December 12, 2024 • 1:48 pm Comments Off on Not Just Another “Messiah”: Harmonia’s Seattle Handel Tradition
My latest for The Seattle Times:
Like Starbucks rolling out its festively colored holiday cups, performances of “Messiah” make an inevitable appearance each December. For many, it’s as much a part of the season as twinkling lights and the scent of pine….
Filed under: Handel, Seattle Times
August 1, 2024 • 10:00 am Comments Off on Music on the Strait: 2024 Festival
The 2024 edition of Music on the Strait opens tonight with a concert at the new Field Arts & Events Hall in Port Angeles, WA. You can also livestream the concert, which starts at 7pm PT, on this YouTube page as well as on the Music on the Strait Facebook page here. The livestreams will also allow you to access the 6.15 pre-concert presentation with Lisa Bergman.
I wrote a preview for the Seattle Times here:
Music on the Strait has entered a new phase. Among the Puget Sound region’s youngest festivals devoted to chamber music, MOTS kicks off this year on Aug. 1…
Filed under: chamber music, music news, Seattle Times
July 1, 2024 • 12:14 pm Comments Off on 2024 Summer Festival with Seattle Chamber Music Society
Tonight is the opening concert of the 2024 edition of the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s annual Summer Festival. I wrote a preview for The Seattle Times here:
Sure, the Seattle Chamber Music Society has a menu of the usual star composers — Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák — for its Summer Festival running July 1-26. But this year, the festival is boasting an actual menu that will be designed onstage by Seattle star chefs. …
Filed under: James Ehnes, music news, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Seattle Times
December 6, 2023 • 9:33 am Comments Off on A Calendar of Light: The Esoterics at 30
In advance of this weekend’s world premiere of A Calendar of Light by composer Dale Trumbore and poet Barbara Crooker (Sat in Seattle and Sun in Tacoma, both at 7.30pm), I wrote a profile of Eric Banks and The Esoterics, the ensemble he created as a grad student 30 years ago in Seattle:
Having arrived early to a Queen Anne church to lead a rehearsal of a cappella choral group The Esoterics on a crisp November afternoon, founding director Eric Banks wraps up his latest text exchange with composer Dale Trumbore. They’ve been going over details of her new choral work, A Calendar of Light, which The Esoterics will premiere in just a little more than a month. Even though daylight saving time ended a couple days before — creating the brief illusion of an extra hour — he stays focused and has no temptation to slow down….
Filed under: choral music, commissions, Seattle Times
September 10, 2023 • 2:58 pm Comments Off on Seattle Area Classical Music Picks
Some recommendations for the fall season in Seattle region for the Seattle Times:
These are turbulent times for the performing arts. Even before the pandemic, there were challenges in attracting new audiences to the concert hall, and key local organizations are facing leadership changes. Yet the Puget Sound region remains home to some of the most imaginative and dedicated artists and presenters in the field. The offerings this fall are wonderfully varied: Here are six well worth your time:
Filed under: music news, Seattle Times
May 16, 2023 • 7:45 am Comments Off on Music of Remembrance at 25
My story for the Seattle Times about Music of Remembrance at 25, which will present a double bill of one-act operas by Jake Heggie this weekend:
Mina Miller is convinced that music can make a difference in the world.
“I am the child of parents whose entire families were annihilated in the Holocaust, so I grew up with a visceral awareness of the power of memory — of the stories that need to be told…”
Filed under: commissions, Jake Heggie, Music of Remembrance, new opera, Seattle Times
January 11, 2023 • 12:43 am Comments Off on A Homecoming for J’Nai Bridges
I spoke with J’Nai Bridges for the Seattle Times about her upcoming, long-awaited Seattle Opera debut. She will sing Delilah in two concert performances of Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila.
This is where it all started.
J’Nai Bridges treasures the memories of her youth in Lakewood just outside Tacoma. Growing up in a close-knit, supportive family, she was encouraged to pursue her exceptional musical talents early on. Even today, she can count on her parents and siblings to travel far and wide to see her perform on the world’s leading opera stages — whether at the Metropolitan Opera in New York or in Munich, where she made her European debut in 2017.
Filed under: Seattle Opera, Seattle Times
November 8, 2022 • 11:25 am Comments Off on Rediscovering Joseph Bologne
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, posing with his fencing rapier, painted by Mather Brown, in 1787. (Public domain)
Here’s my Seattle Times story for Seattle Baroque Orchestra’s upcoming concert devoted entirely to music by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges:
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, defies easy categorization.
For Seattle-based violinist, professor and filmmaker Quinton Morris, Bologne (1745-1799) combined “the entertainment appeal of Michael Jackson and the athleticism of Michael Jordan.” Morris’ award-winning film and performance project “Breakthrough,” which he has taken on tour around the world, presents Bologne’s many-layered story through a contemporary lens.
Filed under: music news, Seattle Times
November 3, 2022 • 12:37 pm Comments Off on Tan Dun Comes to Seattle
My Seattle Times story on Tan Dun and his upcoming appearances next week with Seattle Symphony:
A transformative encounter in cave temples inspired Tan Dun, who will conduct his epic Buddha Passion as part of a Seattle Symphony mini-festival of his works Nov. 3-13.
Filed under: Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times, Tan Dun
October 11, 2022 • 7:54 am 2
My Seattle Times story on the Tristan und Isolde production by Argentine director Marcelo Lombardero and colleagues, which opens Saturday at Seattle Opera:
Christina Scheppelmann, Seattle Opera’s general director, fervently believes that cross-cultural exchange is vital for the health of the art form. So she invited the prominent Argentinian stage director Marcelo Lombardero and his creative team to bring their vision to Seattle in a production of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” opening Oct. 15.
Filed under: directors, Seattle Opera, Seattle Times, Wagner
Arts & Culture Stories from NPR
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 