Sun 5/30 @ 7PM
Mon 5/31 @ 4PM & 7PM
Like many organizations, Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s baroque orchestra, has taken a look at its ranks, been blinded by the whiteness and decided to do something about it. That something is its MOSAIC project, which was started in 2019.
The program was conceived by AF’s founder and artistic director Jeannette Sorrell, who knows about being denied opportunities for reasons extraneous to one’s talent: as an ambitious young conductor she was excluded from a job with the Cleveland Orchestra based on her gender. The diversity equity and inclusivity initiative will offer training, performing and mentoring opportunities for young musicians of color.
Conceived by Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell, this ambitious Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity initiative offers training, performance, and mentoring for talented young musicians of color, with the goal of diversifying AF’s Musettes Ensemble (treble youth chorus), professional chorus, board, staff and orchestra over the next three to five years and create the next generation of baroque musicians of color within the next decade. Fellowships, internships, coaching and partnerships with schools and community organizations are all part of the program. It aims to make it clear t hat classical music, and specifically early music, isn’t just for white people.
As Apollo’s Fire returns to live in-person performing in an outdoor setting at the Butler Campus of Laurel School in Russell Township for Music Among the Trees: “Lift Every Voice, A Celebration of Brotherhood & Sisterhood,” it will feature members of the MOSAIC Project.
Sorrell will conduct the program, which features sopranos Kristine Caswelch and Ashlee Foreman, countertenor Reggie Mobley (pictured), tenor Jacob Perry and bass Jonathan Woody, along with Apollo’s Fire instrumentalists and the Musettes Ensemble. The new program, put together by Sorrell, will feature music by 18th-century French-African composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de St. Georges, who was known as “The Black Mozart.” Monteverdi’s beautiful Nigra Sum (I am Black & Beautiful) from the Vespers of 1610 will be juxtaposed with Woody’s 2019 composition of the same title. And Mobley will share stories of growing up Black in the Deep South, fueled by his social and political activism and his dedication to promoting racial, gender and sexuality diversity in classical music.
The 70-minute program will have three performances at Laurel Schools Conway Pavilion, with limited capacity to allow for social distancing. Tickets start at $25, $10 for students. In addition, those who can’t physically get to the concert can rent the concert video for $20, with 30 days to watch it.
Call 216.32.0012 x1 for tickets, or go to apollosfire.org to order them.
Apollos Fire Music Among the Trees