Named for the classical god of music and the sun, Apollo’s Fire was founded in 1992 by the award- winning young harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell. Sorrell envisioned an ensemble 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 America’s leading baroque orchestras” (The Boston Globe), and “a front-runner among America’s finest baroque orchestras” (The Independent, London), Apollo’s Fire enjoys sold- out performances at its subscription series in Cleveland. The ensemble has toured throughout North America, performing at venues such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival series, the Library of Congress, the Ojai International Festival in California, and the Chautauqua Institution. The ensemble recently completed an 11-concert national tour of the Monteverdi Vespers.

Apollo’s Fire made its European debut tour in November 2010, to standing ovations in Spain and the Netherlands, and a sold-out crowd at London’s Wigmore Hall, where the concert was broadcast by the BBC. This season, Apollo’s Fire tours internationally with countertenor Philippe Jaroussky, with engagements in Bordeaux, Madrid and Lisbon, as well as Boston, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Apollo’s Fire has released 17 commercial CD’s, and currently records for the British label AVIE. Since the ensemble’s introduction into the European CD market last summer, the 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). The fall 2010 release of the Monteverdi Vespers made the Top 10 on the classical Billboard chart.

Apollo’s Fire is broadcast frequently on National Public Radio, Canada’s CBC, Britain’s BBC, and the European Broadcasting Union. The ensemble’s television special “Discovering Vivaldi,” produced by Cleveland’s PBS television station, will begin national syndication on PBS stations in 2011.

ARTISTIC PHILOSOPHY
Music is a form of communication – a language that resonates with people in an emotional and spiritual way, touching people in a way that words cannot. The treatises from the 17th and 18th centuries all talk about “Affekt” – the emotional character of the music. The performer’s role was to evoke a particular Affekt or emotional state in the listeners – whether that be joy or contemplation or rage or despair or triumph. The baroque performer used every possible means to cast his emotional spell on the audience – rhetoric, gesture, harmony. Apollo’s Fire is a collection of artists who believe passionately that our job is to communicate – to take the listeners with us on an emotional journey. If, at the end of two hours, the audience is moved to tears, or joy, or laughter, or prayer, then we have done a good night’s work.