new music | MEMETERIA by Thomas May

March 13, 2026 • 10:28 am 0

‘WISDOM’s Sources’: Music of Roger Reynolds

Out today is the third installment in Ekkozone Records’ series of recordings devoted to the music of Roger Reynolds, as active as ever at 91. The strikingly original works here include WISDOM’s Sources, which grew out of Reynolds’s longstanding creative friendship with violinist Irvine Arditti, and ‘O’o’ – named for the now-extinct Hawaiian bird and written for flutist Robert Aitken. Danish percussionist and producer Mathias Reumert has been documenting Reynolds’s music in this remarkable series.

My album essay can be found here.

Filed under: new music, Roger Reynolds

January 30, 2026 • 10:26 am Comments Off on “Finding Hope in a Desolate Landscape”

“Finding Hope in a Desolate Landscape”

*Rebecca Albers; photo: Travis Anderson*

I spoke with Minnesota Orchestra principal violist Rebecca Albers for The Strad about preparing the North American premiere of Donghoon Shin’s Threadsuns – a viola concerto inspired by Paul Celan’s poetry, which she performs this weekend. Fabien Gabel conducts. Given everything happening in Minnesota right now, the piece feels heartbreakingly timely.

In a moving decision, the Minnesota Orchestra also announced a change to the program in response to tragedy in the community. Opening the concerts is the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, offered in memorial for Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and shared “with love for our audience and our beautiful city” on a program that explores resilience and the search for “songs to sing” amidst darkness.

interview

Filed under: new music, The Strad, viola

December 18, 2025 • 4:18 pm Comments Off on Making the Violin Sing: Gil Shaham on Three Concertos Written for Him

Making the Violin Sing: Gil Shaham on Three Concertos Written for Him

*Gil Shaham with Bright Sheng and Leon Botstein*

A new Strad interview with Gil Shaham about Premieres, his forthcoming album of violin concertos written for him by Scott Wheeler, Bright Sheng, and Avner Dorman:

Premieres, Gil Shaham’s new release on Canary Classics, brings together three violin concertos written expressly for him and realised in close collaboration with conductor Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now. Recorded at Bard College’s Fisher Center, the album reflects a network of long-standing artistic relationships and a shared belief in the concerto as a living, evolving form…

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Filed under: new music, The Strad, violinists

September 25, 2025 • 7:59 pm Comments Off on Goethe’s ‘Urworte.Orphisch’ Set to Music by Bernd Richard Deutsch

Goethe’s ‘Urworte.Orphisch’ Set to Music by Bernd Richard Deutsch

To open the season this weekend, Franz Welser-Möst leads the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in the American premiere of Austrian composer Bernd Richard Deutsch’s ambitious, nearly-hour-long Urworte, which sets Goethe’s famous stanzas to music.

Movements:

Daimon: Dämon (Demon)
Tyche: Das Zufällige (The Accidental)
Eros: Liebe (Love)
Ananke: Nötigung (Necessity) —
Elpis: Hoffnung (Hope)

Sunday’s concert will be livestreamed on Adella, digital home of The Cleveland Orchestra.

My introduction to the work can be found in the Cleveland Orchestra program notes here.

Composers often set aside ideas that strike them in a flash of inspiration, waiting until the right moment arrives to wrestle them down in detail and give them an enduring form. For Bernd Richard Deutsch, one such idea was to write a work exploring the elemental forces that shape our lives….
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Filed under: Cleveland Orchestra, Goethe, new music, program notes

June 5, 2025 • 9:33 am Comments Off on Ojai Music Festival 2025

Ojai Music Festival 2025

And it begins! Ojai Music Festival launches its 79th edition today, 5 June, and will be streaming the concerts at Libbey Bowl on the OMF homepage at OjaiFestival.org and on the festival’s YouTube channel.

Writing the OMF program notes is always an immersive experience, but this year’s festival programming by Music Director Claire Chase has proved to be the most fulfilling since I began writing for the festival. The 2025 edition also carries a bittersweet resonance since Artistic and Executive Director Ara Guzelimian just announced that he will conclude his tenure with the 2026 OMF.

So many highlights to look forward to over this extended weekend, which showcases the incredible community of fellow artists with whom Claire Chase has chosen to collaborate. In the spotlight tonight are Marcos Balter and his epic Pan – a signature contribution to Chase’s ongoing Density 2036 project – and Annea Lockwood’s bayou-borne, an homage to the late Pauline Oliveros, her close friend, mentor to Chase, and a tutelary spirit watching over the music-making at Ojai.

