Meet Jeannette Sorrell
Cleveland’s Renaissance Woman (double meaning intended!)

Do you like multiple choice questions? You know, especially the kind with the ‘check all that apply’ instructions? Sometimes this sort of thing prompts an unexpected epiphany. Take, for instance, Jeannette Sorrell, founder and music director of Apollo’s Fire. This summer, she’ll serve as a judge for an NEA panel on music grants. Of course, they wanted to know more about her, so they provided a list of activities from which one could indicate suitability for the task.

Well. There’s Writing. And Researcher. (She writes all her own program notes, and they’re terrific!) She Arranges a good bit of music for Apollo’s Fire. Obviously, she Conducts—and not just Apollo’s Fire, either. (More on that later.) And Performs on the harpsichord. She creates the Programs for the group, and is a Teacher, for a student baroque orchestra at CASE/CIM. There are probably even more things that she checked off, but I was so intrigued by this, I neglected to write them down. These aren’t bad for a starter, though. Obviously, she’s very qualified!

Two months ago, Ms. Sorrell conducted the Akron Symphony in a program of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. In June, Apollo’s Fire will be at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York. Then, in late July, Ms. Sorrell will be off to Boulder for the Colorado Music Festival as a guest conductor.

In November, they’ll be on the road for a pair of concerts: at Cornell University in New York, and at Penn State University. Early in 2008, Apollo’s Fire with the acclaimed mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore as soloist will tour the southeast US, including Wake Forest University and the Miami Bach Society in Florida, for performances that will include Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

And just in case you’re of a mind to present Gretry’s 1771 opera Zémire et Azor, you’d no doubt want to engage Ms. Sorrell to conduct it. She is apparently the only living conductor in the world to have conducted not one, but two successful productions of this retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale. In the summer of 2005, she spent seven weeks at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, for their sold-out performances, and earlier this year she repeated the magic for Arizona Opera, in more sold-out renditions. It always helps to specialize! But it also pays to be innovative, as well.

That’s how the Scarborough Fayre concerts came about, actually. Playing in a church or a concert hall is fine, really, but outdoor concerts in a more rustic setting have a definite charm all their own. This was the lure. The Baroque Music Barn on a private estate in Hunting Valley is a great setting for intimate performances. The first year Apollo’s Fire played a Brandenburg Concerto by Bach, featuring Ms. Sorrell on harpsichord and David Greenberg, a violinist who is as internationally renowned for his folk renditions as he is for the more straightforward Baroque.

The concert was well-received and well-attended, but – it just wasn’t quite what she thought of as ‘rustic’. She really wanted more of the ‘pop’ music that might have been heard—and played—in the time of the first Queen Elizabeth. Renaissance Pops, if you will. Or even Baroque Pops, to a certain extent. Scarborough Fair is an old tune, made new again by Simon and Garfunkel. “They have such good taste!” Jeannette adds, with her big smile.

So she tweaked the concept a bit, coming up with her own version of Scarborough Fayre a sort of ‘folk meets Baroque’ bit of musical comedy. There is a story line attached: a group of players—Elizabethan minstrels, if you will—having recently escaped from debtor’s prison, set up shop at the famed Scarborough Fayre. Unfortunately, they don’t do so very well, and soon find themselves on the road again. This time they land at a Renaissance Fair in Scotland, but without any more success than previously. After a major suspension of one’s disbelief, (time-travel, actually) the minstrels now find themselves in Nova Scotia—Cape Breton, to be exact—where the music is Arcadian. And from there, they wend their way to the Appalachian mountain area of the US.

The little troupe of minstrels are very talented, even if they’re not overly successful in their wanderings. Sandra Simon, the local singing actress; David Greenberg, fiddler extraordinaire (who lives in Nova Scotia, so knows that aspect of the music at first hand); Tina Bergmann, local hammered dulcimer player, and Ms. Sorrell at the harpsichord, make up the wandering ones.

Last summer’s Countryside Concerts featured a journey to the Bartholomew Faire, which was different, musically, from the Scarborough Fayre. There will be seven performances this year, between May 31 and June 6, the first five at the Baroque Music Barn in Hunting Valley, including a Sunday matinee; the latter two at the Happy Days Visitor Center at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

After its introduction in Cleveland in 2003, and a repeat in 2004, Scarborough Fayre was also taken on the road to the Ojai Music Festival in California where it was received with great enthusiasm. “It was amplified,” adds Ms. Sorrell, “but it worked really well. The audience was clapping along with us, and then they bought up all the CDs we’d taken with us.” The Scarborough Fayre CD (Koch 3-7577-2HI) is still one of the group’s best-sellers. And why not? The infectious rhythms and lovely melodies make for very pleasant listening.

There will be food available for purchasing, including Dewey’s popcorn and wine; intermission entertainment, and in keeping with the time frame, a possibility of stocks for those who misbehave, as well as a dunking pond. Well, maybe not the latter two. “People will just have to come to the Fayre and find out for themselves,” adds Ms. Sorrell with a big smile. “I hope they come prepared to dance in the aisles!”

So, are you going to Scarborough Fayre?

For tickets and information, contact the Apollo's Fire box office at 320-0012 or 800-314-2535. Discounts available for groups of six or more. The 16th Season (2007-08) schedule for Apollo's Fire will be announced soon; information will be available online at http://www.apollosfire.org.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz artswriterATadelphia.net
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