Thanks to the remarkable resurgent interest in vinyl LPs, I can still use the simile “sounding like a broken record” and yet have most readers understand the reference. In this case, I freely and happily admit to “sounding like a broken record” on the topic of growth and support of chamber music in Knoxville over the last 10 music seasons. In that period, I’ve been able to report on a couple of important new programs that the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has instituted, starting with the popular Concertmaster Series in 2012 that, for the last several years, has been hosted by KSO concertmaster William Shaub. More recently, the KSO has offered the Q-Series of chamber music events featuring lunchtime recitals by the Principal String Quartet and the Woodwind Quintet. Those 10 years have also seen the emergence of ensembles and renewed opportunity for joint efforts between the KSO and the University of Tennessee School of Music.
The Knoxville chamber music scene is now on the verge of getting a new professional performance organization, one that has the tantalizing potential of opening up new and different opportunities for both audiences and musicians. The Knoxville Chamber Music Society will offer its inaugural concert this week on Saturday, November 13, at downtown’s Immaculate Conception Catholic Church (414 W. Vine Avenue) at 7:00 PM. Admission to the concert is free, but donations are obviously encouraged and needed.
The startup leaders of KCMS, Jorge Variego and Hillary Herndon, are both faculty members of the UT School of Music, and have embarked on the daunting task of both organizing the structural side of a non-profit and performing the first program. Of course, one cannot help but note an obvious model for the Knoxville group, the 52-year success of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, today a major constituent of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
“The idea got started last year at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival,” explains Variego. “Some of our colleagues there have a similar project in Oklahoma and shared some insights with us …the desire of the organization is to create a space for local musicians to perform chamber music of a variety of styles and eras throughout the year.”
Variego understands that attracting performers and intriguing audiences are also an essential part of the task at hand.
“Hillary and I considered the idea for a while and thought that we had to start somewhere. There are so many great musicians and such a curious audience in Knoxville. It wasn’t a challenge to engage colleagues to perform and or to participate in the organization.”
Joining Variego and Herndon in the first concert will be a number of local professionals that are already regular performers on either the KSO roster, the UTKSOM faculty, or in other local ensembles. Among these are the members of Inner Voices String Quartet (Ruth Bacon Edewards, Sarah Barker Ringer, Christina Marie Graffeo, and Jeanine Wilkinson). The quartet will be performing Blueprint by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and Brahms’ String Quintet No. 1 in F major, Op. 88 that will also see Herndon on viola.
Variego will don his clarinet performance hat for the Mozart Trio in E-flat major for clarinet, viola and piano, K. 498, known as the Kegelstatt Trio, a performance that will include pianist Bernadette Lo and violist Herndon.
Also on this diverse program is Robert Honstein’s We Choose to go to the Moon, for cello and voice (UT voice faculty member Jennifer D’Agostino) and Alyssa Morris’ Four Personalities for oboe (Rebecca Van de Ven) and piano (Lo).
Variego, Herndon, and their colleagues have planned a second concert next April with a program still being decided. Clearly, though, this inaugural concert is a threshold moment for the organization and for Knoxville’s classical music scene, one that needs the support of classical and contemporary chamber music audiences.
“I would like to make a point,” adds Variego, “that we are looking for people that would like to get involved. This involvement is not exclusively focused on performers but also on chamber music lovers that would like to help from the organizational side of things.”
The Knoxville Chamber Music Society – Opening Concert
November 13, 2021, 7:00 PM
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 414 W. Vine Avenue
Mozart: Kegelstatt Trio, K. 498, for clarinet, viola and piano in E-flat major
Robert Honstein: We Choose to go to the Moon, for cello and voice
Caroline Shaw: Blueprint, for string quartet
Alyssa Morris: Four Personalities, for oboe and piano
Johannes Brahms: String Quintet Op. 88 in F major
