One of the great pleasures that enforced isolation has brought to my life is a renewed focus on chamber music. We can do it at a safe social distance and there are only a few people involved.
Sam Anderson, the music director at St. Paul’s KCMO decided that we would use some of our resources to make videos of chamber music, and I reached out to Nicholas May for one of them.
I first became aware of Nick when I was on faculty at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I was adjudicating the Play With Chiara competition when I heard him as a finalist, and I found him to be a remarkable player.
I didn’t actually meet him at the time, but about four years later, I was picking up some Thai food, and I noticed him sitting at a table in the restaurant.
We re-connected, and we when started this series, he was one of the first people that I asked to participate.
In the video, Nick plays the Heitor Villa-Lobos Fantasia which is standard sax repertoire for good reason. It’s fun and viruosic. He also plays an Invocation by Amy Beach that was originally written for violin, but makes a great addition to the saxophone rep.
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