MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Music & the Arts

August 27, 2025 • 1:43 am Comments Off on Postcard from Tippet Rise

Postcard from Tippet Rise

Melissa White, Isabelle Ai Durrenberger, Pedja Mužijević, Benjamin Beilman, Bryan Cheng, Lizzie Burns and Emma Wernig in The Four Seasons at the Olivier Music Barn; photo: Brian Langeliers

I was very grateful to have the opportunity to return to Tippet Rise this summer. Here’s my report on the opening weekend of the summer season for The Strad:

From this magical spot in south-central Montana, the horizon is ringed by mountains: the Beartooths to the south, guarding the way to Yellowstone; the Absarokas to the east; and the Crazies rising in the west. The panorama shifts as quickly – and as dramatically – as the skies above. Storms can sweep across the land like Wagnerian preludes – dark, brooding, full of menace – only to dissolve moments later into shafts of unearthly light.

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Filed under: Strad, Tippet Rise, travel

August 21, 2025 • 11:17 pm Comments Off on At the Edge of the Storm: String Quartets in a Turbulent Decade

At the Edge of the Storm: String Quartets in a Turbulent Decade

Telegraph Quartet; photo: Matthew Washburn

On its new album Edge of the Storm, the San Francisco-based Telegraph Quartet explores string quartets from 1941-51. My interview for The Strad:

Edge of the Storm, the new album by the Telegraph Quartet, is the second instalment in its ongoing 20th-Century Vantage Points series – a curatorial project that maps key string quartet works against the seismic historical forces of the last century. Where the first volume (Divergent Paths, 2023) explored the early modernist rupture through Ravel and Schoenberg, this new release turns to the years 1941–1951: a turbulent decade shaped by war, exile, and the search for renewal….

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Filed under: Britten, Strad, string quartet

August 19, 2025 • 9:43 am Comments Off on NYO-USA in Asia: Music beyond Borders

NYO-USA in Asia: Music beyond Borders

2025 NYO-USA in China; photo: Chris Lee

This summer, between 22 July and 6 August, the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA) embarked on a whirlwind six-city tour of Asia under the direction of Gianandrea Noseda. Nearly 100 of the nation’s most talented teenage musicians took part, representing 29 states and the District of Columbia….

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Filed under: Carnegie Hall, Strad, youth

August 14, 2025 • 7:23 am Comments Off on Where Music Meets Nature

Where Music Meets Nature

Tessa Lark in Moab; photo: Richard Bowditch

Preparing to embark on her first season as artistic director of the Moab Music Festival later this month, the amazing violinist Tessa Lark spoke with me for The Strad:

When the Moab Music Festival opens its 33rd season later this month, it will mark the first change in artistic directorship since the festival’s inception, with violinist Tessa Lark taking the helm. The Kentucky-born musician combines a distinguished classical pedigree with a curiosity that spans Appalachian fiddle tunes to contemporary premieres. …

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Filed under: festivals, Strad, violinists

August 8, 2025 • 11:29 am 1

Perfect Timing: ‘Figaro’ in Santa Fe

Liv Redpath as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at Santa Fe Opera; image: Bronwen Sharp

My Musical America review of Laurent Pelly’s Nozze at Santa Fe Opera:
SANTA FE—The plot of The Marriage of Figaro can feel like a dizzying maze of deceptions and deferred revelations—its intricate turns threatening to overwhelm the human stakes. But in Santa Fe Opera’s ingeniously paced production, directed by Laurent Pelly, every complication slips neatly into place with the precision of a fine timepiece, allowing the machinery of the plot to bring the messy human entanglements that drive the drama into…

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Filed under: Mozart, Musical America, review, Santa Fe Opera

August 7, 2025 • 11:51 am Comments Off on Across the Americas: The Miró Quartet Celebrates Alberto Ginastera

Across the Americas: The Miró Quartet Celebrates Alberto Ginastera

Miró Quartet: Daniel Ching, Joshua Gindele, John Largess and William Fedkenheuer

Here’s an interview I did for The Strad with the Miró Quartet on their new recording of the complete quartets by Alberto Ginastera:

Among the Miró Quartet’s projects marking its milestone 30th-anniversary season in 2025 is a new recording of the three string quartets by Alberto Ginastera. For the String Quartet No. 3, Miró is joined by soprano Kiera Duffy. Long a staple of the ensemble’s live repertoire, these works trace the full arc of the Argentine composer’s creative evolution. As violist John Largess notes, they synthesise Argentine folk idioms with bold modernist language, making extraordinary technical demands. 

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Filed under: South America, string quartet, The Strad

August 5, 2025 • 11:58 am Comments Off on Blood Ropes and Broken Gods: ‘Die Walküre’ in Santa Fe

Blood Ropes and Broken Gods: ‘Die Walküre’ in Santa Fe

Ryan Speedo Green (Wotan), Back: Tamara Wilson (Brüunhilde), photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

Nothing like seeing Die Walküre accompanied by lightning and storm clouds @Santa Fe Opera. My review for Opera Now:

As its track record of world premieres and off-the-beaten-path repertoire proves, Santa Fe Opera has never shied away from adventurous undertakings. But with this new Die Walküre—its first venture into the Ring and only its third Wagner staging since 2022—the company takes a striking step into territory long left unexplored.  

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Filed under: Santa Fe Opera, Wagner

August 5, 2025 • 11:52 am Comments Off on Still Bohemians After All These Years

Still Bohemians After All These Years

L – R: Long Long (Rodolfo), Szymon Mechliński (Marcello), Emma Marhefka (Musetta), Sylvia D’Eramo (Mimì), photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

You think you’ve gotten over La bohème. Then a performance comes along and shatters your defenses, breaking your heart again…

My review of James Robinson’s new production spans the length of the 2025 Santa Fe Opera season is online here:

James Robinson’s new production of Puccini’s ubiquitous classic opened Santa Fe Opera’s 2025 season in June and will close it later this month. With its finely observed details and an emotional realism that doesn’t coast on sentimentality, it makes a fitting bookend to a summer that has balanced tradition with reinvention …

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Filed under: James Robinson, Puccini, Santa Fe Opera

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