holiday | MEMETERIA by Thomas May

November 28, 2025 • 3:35 pm 0

Gathering around the Hearth: Inside the Miró Quartet’s New Holiday Album

*Miró Quartet: Daniel Ching (violin), Joshua Gindele (cello), John Largess (viola) and William Fedkenheuer (violin); photo: Barry Carlton*

I interviewed John Largess, violist of the Miró Quartet, about the ensemble’s new holiday album:

Celebrating 30 years together, the Miró Quartet swaps concert halls for the fireside with Hearth, a collection of festive songs newly arranged by fifteen leading composers. Violist John Largess talks about collaboration, nostalgia and what togetherness means after three decades on the road….

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Filed under: holiday, string quartet, The Strad

December 15, 2022 • 10:52 am Comments Off on Behold the Star with Seattle Pro Musica

Behold the Star with Seattle Pro Musica

Seattle Pro Musica presents its holiday program on 17 December at 3pm at First Baptist Church in Seattle. Titled Behold the Star, the program offers holiday favorites as well as the world premiere of Shruthi Rajasekar‘s newly commissioned I am my own, set to texts by the three Brontë sisters (Emily, Charlotte, and Anne). Winter and holiday-themed works by Herbert Howells, Francis Poulenc, and Guillaume Dufay share the program.

Behold the Star is the third in Seattle Pro Musica’s New American Composer Series. The five-concert series celebrates Seattle Pro Musica’s 50^th Anniversary,with commissions and Seattle residencies by five BIPOC composers from across the country.

This performance will also be available by livestream in real time and on demand following the performance (simply register in advance here).

Tickets available at seattlepromusica.org/behold-the-star

Filed under: holiday, music news, Seattle Pro Musica

December 9, 2022 • 1:51 pm Comments Off on Donald Byrd’s The Harlem Nutcracker

Donald Byrd’s The Harlem Nutcracker

This is a holiday treat I’m especially looking forward to: the upcoming “teaser” for choreographer extraordinaire Donald Byrd‘s The Harlem Nutcracker at Spectrum Dance Theater.

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s Nutcracker Suite is the musical inspiration for this work-in-progress. “The original story centers around an African-American family in Harlem on Christmas Eve,” according to Spectrum’s description. “It highlights the unique warmth and centrality of the grandmother in African-American culture, the resilience of Black American families and Harlem as a center of the African Diaspora.”

This year’s performance is being billed as a “teaser” to the complete production, tentatively scheduled to premiere in a little over a year. It includes the whole show except for the final 20 minutes — which will be unveiled as a surprise at the full premiere.

Dates: DEC 8-11 + 15-18, 2022 at On the Boards, 100 W Roy Street, Seattle, WA 98119. Tickets here.

Filed under: Duke Ellington, holiday, music news, Spectrum Dance

July 4, 2019 • 12:01 am Comments Off on Happy July 4th