an album of the same name in 2017 that was featured in Downbeat Magazine. He is a recipient of the Cleveland Arts Prize and was recognized as a Legend of Jazz by the Cleveland Jazz Society. Mr. Haddad is a Fulbright Scholar and has been awarded multiple NEA grants for performance. A professor at The Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music, he previously taught for 18 years at Boston’s Berklee School of Music and New England Conservatory.
JEANNETTE SORRELL
GRAMMY®-winning conductor Jeannette Sorrell is recognized internationally as one of today’s most compelling interpreters of Baroque and Classical repertoire. She is credited by BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE for “forging a vibrant, life-affirming approach to early music.” The daughter of a European immigrant father and American mother, she grew up as a musician and dancer. She studied conducting under Leonard Bernstein, Robert Spano, and Roger Norrington at the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals. As a harpsichordist, she studied with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and won First Prize and the Audience Choice Award in the Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from Europe, Israel, the U.S., and the Soviet Union. Sorrell is the founder and artistic director of APOLLO’S FIRE, and has led the renowned period ensemble as conductor and harpsichord soloist in soldout concerts at London’s BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall, Madrid’s Royal Theatre (Teatro Real), London’s Wigmore Hall, the National Concert Hall of Ireland (Dublin), Grand Théâtre de l’Opéra in Bordeaux, the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), the Tanglewood and Ravinia festivals, Boston’s Early Music Festival, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery (Washington), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), among others. At home in Cleveland, she and Apollo’s Fire have built one of the largest audiences of any baroque orchestra in North America. In demand with symphony orchestras and period groups alike, Sorrell has repeatedly conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, and New World Symphony, and also led the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Opera St Louis with the St. Louis Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco, the Florida Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic (Canada), the Royal Northern Sinfonia (UK), the North Carolina Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, among others. Upcoming debuts include the Detroit Symphony, the Montreal Symphony (Handel’s Messiah), and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (Bach’s St. John Passion).
With over 4.5 million views of their YouTube videos, Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have released 26 commercial CDs, of which 8 have been bestsellers on Billboard Classical. She won a GRAMMY® in 2019 for her album “Songs of Orpheus” with Apollo’s Fire and tenor Karim Sulayman. Her recordings include the complete Brandenburg Concerti and harpsichord concerti of Bach (Billboard Classical Top 10 in 2012). She has also released four discs of Mozart. Other recordings include Bach’s St. John Passion, Handel’s Messiah, the Monteverdi Vespers (Billboard Classical Top 10) and five creative crossover projects, including; Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (Billboard World Music #2, Classical #7) and Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain (Billboard Classical #3, and named “Festive Disc of the Year” by GRAMOPHONE). Sorrell is the subject of the 2019 documentary by Academy award-winning director Allan Miller, titled PLAYING WITH FIRE. She has also been featured on Living the Classical Life. She has attracted national awards for her creative programming and her “storytelling” approach to early music, which has attracted many new listeners through the use of contextual and dramatic elements. 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, Sorrell is the architect of Apollo’s Fire’s Young Artist Apprentice program, which has produced many of the nation’s leading young professional baroque players; and the new Artistic Leadership Fellows program.
APOLLO'S FIRE
Named for the classical god of music, healing, and the sun, Apollo’s Fire is a GRAMMY®- winning ensemble. The periodinstrument orchestra was founded by award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell, and is dedicated to the baroque ideal that music should evoke the various Affekts or passions in the listeners. Apollo’s Fire is a collection of creative artists who share Sorrell’s passion for drama and rhetoric. Hailed as “one of the pre-eminent period-instrument ensembles” (THE INDEPENDENT, London), Apollo’s Fire has performed five European tours, with sold-out concerts at the BBC Proms in London (with live broadcast across Europe), the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), Madrid’s Royal Theatre, Bordeaux’s Grand Théàtre de l’Opéra, and major venues in Lisbon, Metz (France), and Bregenz (Austria); as well as concerts at the Irish National Concert Hall (Dublin), the Irish National Opera House (Wexford), the Birmingham International Series (UK), the Tuscan Landscapes Festival (Italy), and Belfast Castle with a live broadcast carried by the Associated Press of Europe. AF’s 2014 London concert was praised as “an evening of superlative music-making… the group combines European stylishness with American entrepreneurialism” (THE TELEGRAPH, UK). This concert was chosen by the TELEGRAPH as one of the “Best 5 Classical Concerts of 2014.” North American tour engagements have included sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall (2018), the Tanglewood Festival (2015 and 2017), the Ravinia Festival (2017 and 2018), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in N.Y. (2013, 2014, and 2015), the Boston Early Music Festival series, and the Library of Congress, as well as concerts at the Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor Festival, and major venues in Toronto, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The ensemble has performed two major U.S. tours of the Monteverdi Vespers (2010 and 2014) and a 9-concert tour of the Brandenburg Concertos in 2013. At home in Cleveland, Apollo’s Fire frequently enjoys sold-out performances at its subscription series, which has drawn national attention for creative programming. Apollo’s Fire has released 26 commercial CDs and won a GRAMMY® award in 2019 for the album Songs of Orpheus with tenor Karim Sulayman. AF’s recordings
have won rave reviews in the London press: “a swaggering version, brilliantly played” (THE TIMES) and “the Midwest’s best-kept musical secret is finally reaching British ears” (THE INDEPENDENT). Eight of the ensemble’s CD releases have become best-sellers on the classical Billboard chart: Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos & Harpsichord Concertos, a disc of Handel arias with soprano Amanda Forsythe titled The Power of Love (BILLBOARD Classical #3, 2015), and Jeannette Sorrell’s four crossover programs: Come to the River – An Early American Gathering (BILLBOARD Classical #9, 2011); Sacrum Mysterium – A Celtic Christmas Vespers (BILLBOARD Classical #11, 2012); Sugarloaf Mountain – An Appalachian Gathering (BILLBOARD Classical #5, 2015); and Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (BILLBOARD World Music Chart #2 and BILLBOARD Classical #5, 2016); and Songs of Orpheus (BILLBOARD Classical #5, 2018).
