Wed 12/3 @ 7:30PM
Sun 12/7 @ 1 & 4PM
Just in time for the holiday season, Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s baroque orchestra, brings back one of its most popular programs, Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers program. The program brings together two things the ensemble is known for: Celtic folk-based music and classical/sacred music from many centuries.
The program reaches back to the Middle Ages for ancient pagan carols and church music and travels through Renaissance choral music, picking up traditional Celtic fiddle tunes and dances on its way. The program incorporates solo and choral vocals, along with a multitude of traditional classical and folk instruments, and even dancing, moving from the solemnity of a Vesper service to giddy, heel-kicking celebration.
Music director and harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell and the orchestra will be joined by the 16-voice Apollo’s singers, Canadian soprano Meredith Hall, archlutenist Sylvain Bergeron’s Ensemble La Nef of Montréal, Scottish guitarist/dancer Steve Player and baritone cantor Jesse Blumberg. Hall and Bergeron helped Sorrell develop the program, which Apollo’s Fore debuted in 2011 and released on CD the following year.
They’ll perform Wed 12/3 at the Cartwright Hall at Kent State University (650 Hilltop) and Sunday at Cleveland Masonic Auditorium.
Tickets are $20-$68.
They’ll also do a family version called “Christmas in Old Ireland” that focuses on the folk music, at 1pm Sunday at the Masonic Auditorium. Kids will have the chance to get up close with the performers and the instruments. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children.
Between the two Cleveland dates, the group will be taking the program to New York’s Metropolitan Museum so alert your east coast friends!
800 E Summit St, Kent, OH 44242-2501
Cleveland, OH 44115