
Knoxville Symphony Music Director Aram Demirjian announcing the next classical season during a reception at the Emporium Center last night.
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Music Director Aram Demirjian announced the 2020-2021 classical music schedule to season ticket holders last night — and boy is it a doozy.
“Next season is the clearest realization of what I envisioned the Knoxville Symphony would be doing when I started as music director,” the young maestro said during an interview after the announcement. “It’s collaborative. It’s artistically ambitious. And it’s extremely fresh in terms of what we are programming, while still maintaining the romantic symphonic repertoire that lies at the core of what orchestras do.”
Demirjian assumed the helm of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in June 2016.
A look at the upcoming Masterworks and Chamber seasons — the Pops schedule will be announced later — shows:
- 25 percent of the pieces are by living composers.
- 20 percent are written by women or members of underrepresented racial, ethnic or cultural heritage.
- 32 percent of the pieces programmed are from outside the “traditional canon.”
- 38 percent are by American composers.