You can find the entire program book here.

Filed under: American music, Claire Chase, new music, Ojai Festival

May 19, 2025 • 12:09 pm Comments Off on Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Notes on a First Concerto

Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Notes on a First Concerto

San Francisco Symphony just gave the world premiere of Before we fall, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s new cello concerto for Johannes Moser, with Dalia Stasevska on the podium.

My behind-the-scenes feature on its creation is the current Strings magazine cover story.

Here’s Lisa Hirsch’s review for the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Thorvaldsdottir’s new cello concerto, Before We Fall, is a banger, sonically and intellectually, dense with ideas and meriting repeat hearings. It launches explosively, which is not an unusual strategy for a concerto, but don’t be misled. This isn’t a conventional soloist-versus-orchestra showdown….
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Filed under: Anna Thorvaldsdottir, cello, new music, San Francisco Symphony, Strings

May 1, 2025 • 9:32 am Comments Off on Third Coast Percussion with Jessie Montgomery

Third Coast Percussion with Jessie Montgomery

*Third Coast Percussion with guest artist violinist Jessie Montgomery. (Marc Perlish)*

I spoke with Third Coast Percussion’s David Skidmore about their upcoming program on 3 May at Meany:

Think percussion is just about hitting things? Think again.

With instruments that shimmer, thrum, ping and even gurgle underwater, Third Coast Percussion has spent the past 20 years expanding horizons for what a percussion ensemble can do. The Chicago-based quartet returns to the University of Washington’s Meany Center for the Performing Arts on May 3 as part of a milestone anniversary tour….

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Filed under: new music, percussion, Seattle Times, Third Coast Percussion

March 29, 2025 • 8:11 am Comments Off on Xian Zhang Returns to Seattle Symphony

Xian Zhang Returns to Seattle Symphony

*Xian Zhang, Seattle Symphony music director designate, conducts the Symphony in its “Holst: The Planets” program March 27. (James Holt / Seattle Symphony)*

I reviewed Xian Zhang’s first concert with Seattle Symphony since being named music director designate :

With just a few gestures, Xian Zhang began conjuring a cosmos.

Returning to Benaroya Hall for her first full program since being named Seattle Symphony’s incoming music director, Zhang drew the nearly sold-out concert hall Thursday night into her orbit with her focused, magnetic conducting.

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Filed under: new music, review, Seattle Symphony, Xian Zhang

November 22, 2024 • 5:52 pm Comments Off on Sounds of Change: Ayane Kozasa and Paul Wiancko on the New Kronos Quartet Formation

Sounds of Change: Ayane Kozasa and Paul Wiancko on the New Kronos Quartet Formation

*Kronos Quartet; image by Danica Taylor*

A new interview for The Strad: I spoke with Ayane Kozasa and Paul Wiancko of the Kronos Quartet about the dramatic change in the ensemble’s lineup that began with the current season:

Having celebrated its 50th anniverary last season, the Kronos Quartet has already begun its latest chapter with a dramatic change in the ensemble’s makeup. Longtime members John Sherba (violin) and Hank Dutt (viola) retired at the end of June, leaving violinist David Harrington, who founded Kronos, as the sole remaining member from the early years. Dutt had been part of Kronos since 1977, while Sherba joined them in 1978. Cellist and composer Paul Wiancko began his relationship with the quartet in 2019 and took the place of Sunny Yang in February 2023. Violinist David Harrington, who founded Kronos, is the only member who now remains. ..

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Filed under: chamber music, Kronos Quartet, new music, Strad

August 12, 2024 • 11:24 am Comments Off on “The Righteous” at Santa Fe Opera

“The Righteous” at Santa Fe Opera

Michael Mayes (David), Brenton Ryan (CM), and Greer Grimsley (Paul) in *The Righteous*; photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

I reviewed Santa Fe Opera’s The Righteous for Musical America. The latest in the company’s distinguished history of commissions, The Righteous is an ambitious collaboration between composer Gregory Spears and poet-librettist Tracy K. Smith. The opera unfolds across the span of the Reagan era and features a large cast to tell the story of a charismatic Southwestern preacher who gets elected as state governor:

MusicalAmerica – At Santa Fe_ New Opera Depicts an Ugly Era & Hits Close to Home Download