Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Winds

The Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra will present a colorful concert of Latin-American music on Sunday, October 30 at the Bijou Theater at 2:30. We'll be featuring the music of Mexican composer Arturo Marquez (Danzon No. 4), Venezuelan composer Aldemaro Rivera (Fuga con Pajarillo), Aaron Copland (Three Latin-American Sketches), and Astor Piazzolla (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires). The Piazzolla work will spotlight Principal 2nd Violinist Edward Pulgar as soloist. Edward is a seasoned performer and will definitely highlight the zestily-seasoned melodies of the Piazzolla "Seasons."

Perhaps you remember composer Hans Richter, and his “Vivaldi Recomposed,” which the KSO performed at the 2015 Big Ears Festival. Our project with him was a “realignment” of Vivaldi's own music, basically orchestrated “tape loops.” Piazzolla, on the other hand, has composed a thoroughly new piece, with just a few cleverly disguised quotes from Vivaldi's original. The work was originally composed in 1965-70 for violin, bass, electric guitar, piano and bandoneón, but was transcribed for solo violin and strings by Leonid Desyatnikov in 1996-98. I am very much reminded of Heitor Villa-Lobos' music with this piece-- the harmonic thickness and the rhythmic drive-- to the extent that I suspected that Piazzolla had studied with Villa-Lobos. Imagine my surprise to learn that while yes, he was born in Argentina, he moved as a 4-year-old with his parents in 1925 to (ready for this?) Greenwich Village! At age 9 he was studying music with a student of Rachmaninoff, and there's your Knoxville connection! The music sways between lush and explosive, but there will be moments where you will hear stringed instruments played in ways you have probably never imagined.

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Another new venture for the KSO involves the Principal Woodwind Quintet and one of Knoxville's “jazz hideouts,” the Red Piano Lounge. Called “Woodwinds After Work,” it is an opportunity to hear wind chamber music while sampling the fine tapas and cocktails on the menu. The inaugural WAW was last May, but the series continues next Tuesday, November 1 at 6:30. The Quintet will play three 20-minute sets and will mingle with concert-goers between sets.  It's a good opportunity to meet our new principal flutist, Johanna Gruskin, who comes to us from Duluth, Minn. via LA's Colburn School of music. Best of all, this performance is FREE, with food and drink available for purchase.  

THIS IS COMEDY

This week's collaboration at the Tennessee Theatre with the Knoxville Opera Company on Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance brings us some well-needed silliness.  On the heels of the success of 2014's production of H.M.S. Pinafore, a “British Invasion” of an entirely other sort will “capture” the fancy of young and old alike.  Featured will be UT voice faculty member, bass-baritone Andrew Wentzel, who for 20 years now has been singing the National Anthem at UT football games.  He will be performing INDOORS this weekend...

I remember listening to Gilbert and Sullivan growing up, on LPs on our Sears SILVERTONE record player.  We didn't have room in the living room for one of those console or credenza stereo, but we did have the lovely, “portable” desktop machine pictured below.  It was strictly forbidden to put records on the little shelf on the right side.  Every once in a while, the lid would come down like a guillotine and slice that sucker in half like it was a graham cracker.

At first I was fascinated with the machinery, but by the time I was 6 or so, I started to become intrigued by the music itself.  I was taken by the verbal agility.  I understood what they were saying, but why were they saying it that way?!  I was left with the impression that, wow, England must be an awfully cheerful place if even the pirates were this happy!

Just as Wagner's name is intimately associated with the opera house in Bayreuth, Gilbert and Sullivan's heyday came to be because of a tight coalition of the composers (actually the music is by Arthur Sullivan and the libretto by W. S. Gilbert), the venue (the Savoy Theatre, thanks to which, their body of work has come to be known as the Savoy Operas), and the opera company (the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company).  I just wanted to make sure, so I looked it up-- it's pronounced DOILY Cart.

A cart full of Doilies

D'Oyly Carte

Anyway, my lame attempt at humor here can't hold a candle to the level of hijinks that will be achieved at the shows, this Friday at 7:30 and Sunday at 2:30. See you there!!

Italian Masters

The KSO's Masterworks series will continue its musical travels across Europe this Thursday and Friday at 7:30 at the Tennessee Theatre, under the direction of James Fellenbaum. This week's focus will be the music of three Italian composers.  I'm being careful not to describe it as “Italian music” in an ethnic sense, since each of the three composers-- Vivaldi, Rossini and Puccini-- were active in such different eras, and bound by those eras' conventions.  The great Italian vocal tradition is the binding force in the repertoire, as all three wrote operas, with Puccini's and Rossini's fame, at opposite ends of the Romantic Era, relying almost exclusively on opera.

Rossini's Overture to Semiramide (“sem-ee-rom-a-day”) exhibits structural formula and transparent textures left over from the Classical period.  The concitato, or agitated style of rapidly repeated notes, took root with Monteverdi in the 1640s, lived on in the Vivaldi Four Seasons from 1723, and the Rossini from 1823.  Later in the Romantic period it was no longer uniquely Italian and was largely abandoned by the time the grand scale and vocal sweep of Puccini's music made the scene in 1884.

The Capriccio Sinfonico is Puccini's thesis composition for the Milan Conservatory, written at age 24 in 1883.  It includes material from three of his first four operas; Le villi (“The Fairies”), Edgar, and La bohème.  The Intermezzo that opens Act III of his third opera, Manon Lescaut, supplies the second work by Puccini on the concert.

