Thomas May

Seattle

Writer at Freelance

writer, critic, translator; music, theater, literature, visual arts, film; traveler; Θωμᾶς or תאום

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Articles

Seattle Symphony incoming music director Xian Zhang shows her prowess

3 weeks ago | seattletimes.com | Thomas May

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. Her tenure officially begins in September, but her performance with the Symphony on Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” gave an early glimpse of what’s to come.
Jan Lisiecki’s year of Beethoven: all five concertos with the Toronto Symphony

Jan 8, 2025 | bachtrack.com | Thomas May

Jan Lisiecki’s immersion in the piano concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven began right at the deep end. Rather than offer his interpretation of just one work, his very first recording of music by the German composer (which appeared in 2019) encompassed nothing less than a complete concerto cycle.
This Seattle group has been putting a unique spin on a holiday tradition for some 50 years

Dec 12, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Thomas May

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. But Seattle-based Harmonia, comprising a 70-member semiprofessional orchestra and 55-voice chorus, has forged a special relationship with George Frideric Handel’s classic that goes back to the very origins of this community-based ensemble some 50 years ago.
Requiems and riddles: Seattle Symphony muses on the ultimate questions

Nov 23, 2024 | bachtrack.com | Thomas May

The state of the world this November feels especially conducive to mourning. Before presenting one of the best-loved Requiems in the canon, visiting conductor Kazuki Yamada opened his Seattle Symphony program with a much less frequently encountered work of grieving by his great compatriot Tōru Takemitsu. Requiem for string orchestra signaled the young Japanese composer's international breakthrough after Stravinsky heard it and pronounced the composition a masterpiece.
At SAM, Thaddeus Mosley and Alexander Calder’s sculptures juxtaposed

Nov 20, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Thomas May

“You just keep going till you get there.” Thaddeus Mosley is describing how he will know when the sculpture he’s currently working on is finished. At 98, he spends his days as he has countless others: transforming mute, hefty logs into mystery-imbued works of art. Using a chisel and gouge, Mosley manipulates the natural curves and patterns of the wood so that they become freshly animated, revealing shapes as varied and malleable as cloud formations.
Holiday classical concerts around Seattle to go to this year

Nov 11, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Thomas May

A yearning to be transported across cultures and eras is one of the themes of this year’s holiday concerts, with stops in Baroque Germany, the British Isles and Ukraine. Another is connecting with festive traditions that are as reliable as a serving of panettone and eggnog. Here’s a guide to festive sounds by a broad range of local and visiting artists.
The trumpet shall sound: Tine Thing Helseth with the Seattle Symphony and Andreas Delfs

Oct 19, 2024 | bachtrack.com | Thomas May

Mozart's creative burst in the summer of 1788 never ceases to astonish. Within a mere nine weeks – and despite facing a troubled period in his personal life – the 32-year-old composer produced a triptych of symphonies that have remained a pinnacle of the genre. Each symphony inhabits a distinct world of its own. Two of these, the symphonies in G minor and C major, served as the pillars of guest conductor Andreas Delfs’ Seattle Symphony program, which attracted a large and enthusiastic audience.
New York Philharmonic to Honor Composer, and Former Music Director, Pierre Boulez

Oct 17, 2024 | playbill.com | Thomas May

In March 1969 Pierre Boulez — then 43 — made his New York Philharmonic debut conducting a month of concerts. The engagement, which included a much-discussed performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, quickly resolved the question of who would succeed Leonard Bernstein as Music Director. A mere three months later came the announcement officially appointing Boulez to the post.
Unmasking illusions: San Francisco Opera's Un ballo in maschera mirrors life's motley

Sep 26, 2024 | bachtrack.com | Thomas May

“Dell’amor più desto è l’odio” (Hate is quicker than love), sings Renato in the opening scene of Un ballo in maschera. Though referring to the dangerous conspiracy poised to strike down his beloved king, who ignores his warnings, the observation unwittingly predicts Renato’s own behavior at the opera’s climax. Unforeseen consequences – hidden truths masquerading, as it were, within more obvious ones – are laced throughout Verdi’s 1859 opera.
Sound meditations and more classical music to catch in Seattle

Sep 6, 2024 | seattletimes.com | Thomas May

No matter how many other leisure-time options compete for our attention, there really is nothing to replace the connection that happens at a live performance. Fortunately for classical music lovers, local organizations are busting out a new season of enticing variety, from early music innovators to contemporary composers inspired by the findings of science. Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot returns to launch the orchestra’s new season with a lineup of shorter orchestral pieces.