Big Ears Q&A: Aram Demirjian of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra

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On Sunday afternoon, as part of the Big Ears festival, Aram Demirjian led the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra through a program of music stretching from Bach’s Air on the G String (written around 1730) to Matthew Aucoin’s Evidence, which had its world premiere less than a year ago. (In between, KSO performed John Adams’ The Wound-Dresser, from 1986.) The concert—performed, like well-received solo piano performances by Lisa Moore and Frederic Rzewski, on the floor of the Mill and Mine—marked Demirjian’s debut at the festival and the orchestra’s debut at the Mill and Mine.

A few minutes after the conclusion, as many of KSO’s musicians were setting up with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble for Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, Demirjian talked about the concert and the festival.

How has your Big Ears experience been so far?
It’s been a blast. It’s been a thrill. I knew this about music festivals going in, but the pace of everything that’s happened this weekend is unbelievable. You can see it now—one show’s over, turn things over onto a different side of the room and dive right into the next act.

It’s been one of those things where you’re totally in the moment for 48 hours, 72 hours, and you can’t allow yourself a second to breathe, because you’ll become far too aware of the wildness of what you’re doing.

Have you been able to see anything?
You know, sadly, I haven’t. This is the first day that I’m permitting myself to go see stuff, because yesterday was rehearsal all day, and there was so much preparation on the technical side that I had to be involved in.

Because you’re in a new venue?
A new venue, and you may have noticed the Adams piece had synthesizer in it—that’s actually a more complicated setup than meets the eye. There are a lot of factors going into that—the computer technology, the keyboard itself, the amplification, making sure it works in the space, making sure it works with live instruments. I was very much involved in that, and then there’s just the pure symphony work that’s happening.

Is there anything in particular you’re planning to see today?
I think I’m going to see The Sinking of the Titanic. Beyond that, I’ve just got to look at the schedule. I may hang out for Jesus’ Blood, because it’s got a bunch of our musicians involved in it.

Now that the working part of the weekend is done and I’m out of the moment, I’m just going to see where my feet take me. This entire week has been about having a plan and executing it, and now I’m very relieved that I no longer have to have a plan.

You said before the festival that you expected to get some ideas from Big Ears—about concert formats, collaboration, new music. Has anything struck you yet?
Well, to start with, I want to play in the Mill and Mine again. In many ways this typifies what my ideal setting for an orchestra performance is—relaxed, people sitting on the floor, people having drinks, people sitting up on the catwalk, a 360-degree experience where people can walk around the side or the back of the orchestra, choose their perspective. Fewer rules.

You could feel the gratitude of the audience. There’s something that really feeds us as performers, having the audience so close to us and really being on the same level as us. I think there’s loads of potential in this space—we were in the middle of the floor today, but there are so many other possibilities for creating a full-scale multi-sensory orchestral experience in here that I want to explore.

Senior Editor Matthew Everett manages the Knoxville Mercury's arts & entertainment section, including the comprehensive calendar section—Knoxville’s go-to guide for everything worth doing in the area. You can reach Matthew at matthew@knoxmercury.com.

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