MEMETERIA by Thomas May

Music & the Arts

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

March 1, 2025 • 3:09 pm Comments Off on Cellist Abel Selaocoe Continues to Redefine His Approach to the Instrument 

Cellist Abel Selaocoe Continues to Redefine His Approach to the Instrument 

Abel Selaocoe, © Christina Ebenezer

I had the privilege of speaking with the unclassifiable musical phenomenon Abel Selaocoe for this month’s Strings magazine cover story.

Any attempt to label Abel Selaocoe’s artistry is bound to fall short. While many of today’s young musicians defy easy categorization, Selaocoe ventures even further into uncharted realms. His expansive philosophy of communication views the cello as the extension of a larger voice—a storytelling device to navigate multiple dimensions of identity and community. Selaocoe uses his cello in tandem with singing, improvisation, body percussion, and ensemble energy to amplify a fundamental impulse to express, to connect, to belong.
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Filed under: cellists, Strings

May 31, 2024 • 10:54 am Comments Off on Earth Song: How Music Can Serve as a Response to the Climate Crisis

Earth Song: How Music Can Serve as a Response to the Climate Crisis

Trey Lee, Eldbjorg Hemsing, and John Luther Adams

Included in the latest issue of Strings magazine is my story on efforts by Trey Lee, Eldbjorg Hemsing, and John Luther Adams to address the climate crisis:

Nature sings in the work of countless composers in the Western classical tradition. The calls and flutterings of birds, spine-tingling thunder, falling raindrops: Vivaldi transformed a repertoire of found sounds from the natural world into some of the most memorable moments in The Four Seasons. …

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Filed under: climate change, John Luther Adams, Strings

March 12, 2024 • 7:55 pm Comments Off on Seattle is a (West) Coastal Haven for String Players

Seattle is a (West) Coastal Haven for String Players

Susan Gulkis Assadi. Photo: James Holt/Seattle Symphony.

My latest piece for Strings magazine:

“To describe the beauties of this region will, on some future occasion, be a very grateful task to the pen of a skillful panegyrist,” reported Captain George Vancouver in 1792. Vancouver led the first European expedition to chart Puget Sound—as he dubbed what would become the US portion of the larger Salish Sea long inhabited by the Coast Salish indigenous peoples. Many of the British place names conferred by Vancouver have endured, but the area’s best-known city, Seattle, founded by white settlers in 1851, stands apart as being named after an indigenous leader, Chief Seattle (using the Anglicized version of his actual Lushootseed name, Siʔaɬ)…

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Filed under: Seattle Chamber Music Society, Strings

February 5, 2024 • 6:15 pm Comments Off on Heavy Metal Meets Classical: Rachel Barton Pine Finds a Common Ground

Heavy Metal Meets Classical: Rachel Barton Pine Finds a Common Ground

My latest for Strings magazine: meeting up with the insatiably curious Rachel Barton Pine.

Stickers for Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax are emblazoned on the case that contains Rachel Barton Pine’s signature “ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat” Joseph Guarneri del Gesù from 1742. The charismatic violinist doesn’t just defy categories. Her life as an artist is fueled by omnivorous curiosity, which Pine combines with searing musical intelligence and an impeccable virtuosity—all in the service of finding a deep connection to her audience….

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Filed under: commissions, Strings, violinists

November 28, 2023 • 12:14 pm Comments Off on Musicus Fest 2023 in Hong Kong

Musicus Fest 2023 in Hong Kong

Louis Lortie and Musicus Soloists Hong Kong

For the opening concert of the 11th edition of Musicus Society Hong Kong’s Musicus Fest, the talented young musicians of the Musicus Soloists Hong Kong joined with pianist Louis Lortie to perform a thoughtfully curated program of Nordic composers. My review:

With the inauguration of Musicus Fest in 2013, Hong Kong’s Musicus Society began translating its ideals of cross-cultural and intergenerational collaboration into the reality of performance in a festival atmosphere….

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Filed under: education, festivals, Musicus Society, pianists, Strings

August 25, 2023 • 7:15 am Comments Off on Social Harmony: Shinichi Suzuki’s Legacy

Social Harmony: Shinichi Suzuki’s Legacy

For my story on the legacy of the music educator and visionary, which appears in the latest issue of Strings magazine, I spoke to Anne Akiko Meyers, Leila Josefowicz, and Patricia D’Ercole, past chair of the Suzuki Association Board of Directors.

suzuki-profile-september-october-2023-st314-thomas-mayDownload

Filed under: education, Strings, violinists

April 19, 2022 • 8:19 pm Comments Off on David Fulton on Acquiring — and Dispersing — His Storied Collection

David Fulton on Acquiring — and Dispersing — His Storied Collection

I had a chance recently to spend some time with David Fulton and wrote about his new book for Strings magazine:

Right after Thanksgiving in 1981, David Fulton, to his astonishment, took possession of a Pietro Guarneri violin made in Mantua in 1698. This “little Petrus” turned out to be the unexpected beginning of a matchless collection acquired over the next two decades: 28 historic Cremonese instruments, which Fulton gathered into an assembly arguably unrivaled among contemporary private collectors around the world…

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Filed under: Strings

January 1, 2022 • 5:21 am Comments Off on Edgar Moreau’s Sprint to Stardom

Edgar Moreau’s Sprint to Stardom

My profile of French cellist Edgar Moreau is the cover story of the Jan-Feb 2022 issue of Strings (print only).

Filed under: cello, Strings

April 17, 2021 • 5:06 pm Comments Off on A Beacon of Hope

A Beacon of Hope

My latest feature in the May-June 2021 issue of Strings magazine explores how the Chicago Sinfonietta, founded by the remarkable Paul Freeman, has been pursuing the quest for diversity in the world of classical music:

From its very inception, the Chicago Sinfonietta was well ahead of the curve. Its longstanding commitment to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion predates by a generation the present cultural moment’s demand for social justice.

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Filed under: diversity, Strings

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