Conductor and music director Jeannette Sorrell has always been drawn to the sounds and styles of early music. But she’ll be the first to tell you that she never expected her inception of a specialized Baroque Orchestra to take hold—let alone grow into a musical mainstay that now includes a professional choir, Apollo’s Singers, and a full subscription series.
“I was so young when I started it,” Sorrell said of Apollo’s Fire, a group she founded in 1992 at the age of 26. “I knew how insane it was at the time, and during a recession at that. I just knew I wanted to conduct an early music orchestra. I thought it would be something I would do for a couple of years until it fell apart, and then I would move on to something else. Now we’re launching our eighteenth season.”
Deriving its name from the classic god of music and the sun, Apollo’s Fire dedicates itself to the performance of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music using period instruments and vocal styling which the music was written for. As the group’s music director, Sorrell summons musical talent from a pool of early music artists from throughout the United States and Europe, which has helped garner the ensemble international praise, delivering this niche musical style to new ears.
Since its debut, Apollo’s Fire has performed at prestigious venues and music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival, the Miller Theatre series in New York City, the Boston Early Music Festival winter series, the Library of Congress, the Ojai Music Festival in California, the New World Symphony’s Baroque Festival in Miami, and the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, to name a few, as well as two sold-out concerts in Cleveland’s Severance Hall. Additionally, Apollo’s Fire has recorded, has been broadcast, and also has won numerous accolades and awards.
Sorrell took time out of her busy schedule to talk with CS in depth about Apollo’s Fire.
What inspired you to create this group, and how did Apollo’s Fire come to fruition?
I knew in high school and in my undergrad years that I loved period instruments and that I wanted to direct a chamber orchestra. I was working on my graduate degree at Oberlin and spent a year in Amsterdam studying harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt. After I graduated and ran out of money because there were no jobs for harpsichord players, I came back to live with a friend.
I ended up getting a call from the Cleveland Orchestra to interview for their assistant conductor position, which was a big surprise because I hadn’t even applied for the job. Apparently, I was on a list of 15 up-and-coming promising conductors. I had been seen conducting by a talent scout. So, I interviewed for this job, and the maestro didn’t really ask me anything about music. I was told there was really no point in pursuing it because Cleveland was not ready to accept a woman as a conductor. I expressed that what I really wanted to do was conduct a period orchestra so, as you can imagine, that was the end of the interview.
Afterward, Roger Wright, then the artistic administrator of the Cleveland Orchestra (presently head of classical programming at the BBC), came up to me and apologized for taking my time. But he also loved the idea of an early music ensemble and said he thought I was the one to do it, and he would help me. It was amazingly generous on his part. He really didn’t know me. I was very young. I didn’t live in Cleveland, so I didn’t know anybody. So, it was a really bizarre incident. Apollo’s Fire never would have happened without it. And, now, here we are years later.
What do you think has carried the group all these years?
Cleveland already had such a strongly developed culture of appreciation for classical music on a very high level. There is an importance of supporting classical music at the very deepest level possible. We also received a lot of support and attention from the press that we might not have received in other cities.
The other thing is how we’ve tried to develop our performance style and break the barrier between the stage and the audience. The way Baroque music was written in the eighteenth century, music was meant to move the listener, and the job of the performers was to evoke the moods and emotions of the listeners. We try to draw the audience in with us and respond to the music. People might not know why they are drawn in but, for better or worse, they are.
How has Apollo’s Fire evolved throughout the years to stay true to the Baroque musical style but also to reach today’s audiences and listeners?
I feel like a part of our journey is continually removing layers to get deeper and deeper into the rhetorical meaning and emotion under these works of art, which is really what music is. Each year, I think we find ourselves a little more liberated from just playing notes and, instead, [are] speaking the phrase through the music. For example, we’ve probably performed Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” three or four times. But each time we do, we begin thinking more in terms of pure imagery and the ideas and effects of the music and less about counting notes.
