About the Presentation:
In this moment of national debate about the fate of immigrants in America, Jeannette Sorrell shares her secret story. Growing up in a small and close-knit family with very little money, she knew that her beloved Papa had a mysterious past. But he wouldn't talk about it, and Mom didn't seem to know either. Finally in 2018, on the eve of her Carnegie Hall debut, Jeannette discovered with a shock who Papa actually was – thanks to DNA testing and a trip to the Holocaust museum in Washington.
By then, she had overcome plenty of her own obstacles as a woman in the male-dominated field of orchestral conducting. Since her parents had no money to buy a piano, as a child she practiced on a paper piano keyboard.... Later, turned away by famous maestros who would not let her audition, she created her own orchestra, APOLLO'S FIRE, which now brings international acclaim to Northeast Ohio. In this presentation, Jeannette shares the story of her father's rescue from the ashes of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, and his determination to create an arts-filled and love-filled life in America. Would Apollo's Fire be here today, if the U.S. had not welcomed this young refugee from war-torn Europe?
About Our Speaker:
GRAMMY®-winning conductor Jeannette Sorrell is recognized internationally as one of today’s most compelling interpreters of Baroque and Classical repertoire. She is credited by BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE for “forging a vibrant, life-affirming approach to early music.” She is the subject of the documentary by Oscar-winning director Allan Miller, titled PLAYING WITH FIRE: Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting, commercially released in 2023.
Bridging the period-instrument and symphonic worlds from a young age, Sorrell studied conducting under Leonard Bernstein, Roger Norrington and Robert Spano at the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals. As a harpsichordist, she studied with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and won First Prize and the Audience Choice Award in the Spivey International Harpsichord Competition, competing against over 70 harpsichordists from Europe, Israel, the U.S., and the Soviet Union.
As a guest conductor, Sorrell made her New York Philharmonic debut in 2021 to rave reviews and returned in 2023. She has repeatedly conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, and New World Symphony; and has also led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Center (NYC), Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Opera St Louis with the St Louis Symphony, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Calgary Philharmonic (Canada), Royal Northern Sinfonia (UK), Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Spain), Grand Rapids Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, and the Orchestra of St Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, among others.
In 2024-25, she makes debuts with the Detroit Symphony and New Jersey Symphony, and returns to the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Colburn School.
Sorrell has been featured on Living the Classical Life, and has attracted national awards for her creative programming and her “storytelling” approach to early music, which has attracted many new listeners to the genre.
As the founder and artistic director of APOLLO’S FIRE, Sorrell has led the renowned period ensemble in sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Madrid Royal Theatre, London’s BBC Proms, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and many other venues in North America and Europe. At home in Cleveland, she and Apollo’s Fire have built one of the largest audiences of any baroque orchestra in North America.
With 17 million views of their YouTube videos, Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire have released 32 commercial CDs, of which 11 have been bestsellers on Billboard Classical. Sorrell won a GRAMMY® in 2019 for her album “Songs of Orpheus” with Apollo’s Fire and tenor Karim Sulayman. Her CD recordings of the Bach St John Passion and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons have been chosen as best in the field by the SUNDAY TIMES of London (2020 and 2021). Her Monteverdi Vespers recording was chosen by BBC Music Magazine as one of “30 Must-Have Recordings for Our Lifetime” (September 2022). Her discography also includes the complete Brandenburg Concerti and harpsichord concerti of Bach (Billboard Classical Top 10 in 2012), four discs of Mozart, Handel’s Messiah, and five creative crossover projects, including Sephardic Journey (Billboard World Music #2, Classical #7) and Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain (Billboard Classical #3, and named “Festive Disc of the Year” by GRAMOPHONE).
She holds an Artist Diploma from Oberlin Conservatory, an honorary doctorate from Case Western University and an award from the American Musicological Society. Passionate about guiding the next generation of performers, Sorrell is the architect of Apollo’s Fire’s Young Artist Fellowship program, which has produced many of the nation’s leading young professional baroque players.
Dr. James Wilding is Professor of Instruction in Composition and Theory and Academic Coordinator at The University of Akron's School of Music. Wilding is of British heritage, and was born and raised in South Africa. He studied at the University of Cape Town, and later moved to the United States to continue his studies at Youngstown State University and Kent State University. His musical mentors were Neil Solo-mon, Stewart Young, Peter Klatzow, and Thomas Janson. Praised by the Cape Times as ‘highly original,’ Wilding’s mastery of structure and lyricism, and his use of ethnic instruments, folk tunes, connections to art, photography, literature, and stories, capture audiences in the US and abroad. His work has been enthusiastically championed in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Senegal, Germa-ny, Holland, France, Switzerland, Britain, Canada, South Africa, and the USA, by such groups as the Escher Sring Quartet, the Stow Symphony Orchestra, the New York Middletown Wind Ensemble, the Harburger Orchester Akademie, the TEMPO ensemble, the Factory Seconds Trio, and the Chamber Music Society of Ohio. He has received commissions from Bayerischer Rund-funk, the South African Music Rights Organization, the Tuesday Musical Association, and the Orange County School of the Arts. Broadcasts of his music have taken place all over the world, including Bavaria Radio (Fürth), Fine Music Radio (Cape Town), SAFM (Johannesburg), WUOL (Louisville), and KKGO (Los Angeles). His piano piano pieces Etude and Poem were prescribed for the UNISA-Transnet International Piano Competition and the Hennie Joubert Na-tional Competition. He won the Oude Meester Prize for South African composers and the Chan-cellor’s Trust Prize of Potchefstroom University. His music is published by Hal Leonard, Musica Ferrum, Afri-Piano, and Wilding Publications. Dr. Wilding teaches composition and theory at The University of Akron in Ohio.