Apollo’s Fire performs at Wake Forest

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Courtesy of Apollo's Fire

The members of Apollo’s fire pose.

Danielle Parker, Contributing Writer

The international baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire performed in Wait Chapel at 7:30 p.m on Thursday, Jan. 27 as a part of the Secrest Artists Series. 

Apollo’s Fire is a Grammy-winning ensemble founded and conducted by Wake Forest Class of 1986 alumna and Reynolds scholar Jeannette Sorrell, who is also an award-winning harpsichordist. The orchestra has performed in five European tours with sold-out concerts in various prestigious venues. Additionally, Apollo’s Fire has over seven million views of their YouTube videos and is one of the most popular baroque orchestras on the internet. They have released 26 commercial CDs, eight of which have become best-sellers on the classical Billboard chart. 

Dedicated to providing Wake Forest students, faculty and staff opportunities to watch world-class performances free of charge, the Secrest Artists Series hosted Apollo’s Fire to give the Wake Forest community the chance to hear from the renowned group. The period-instrument orchestra’s program showcased concertos from Bach and Vivaldi and also honored the 50th anniversary of Wake Forest’s ownership of Casa Artom, a study-abroad house in Venice, Italy. 

Following a five-minute video on Casa Artom’s impact on the Wake Forest community, Apollo’s Fire performed, highlighting conductor Sorrell who spent time at Casa Artom during her undergraduate years. Sorrell hosted a CD signing and Q&A after the performance, allowing students, faculty and visitors to ask her questions about her work with Apollo’s Fire. 

Hayden Barnes, Wake Forest alumna and manager of the Secrest Artists Series, believes the event was well-worth students’ time because it was a free opportunity to be exposed to the arts.

“I was at Wake Forest for undergrad myself, and I didn’t take advantage of all the Secrest Series concerts that happened while I was a student,” Barnes said. “I regret it because when you get out into the real world, you have to purchase your own ticket for entertainment, and it gets really expensive.” 

Barnes believes the Secrest Artists Series is one of the incredible non-academic opportunities Wake Forest presents to students. 

“This type of performing arts series is completely free to students, faculty and staff, and brings in high caliber musicians to perform,” Barnes said. “I think it really speaks to the fact that we want students to have a broad experience while they’re in college and not just focus on their academics but also experience some other things as well.”