MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Music & the Arts

October 2, 2023 • 1:02 am Comments Off on New Artist of the Month: Stephanie Childress

New Artist of the Month: Stephanie Childress

Conductor Stephanie Childress; photo (c) Kaupo Kikkas

Congratulations to Stephanie Childress, Musical America’s New Artist of the Month for October 2023. My profile of this remarkable conductor has now been posted on Musical America’s website here.

The good fairies generously allotted the skills required to succeed as a conductor to Stephanie Childress. Or so it occurred to me while recently seeing this 24-year-old phenomenon in action leading a spirited, remarkably poised account of excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, beginning with “La Fée des lilas.” …

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Filed under: conductors, Musical America

August 11, 2023 • 11:29 am Comments Off on Orfeo in Santa Fe

Orfeo in Santa Fe

Amber Norelai (Euridice), Rolando Villazón (Orfeo), Lucy Evans (La Ninfa), Luke Elmer (3rd Pastore); photo by Curtis Brown for Santa Fe Opera

The first of my reviews from Santa Fe Opera’s 2023 season is open through the weekend (no paywall) here. I discuss Yuval Sharon’s extraordinary new production of L’Orfeo (or Orfeo, as they’re calling it), which features new orchestrations commissioned from Nico Muhly.

My review of Tosca is here (but behind the paywall). More reviews upcoming in Opera Now.

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Filed under: directors, Monteverdi, Musical America, Puccini, reviews, Santa Fe Opera

May 1, 2023 • 5:08 pm Comments Off on James Díaz: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

James Díaz: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

Credit: Mariangela Quiroga fotografia

Congratulations to composer James Díaz, Musical America’s New Artist of the Month for May 2023. My profile:

When he was 14, James Díaz started taking keyboard lessons thanks to the toss of a coin. His parents wanted to have one of their two sons receive training so as to be able to play in the local church. Díaz, born in 1990, would commute every day from his working-class district on the outskirts of Bogotá. …

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Filed under: artist profile, composers, Musical America

April 1, 2023 • 11:03 am Comments Off on Sameer Patel: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

Sameer Patel: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

Photo (c) Sam Zauscher

I had the pleasure of writing this profile of Sameer Patel, Musical America’s New Artist of the Month for April 2023:

As he describes the career choices that have led to his current position, Sameer Patel refers to a verse from the Bhagavad Gita: “‘It’s better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another’ — in other words, to follow your own virtue or path or journey.”

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Filed under: conductors, Musical America

March 1, 2023 • 8:38 am Comments Off on A Thousand Splendid Suns Dawns at Seattle Opera

A Thousand Splendid Suns Dawns at Seattle Opera


Cast members in A Thousand Splendid Suns at Seattle Opera. Photo credit: Sunny Martini

The moving operatic transformation of Khaled Hosseini’s 2007 novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by composer Sheila Silver and librettist Stephen Kitvakos had its world premiere over the weekend at Seattle Opera in a powerful production directed by Roya Sadat. I reviewed the opening night performance for Musical America:

Soon after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, Sheila Silver sensed that the story’s combination of tragedy and endurance has an archetypal, larger-than-life quality — exactly what opera excels at expressing. It’s a terrible irony that the work’s lengthy genesis has actually made this story of the oppression of women even timelier than when Silver first considered the idea over a decade ago….[see below]

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Filed under: Musical America, new opera, review, Seattle Opera

December 1, 2022 • 11:32 am Comments Off on Musical America’s New Artist of the Month: Nina Shekhar

Musical America’s New Artist of the Month: Nina Shekhar

Nina Shekhar; image (c) Shervin Lainez

I wrote about the fantastically talented composer Nina Shekhar for this month’s Musical America column:

Questions involving identity have fascinated Nina Shekhar since she can remember. Coming of age as a first-generation Indian American has meant learning to navigate different cultural expectations not only in her personal life but also in her priorities as an artist. “A lot of my work is identity driven,” the composer explained in a recent conversation via Zoom. “Music was always a way of understanding my relationship to myself and to my environment.”

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Nina Shekhar: rockabye-bye (2020), commissioned by Lyris Quartet and the HEAR NOW Music Festival

Filed under: composers, Musical America

November 1, 2022 • 8:53 am 1

Zlatomir Fung: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

Congratulations to cellist Zlatomir Fung, Musica; America’s New Artist focus for November. I had the pleasure of hearing his New York Philharmonic debut last summer at the Bravo! Vail Festival. Here’s my profile:

Competing with nature’s own surround-sound orchestra, open-air performances aren’t the optimal context in which a soloist can shine. But Zlatomir Fung kept me riveted at this past summer’s Bravo! Vail Festival, eager not to miss a single nuance from the moment…

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Filed under: artist profile, cellists, Musical America

March 1, 2022 • 8:04 am Comments Off on Musical America’s New Artist of the Month: Lee Mills

Musical America’s New Artist of the Month: Lee Mills

For this month’s column, I had the privilege of writing about this very talented young conductor:

When he was still in college, Lee Mills had a dream job of becoming a roller coaster designer. But the unexpected career path he ended up following has given the young conductor another way of providing some very memorable thrills—especially during the current season of turbulent twists and turns….

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Filed under: conductors, music news, Musical America, Seattle Symphony

February 11, 2022 • 11:20 am Comments Off on George Crumb: An Appreciation

George Crumb: An Appreciation

George Crumb’s final work: Kronos — Kryptos

Reflecting on George Crumb for Musical America:

The American composer George Crumb, whose innovative, theatrically charged soundscapes explored a new kind of musical poetry, has died after a long and far-reaching career. He was 92. 

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Filed under: American music, George Crumb, music news, Musical America

December 11, 2021 • 10:46 am 1

Christina Scheppelmann Makes the List

Congratulations to Seattle Opera’s Christina Scheppelmann for being ranked among Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year:

“In January 2020, when Seattle Opera announced its next season, it was the first to be programmed by the company’s new general director, Christina Scheppelmann. She had arrived eight months earlier as one of only a few women to lead a major opera company, but after the pandemic lockdown set in, the season might have been lost entirely if not for her determination. ‘I don’t like to stick my head in the sand,’ said Scheppelmann, previously artistic director of Barcelona’s Fundació del Gran Teatre del Liceu. ‘Doing nothing and waiting out the pandemic was not an option. I wanted to deliver the season we promised, and I saw an opportunity to get it done within public health restrictions we needed to follow.'”

Filed under: music news, Musical America, Seattle Opera

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