Early Music in Columbus: Apollo's Fire

Apollo's Fire is coming to First Community Church North on Thursday, March 18, 2027, for a performance of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion. The concert is part of the 47th season of Early Music in Columbus, a series that brings music written before 1800 to historical sites across the city, played on reproductions of historical instruments. This particular performance falls in the 300th anniversary year of the work, which premiered at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig on Good Friday in 1727.

Bach considered the St. Matthew Passion his most treasured work and spent 19 years refining it. It's a massive piece, and the ensemble bringing it to life here is a full one: Apollo's Fire is led by conductor Jeannette Sorrell, joined by the GRAMMY-nominated Apollo's Singers, children's voices, and British tenor Ed Lyon as the Evangelist. The character-role singers perform from memory, which is a particular detail to keep in mind when you're watching them.

Apollo's Fire has played to sold-out houses at Carnegie Hall, the BBC Proms, the Royal Theatre of Madrid, the Tanglewood Festival, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Apollo's Singers is the ensemble Sorrell founded in 1992, and The Cleveland Plain Dealer once called them one of the finest choirs of its kind in the country. The whole series is supported by the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, and the Arts Midwest Touring Fund.

The concert starts at 7 PM, with a pre-concert talk at 6:30 PM for anyone who wants a bit of context before the music begins. Tickets are $35 regular, $28 for seniors, and $15 for students, or you can get a subscription for up to 25% off the box office price. The venue is First Community Church North, 3777 Dublin Road, Columbus, OH 43221.