We are thrilled to welcome William Shaub, I-Pei Lin, Hannah Hammel, Zachary Hughes, Robyn Quinnett, Daniel Zellers, and Kelsey Bentleyto the Knoxville Symphony!

In his article highlighting the new members of the KSO, Alan Sherrod writes:

the last 25 or 30 years have brought miraculous changes to the makeup of orchestras in almost every way imaginable […] gender and ethnic neutrality in audition practices have made orchestras—for the most part— a valid model for diversity in the workplace.

Thank you, Alan, for noticing and commenting on this trend.

And what is behind this push toward audition fairness and orchestral diversity? AFM – American Federation of Musicians has spent decades advocating for auditions behind screens and more standardized audition procedures in general.