Apollo's Fire & Jeannette Sorrell Handel Israel in Egypt, Hwv 54 (2023)

A native of San Francisco, American conductor and harpsichordist Jeannette Sorrell began studying piano at age nine, and she also took up the violin. By 16, she had formed her own ensemble, and began studying composition and conducting. She attended Oberlin Conservatory on a scholarship, and studied harpsichord with Lisa Crawford and conducting with Robert Spano.

Martin Stadtfeld's new double album "Baroque Colours" presents a colorful sound panorama of the Baroque - with original works from Bach to Rameau as well as his own arrangements of well-known Baroque hits and unknown musical gems.

On 'Vivaldi and Friends', Apollo’s Fire, directed by Jeannette Sorrell, serve up an album of baroque concertos with a twist, just ahead of their UK debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in November. The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire, with their founder/ director Jeannette Sorrell, has made an indelible impression on the international music market since launching on Avie with recordings of Bach, Mozart and Monteverdi.

Billboard chart-topping and Grammy winning Jeannette Sorrell, baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire, soprano Amanda Forsythe and the music of J S Bach create a divine musical partnership.

John Beard was a young tenor who came to George Frideric Handel’s attention when still a teenager. He inspired the great composer to give new focus to the tenor voice within his English oratorios. Beard was Handel’s ideal in his demands for ‘articulate utterance of the words and a just expression of the melody’- a collaboration that climaxed in Handel’s creation of the first truly great tenor part as the hero in Samson. Grammy Award-winning tenor Aaron Sheehan steps into John Beard’s shoes equipped with a voice of ‘shining quality and deep sensitivity’ (The New York Times).