Why do you think it is still so important to communicate this style of music to today’s audiences and listeners?
I think that people today need this music now more than ever. They really need a way to get in touch with something inside of them that connects them to the universe and draws them away from the mundane activity of just trying to make money. This is what the arts do in various ways. And, people respond to this music.
It’s very interesting. Despite the economy, our season subscriptions were actually up last year, and that appears to be the case this year as well. People need
a means of connecting, and I think this music provides that type of communication that enables them to harmonize with their spirits.
You also incorporate vocalists with your Baroque instrumentalists as well, correct?
Yes, we do. We have a professional straight-toned chorus called Apollo’s Singers.
What are some of the challenges for the vocalists and instrumentalists of the groups in achieving the Baroque music style as well as continuing to challenge the repertoire and bring new life to it?
We usually perform six concerts in our subscription series. For me, it’s about finding the balance between vocal and instrumental and seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sacred and theatrical pieces. It’s an interesting puzzle every year. I try to make sure that in every concert we are giving people something new and fresh and in a way that they have never heard it before, with hopes that they can hear the music in a new way.
As well, with period instruments there are always challenges. They are very sensitive to changes in humidity. Literally, sometimes in the first five minutes of a concert, if we have a lot of people in the audience—and, for better or worse, we often do—our instruments will fall out of tune just having an entire audience of people breathing and changing the humidity level. It’s definitely a challenge for the instrumentalists to work around until the next time they can tune their instruments. But we have amazing string players that can do things in whatever subtle ways they need to tune up. It’s not easy to do. I’m proud to say that you would never know.
For the singers, I work with and have the honor of auditioning singers whom I handpick and who are already trained and very comfortable singing in the straight-toned style. So, most of what we work on in rehearsals involves our approach to the music and interpretation and text inflection of the piece rather than teaching notes or technical aspects. I wouldn’t want to do that. We also work with a variety of solo vocalists as musical guests.
How many vocalists and instrumentalists do you have with the ensemble?
It varies depending on the program. The smallest group will sometimes be about 10 people, with the largest being about 30.
How do you select the vocalists who are soloists with the group?
In general, I only engage soloists if I have heard them sing in person. I listen to quite a lot of auditions. In the last two months, more than 20 singers flew in to Cleveland to audition for me. I feel privileged that so many fine singers are interested in working with us. I do have an assistant who screens the recordings first—so she chooses which singers are invited for a live audition.
Do you accept unsolicited materials from singers? Do you usually hire singers you know or work through managers?
We ask that singers send only electronic materials. We used to receive cartloads of press packets and glossy photos, and we felt that too many trees were being slaughtered. So singers can e-mail their résumé and links to sound clips on the Internet. Those are screened by my assistant. I personally do not care whether a singer has an agent or not. I make decisions based on the musical performance that I hear or see—nothing else.
Do you have any advice for singers wanting to break in to the early music scene?
There are useful summer workshops at Oberlin (Baroque Performance Institute) and the Longy School of Music in Boston. Singers who enjoy singing straight-tone can learn a lot (while earning money!) by singing in a professional early music chorus, such as the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, Tafelmusik Choir in Toronto, Pomerium in New York, or Apollo’s Singers in Cleveland.
What kind of repertoire will Apollo’s Fire be working on for its upcoming season?
Our opening program will include Vivaldi’s Gloria and selections from Bach’s B Minor Mass. It should be really fun to tackle, as we’ve never done that before. We’ll also be performing a very rare Bach piece that is not performed often as it was never completely finished by Bach.
In November, we’ll have a chamber program called “Mediterranean Nights” that will feature guest soloists and Spanish dancing. It also will explore some early improvisation. Our December holiday program will include a compilation of different pieces that acts as a seventeenth-century German vesper service. It’s a fantastic extravaganza, with antiphonal choirs and children’s choirs and seven vocal soloists. It’s really beautiful.
For more information on Apollo’s Fire, visit www.apollosfire.org.