The Four Seasons by Vivaldi is the solo work on this concert, with violinist Giora Schmidt as soloist.  (His first name is pronounced “Ghee-or-a,” with a hard “g” sound as in “guitar”).  It will be easy to notice Vivaldi's operatic tendencies in the Seasons, because of the highly picturesque portrayal of the four seasons as “characters-” it's program music at its finest and the stile concitato is everywhere.  Vivaldi employs major keys for the bulk of the Spring and Fall segments, expressing joy in the more temperate seasons, and minor keys for Summer and Winter, reflecting the harshness of the extremes of weather.  Listen carefully to the second movement of Spring, where the (muted) violas portray far-off barking dogs on a cold early spring night. The concerti will be separated, with Spring and Summer on the first half followed by the two Puccini works (split by an intermission), and ending with Fall and Winter.

Last Weekend and This Weekend

Knoxville turned 225 the other day-- no better excuse for another party in downtown Knoxville! The founding year of 1791 makes Knoxville older than Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, and lots of bigger and uglier towns. In fact, on that date it was declared “the capitol of the Southwest Territories,” and one of 17 state capitols. Georgia encompassed most of Mississippi and Alabama then, with the lower third of those states AND New Orleans AND everything west of the Mississippi River still under Spanish control. The exact date is October 3, 1791, just three months after the Treaty of the Holston.

Before there was a Knoxville Symphony, it seems classical music was largely imported. A major center for the performing arts was Staub's Theatre, which stood on the current site of the Plaza Tower, home of Club Leconte. There were also outdoor performances at Chilhowee Park on the east side of town. Here are a couple images of Staub's, built in 1872 and known subsequently as Lowe's and The Lyric Theatre before it was razed in the early 60s. Wow, just... wow. (Photo courtesy of Will Dunklin).

Although little is known of classical music's influence (if any) in Knoxville at the time, any music aficionado knows that 1791 is also the year of Mozart's death.  In a dual celebration of these occasions, the KSO Principal String Quartet included in their performance Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, from his final year, in Knoxville's Krutch Park this past Saturday morning.  Mild weather and receptive crowds heard us play other Mozart and a special set of variations on Happy Birthday which led into an awesome Bill Pierce arrangement of Rocky Top, and your weekend was off to a great start, WASN'T IT??  (By the way, I hear it is supposed to be pronounced KROOCH Park). Tympanist Michael Combs was in the audience, and shared a snapshot with me.

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On July 10, 1966, I turned 5. My family (my parents, 3 sisters and a brother, all older than me) had set off in a Chevy van from Connecticut to many Western points; Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, the Grand Canyon… 50 years ago. I remember some of it like it was yesterday. I also remember some of the tunes the radio played; Lara's Theme from Doctor Zhivago, Roger Miller's King of the Road, and some Beach Boys songs which captivated my musical siblings and I in a different way than any of the Boys' previous hits had. The Pet Sounds album that came out in May of that year has influenced everyone from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to 2017 Big Ears Festival headliners Wilco. The Tennessee Theatre is the perfect venue to hear Brian Wilson's creation come to life, with a surf music chaser this Friday at 7:30. Wouldn't It Be Nice to see y'all there?

Two fine additions to the KSO Board of Directors

The KSO Board of Directors voted at its annual meeting on September 8, 2016 to add two new board members: Mrs. Becky Paylor, community volunteer and past president of the Knoxville Symphony League, and Mr. David Colquitt, Chief of Staff at Pilot Flying J. Photos and biographies of the new board members are included below. The KSO Board of Directors is chaired by Cynthia Moxley.

KSO Board President Ms. Cynthia Moxley is half-way through her two-year term as board president and says these additions will strengthen the board as a whole. “We are fortunate to work with an outstanding staff and board of directors during this turning point in the organization as we introduce our new Music Director Aram Demirjian. The Board plays a crucial role in upholding the organization’s mission, and ensuring financial sustainability.”

"My love of music began with my paternal grandmother who was a voice teacher and brought the piano into our lives.  Then a new resurgence when deciding whether to allow our new home to be a Symphony League Showhouse in 2002. When we learned how much music education was being presented by the KSO in the school system, it was the deciding factor for my husband and me and the new “eyeopening” journey began.  The KSO is the cog in the wheel for all the arts in Knoxville.  Can you imagine living in a town with no orchestra? Neither can I, and that's why I am so pleased to help raise awareness and assets for the KSO."

Becky Paylor served as President of the Knoxville Symphony League during the 2014-15 season. She currently serves as Board Chairman for The Restoration House, a ministry for single moms and their children, and is a member of the Pellissippi State Community College Foundation Board. She is a Merit Board member of the Knoxville Symphony League, a board member for Fostering Hope and a Board member for New Life Gathering, the church plant of Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church where she has been a member for 35 years.

"Music- in all its forms- has been a great source of joy for our family. I am excited, and honored, to do what I can to help ensure that the KSO continues to be a thriving organization for East Tennessee."

David Colquitt serves as Chief of Staff for Pilot Flying J, the largest operator of travel centers in North America. Prior to his current role, David worked in operations for Pilot, serving as both a travel center general manager and a region manager. Prior to Pilot Flying J, David worked as an Associate for Bracewell & Giuliani LLP in its Houston, TX office. David has an AB in Politics from Princeton University and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. David lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife, Annie, and 2-year-old son, Will. David currently serves on the board for the Cleveland Browns Foundation and is an active member of Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church.