The Styrous® Viewfinder: Kyung Lee

July 13, 2026

Tom White Tribute

MUSIC

Hector Berlioz ~ The King of Thule

vocal by Frederica von Stade

Viewfinder link:

Tom White Celebration of Life - July 11, 2026

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Tom White Celebration of Life - July 11, 2026

Tom White Memorial - July 11, 2026

graphics by Keela Page

On Saturday the celebration of the life of Thomas Bruce White III was held at the BK Studio in Berkeley, California. Over a hundred people from everywhere were in attendance, friends, students, associates, etc.

Videos commemorating Tom's life were presented by documentation artist Kyung Lee and, of course me, Styrous®. Decades ago, Tom asked that the aria, The King of Thule from the opera The Damnation of Faust by Hector Berlioz, be played should there be a memorial for him when he died. I added photos from our 50 year relationship to the audio of that aria (links below). The 4-1/2 minute piece of music was WAY to short to fit the millions of images I have of him, of course, but I did the best I could.

The aria is a French translation of a German lyric poem, Faust, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe written in 1774; I've included an English translation. The quality sucks but I've uploaded the video to my blog (links below).

Thūlē also spelled as Thylē) is a mythical island, the most northerly location (if not Hyperborea) mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman literature and cartography. First written of by the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France) in about 320 BC, it was often described by later writers as an island north of Ireland or Britain, despite that Pytheas never explicitly described it as an island. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shetland, Northern Scotland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland. Other potential locations are the island of Saaremaa in Estonia, or the Norwegian island of Smøla.

The 20 hour soundtrack (all the music I could find from the fifties) for the event featured the songs we loved and danced to way back then (link below soon).

The celebration far exceeded my hopes and expectations thanks to the assistance from friends, family and especially Keela of BK Studio. I am indebted to them forever!