by Stephanie Manning
Over the past few summers, it’s become increasingly likely to find Apollo’s Fire performing at Holden Arboretum.
“It’s kind of become our summer home,” violinist Alan Choo said about the venue, which sprawls across more than 3,600 acres of green space in Kirtland. “I love taking a walk between shows or before rehearsal. It’s always so refreshing and gives me new inspiration.”
Next week, Apollo’s Fire will return to the botanical garden for four outdoor performances of this year’s Countryside Concerts. “Echoes of Ireland” focuses on the life and music of harper Turlough O’Carolan. The program runs from June 16-21, including concerts at Avon Lake UCC, The Bath Church UCC, and Lakeside Chautauqua. Tickets and more information are available online.
“Echoes of Ireland” will be the group’s first folk program directed by Choo, who has expanded his role over the years as the associate artistic director. “Apollo’s Fire really introduced me to the music of so many different cultures, so I’m really excited and very grateful for the opportunity,” he said.
When artistic director Jeannette Sorrell asked Choo to create an Irish concert, he said he immediately thought of Turlough O’Carolan — a blind 18th-century harper who traveled the country and was in high demand for weddings and funerals. “We have done a few of his tunes in past Irish programs, and they are always so amazingly beautiful and joyful.”
One recent occasion when audiences heard O’Carolan’s music was during “Wassail! An Irish-Appalachian Christmas,” last performed locally in 2024. But “a majority of this program is actually going to be new tunes,” Choo said. “So I think it will be really fresh for the audience to hear all these new pieces and arrangements that we have come up with.”
Divided into seven sections, the program follows O’Carolan’s journey chronologically — from childhood to young love, his bout with smallpox that left him blind at age 18, his troubadour adventures, and a celebration of a life well lived. Choo noted that most of the harper’s more than 200 tunes are either dedicated to particular people he met or give a diaristic snapshot of his life. “There’s a story where O’Carolan met an Italian violinist who challenged him to a musical duel,” he said.
The violinist — rumored to be Francesco Geminiani — played a Vivaldi concerto, but eventually conceded defeat to O’Carolan’s new composition, which blended Italian and folk styles. Both pieces made it into the Apollo’s Fire program. “I think that’s kind of the heart of what Apollo’s Fire does,” Choo said. “We are a Baroque orchestra, but we like to explore just how thin the walls sometimes are between folk music and art music.”
Joining Choo are seven other musicians to round out the ensemble, including Apollo’s Fire regulars and those who specialize in Irish music. Cellist René Schiffer helped Choo harmonize many of the O’Carolan tunes — the majority of which survive as a melody line only — and baritone Sam Kreidenweis will be the main vocalist.
“Naturally, with a concert that’s about a harper, we will feature our resident harpist, who also sings,” Choo said. That’s Anna O’Connell, a specialist in Irish music who will perform two songs in their original Gaelic. Multi-instrumentalist Luke Conklin will also play harp, along with a variety of wind instruments.
Another multi-talented addition is Brian Bigley, who plays the Uilleann pipes and is also a world-class Irish step dancer. “We are going to be ending off both the first and second half with Irish dancing, like a jig, that he will improvise steps along to and close the program on a high note.”
Dancing is another recurring component of Apollo’s Fire programs, and not just the Irish ones — see “O Jerusalem!” from earlier this year. “In these shows, what we really explore is that music does not exist in a vacuum,” Choo said, “Both Baroque music and folk music are heavily rooted in dance. If you understand the dance, you will understand how to express the music as well.”
Published on ClevelandClassical.com June 10, 2026
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