September 21, 2026 • 8:42 am 0
My report for The Seattle Times on Seattle Symphony’s opening night:
Seattle Symphony’s opening-night concert Saturday included an unusual extra audition: Benaroya Hall’s newly renovated public spaces met their first concert audience. A $20 million overhaul — the hall’s first major renovation since it opened in 1998 — has given the lobbies serving both auditoriums a striking makeover.
Filed under: music news, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times, Xian Zhang
March 2, 2026 • 8:29 am Comments Off on Private Passions, Public Peril in Seattle Opera’s “Fellow Travelers”
The production of Gregory Spears’ and Greg Pierce’s opera Fellow Travelers presented by Seattle Opera has launched a U.S. tour. Here’s my review of opening. night for the Seattle Times:
Desire unfolds under watchful eyes in “Fellow Travelers.”
Set during the McCarthy-era Lavender Scare of the 1950s, the opera by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce opened Saturday at McCaw Hall, marking the first time a production centered on openly gay subject matter has appeared on Seattle Opera’s mainstage.
Filed under: American opera, culture news, review, Seattle Opera, Seattle Times
February 15, 2026 • 11:23 am Comments Off on Seattle Symphony’s ‘Iris Unveiled’ Offers Rich Immersion in Sonic World
My Seattle Times review of this week’s Seattle Symphony concerts, marking music director Xian Zhang’s first with the orchestra in 2026:
On Thursday night, for the first time since early October, Seattle Symphony Music Director Xian Zhang returned to the Benaroya Hall podium, this time with a program of striking contrasts. The first half ventured into unfamiliar territory with a contemporary work for which she has been a leading advocate, while the second turned to one of the 20th century’s blockbuster symphonies….
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Filed under: review, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times, Shostakovich, Xian Zhang
February 7, 2026 • 3:54 pm Comments Off on Seattle Symphony’s ‘Iris Unveiled’ Shows New Music Director’s Vision
For my latest story in The Seattle Times, I spoke with Xian Zhang about this week’s program featuring Iris dévoilé by Qigang Chen:
As her first season at the helm of the Seattle Symphony moves into its second half, what Music Director Xian Zhang is hoping to achieve with the orchestra — and with the local audience — is beginning to crystallize….
Filed under: Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times, Xian Zhang
December 19, 2025 • 10:17 pm Comments Off on Seattle Bach Festival’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ Offers ‘Messiah’ alternative
For some, Handel’s “Messiah” remains a cherished ritual.
For others, it has become so predictable as to feel almost unavoidable — a seasonal monument polished smooth by repetition.
This season, the Seattle Bach Festival is offering a different way into the Christmas story — one that trades “Messiah’s” grand sweep for a more kaleidoscopic, scene-by-scene celebration of the Nativity: Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio.”…
Filed under: Bach, Seattle Bach Festival, Seattle Times
October 30, 2025 • 11:39 am Comments Off on Matthew Aucoin and a New Generation of Composers Are Giving 21st-century Music a Body Again
On November 1, Meany Center for the Performing Arts presents Matthew Aucoin’s Music for New Bodies, a “vocal symphony” based on the poetry of Jorie Graham and staged by Peter Sellars — in other words, not to be missed. I spoke with Aucoin about New Bodies for The Seattle Times:
“The voice of the bottom of the ocean. The voice of the medicines moving through your veins. The voice of the core of the Earth.”
Composer Matthew Aucoin names them like a spell — presences that inhabit “Music for New Bodies,” his 70-minute vocal symphony that will receive its West Coast premiere at the University of Washington’s Meany Center on Nov. 1. ..
Peter Sellars on Music for New Bodies
Filed under: American music, American opera, Meany Center for the Performing Arts, Peter Sellars, Seattle Times
October 21, 2025 • 4:33 am Comments Off on Gabriella Smith’s “Lost Coast” at Seattle Symphony
Here’s my Seattle Times profile of the remarkable young composer Gabriella Smith. This week’s Seattle Symphony concerts will feature her innovative cello concerto Lost Coast, with Gabriel Cabezas as the soloist:
Her official bio reads like a manifesto: “Gabriella Smith is a composer whose work invites listeners to find joy in climate action.” The 33-year-old has built a creative world around that idea — one where music and environmentalism are inseparable…
Filed under: American music, cellists, cello, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times
July 21, 2025 • 10:07 pm Comments Off on Yes, Chef – With Strings Attached
My story on Seattle Chamber Music Society’s upcoming second edition of the Tasting Notes program:
Before they ever shared a stage, James Beard media award-winning cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt and violinist James Ehnes had already discovered a mutual obsession with the art of cooking and Beethoven string quartets. ..
Filed under: James Ehnes, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Seattle Times
July 10, 2025 • 10:34 pm Comments Off on Bach’s Lost ‘Markus-Passion’ Imagined Anew – with a Dramatic Twist
Sacred music lay at the heart of Johann Sebastian Bach’s creative life. His vast output includes hundreds of choral works written for the principal churches in Leipzig, Germany, where he oversaw musical programming….
Filed under: Bach, early music, Early Music America, Seattle Times
May 1, 2025 • 9:32 am Comments Off on Third Coast Percussion with Jessie Montgomery
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….
Filed under: new music, percussion, Seattle Times, Third Coast Percussion
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