Happy Valentines day from the musicians of YOUR Knoxville Symphony Orchestra!

Would you like a chance to win two free tickets to see the KSO at 7:30PM Saturday Dec 15th in their 32nd Annual Clayton Holiday Concert?  It’s easy to win… simply help us spread the word about the important work the Musicians of the Knoxville Symphony are doing by:

1. “Like” @KSOMusicians on Facebook and/or Twitter (you can double your chances by doing both!)
2. Share this post on your Facebook timeline or “Retweet”.

A winner will be chosen at random by 2PM on Saturday.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from the Musicians of the Knoxville Symphony!

Event Details: https://www.knoxvillesymphony.com/event/372/32nd-annual-clayton-holiday-concert/

Please join us this Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. And lets not forget that the reason he was so often in Memphis staying at the Lorraine Motel was to support the strike of the Memphis sanitation workers. Racial equality and civil rights were important causes that he is remembered for, but let us not forget his work to end economic injustice and to support the workers who went on strike to secure their physical safety and livelihoods.

As the Musicians of the Knoxville Symphony continue and AFM Local 546 continue our ongoing contract negotiations this week, we support the right of labor unions to organize and fight for workers’ rights and a decent livelihood.

#GrowingOrchestraForAGrowingKnoxville

The performance is free to the public and will take place on Monday, January 15 at 6:00 p.m. at the Tennessee Theatre. For more information about this celebration:

https://www.knoxvillesymphony.com/event/322/night-with-the-arts-mlk-celebration-concert/

Read Harold Duckett’s review of this week’s Concertmaster Series here:

https://www.knoxtntoday.com/warm-vibrant-music-cold-night-kma/

Read Alan Sherrod’s latest review of this months Concertmaster Series :

http://artsknoxville.com/index.php/2018/01/11/review-ksos-concertmaster-series-explores-the-power-of-string-duos/

 

 

It was a year ago today that the Gatlinburg community was reeling from the wildfire devastation. The Musicians of the KSO did their small part to aid in the disaster relief by donating a tremendous performance to raise money for the victims. Thanks to the generosity of our audience, we were able to raise over $2500 for the Dollywood Foundation to disperse to the victims of the wildfire. Yet another testament to the work the musicians do in the community, and the generosity and support of our wonderful audiences.

Read Harold Duckett’s article on www.knoxnews.com here

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a two days off to spend with friends and family. Now we are back and digging into our many holiday offerings: Classical Christmas, Nutcracker performances in Knoxville and Maryville, Clayton Holiday Concerts, and runout holiday performances at Lincoln Memorial University and in Dandridge, TN.

In addition to the KSO holiday offering, you will likely see Musicians of the KSO around town in churches and other venues, helping to spread holiday cheer through beautiful music. We hope to see you at a concert soon, and please say hello when you see us out and about.

During this busy holiday season, we will also be continuing our contract negotiation with KSO management. We have been performing since August 1st on an expired contract, in order to continue providing the highest quality music to our community. Members of the negotiating committee will be meeting with management again this month in order to hopefully secure a contract soon. We all want a Growing Orchestra for a Growing Knoxville If you’d like to join our other supporters and make a small donation to help us spread the message of how important professional musicians are to our community, please click this link: www.ksomusicians.org/donate

For more information about our musicians, click this link.

If you have already made a donation to the Musicians of the Knoxville Symphony, thank you so much. If you would like to make a donation, you may do so at www.ksomusicians.org/donate. Any gift, no matter its size, will help us greatly as we work to increase public engagement and awareness of the value of professional musicians in great community. Thank you in advance.

Here’s another review of our recent performances featuring Paul Huang playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Guest Conductor Joshua Gersen.

Harold writes of Huang’s playing:

His playing is elegant. Each note is played with such clarity the music sounds as though it is being played slowly to get every nuance just right. Even his trills have a sense of atomic precision. The high notes are so brilliant there is a tendency to think they are played slightly sharp, a trick often used by violin and, especially, trumpet players to give their notes an added quality of brightness.

He also goes on to write:

Adjusting to a new conductor is something with which the musicians of the KSO have had recent experience, with the arrival of new KSO music director and conductor Aram Demirjian.

From the leaflets again passed out by the musicians before last night’s concert, it seems that the KSO organization and the musicians’ union continue to have more adjusting to do on another front.

There is still some distance between KSO Management and the musicians that performs these concerts, and we are working very hard to identify and build bridges to cross that distance. Read more about the newest leaflet here.

Read the Full Review Here: https://www.knoxtntoday.com/poetry-death-beauty-kso-concert/

 

Check out the review Alan Sherrod wrote of this week’s masterworks performances with the fabulous Paul Huang and guest conductor Joshua Gersen.

Of Strauss’s “Death and Transfiguration” Sherrod wrote:

Gersen uncovered every shred of sadness in the piece, given substance by beautiful work from the KSO woodwinds. The solo violin (concertmaster William Shaub) carries a lyrical theme which peacefully returns a bit later in the flute (Hannah Hammel). Eventually, the sadness is overcome by the transfiguration, a soaring and luminous ending that was endowed with both mystery and majesty by Gersen and the orchestra.

 

Read the full concert review here.