SETH MAY-PATTERSON
Seth May-Patterson, viola, violin, is a sought-after performer, private teacher and coach who is as comfortable performing for sold-out arenas as he is teaching in the classroom. Seth has collaborated and performed with artists such as Mark Lanegan (Queens of the Stone Age), ODESZA, Mary Lambert, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Leon Bridges, David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Duff McKagan (Guns and Roses), Judy Collins, Allen Stone, Kris Orlowski, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and many others. Notably, he appeared with Mary Lambert on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and completed a national tour with David Bazan in 2014, as well as performed with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis with Leon Bridges at the American Music Awards in 2015.
Seth is in demand as a session musician and has completed recording projects that range from independent sessions to full-length albums and major motion pictures. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Cornish College of the Arts where he studied with Mara Gearman (Assistant Principal Viola of Seattle Symphony), and in 2011 completed an intensive fellowship with grandmaster violist Emanuel Vardi. Seth sat Principal Viola in the Seattle Rock Orchestra and Assistant Principal in the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, was a member of Symphony Tacoma, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, and Federal Way Symphony, as well as subbed for the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Auburn Symphony Orchestra. Seth also performed with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players for their Mikado tour, the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, and was thrilled to be asked to perform in China as Principal Viola with the Hollywood Concert Orchestra.
In 2020, Seth began collaborating with The Rumba Kings as an arranger, violist, transcriptionist, and composer. He's credited for writing a stunning string quartet prelude to The Rumba Kings' cover of Metallica's 1992 single, "Nothing Else Matters," and he's featured in the quarantine video released by the band in March 2021, as the violist. See the video below.
Seth is also a passionate music educator. He taught viola and violin in the Pacific Northwest from 2009-2020, including co-founding an after-school beginning strings program in the Snoqualmie Valley Elementary Schools, coaching the Bellevue Youth Symphony, and maintaining private studios in Snoqualmie and Mukilteo.
Recently, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Seth has relocated to the Kansas City, MO area with his partner, Sarah, and is getting involved with the KC music scene as well as pursuing an interest in manufacturing oil and edibles for a medicinal cannabis company based in St. Louis.