“One of the oldest community-based orchestras in the region, the Thalia Symphony Orchestra, has a new music director,” writes Jason Victor Serinus in Sunday’s (10/30) Seattle Times. “Joseph Pollard White, 59, a mainstay of the Seattle classical music scene who currently conducts the Seattle Mandolin Society, will make his debut on Friday (Nov. 4). ‘I think part of the reason that the orchestra and I hit it off when I first conducted them last April … is that I want to focus more on American music from the 20th century and our own time,’ White said by phone. ‘I also want to perform more music by underrepresented groups, such as composers who are women or African-American, or who use explicitly queer language. I’m really not interested in hearing every last note by Mozart when there’s so much music by other composers that doesn’t get heard at all.’ ” The Thalia Symphony, founded in 1948, opens its season under White’s direction November 4 with music by Wagner, Beethoven, and Vaughan Williams, and “two infrequently heard pieces” by 20th-century Seattle composer George McKay.
Posted November 4, 2016
