by Timothy Robson
Jerusalem, sacred city of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The location of horrific violence and oppression for over two millennia. But yet a magical city in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims have lived and interacted with each other in harmony. It was the latter aspect of Jerusalem that Jeannette Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire highlighted in their sensational program “O Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths.” I heard the performance on Wednesday, March 11 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Gartner Auditorium was well filled, and it now turns out that Apollo’s Fire gave the last major performance at the Museum for an unknown period of time, due to precautions around COVID-19. [Read more…]
If you think packing for a plane trip is a challenge, here’s what Rex Benincasa has to take through the security checkpoint. “I’m bringing a low tension tabor, a darbuka, a frame drum from Morocco called the Alun — which is a Berber instrument from the Atlas Mountains — an Arabic tambourine or riq, a North African or Egyptian tambourine, an assortment of ankle bells, camel bells, clamshell bells, Indian brass bells, castanets, a classical tambourine, a triangle that’s made out of a drill used to drill into stone, and an assortment of little shakers, claves and maracas,” he said via cell phone, having just buckled himself in for the last leg of his flight from New York to Cleveland. “Homeland Security used to tear everything apart but now they just swipe me for explosives and let me slide.”
Apollo’s Fire will present seven local subscription programs totaling thirty concerts during its 23rd season in 2014-2015. Additionally, Cleveland’s baroque orchestra will make its debut at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in December and at London’s BBC Proms next August, undertake a national tour of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers in November, and appear on the Pittsburgh Renaissance & Baroque Society series in April.