In Sunday’s (10/31) Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), Harold Duckett writes, “When the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra tuned up for its first official concert at Church Street United Methodist Church on the afternoon of Nov. 24, 1935, it was the first time money began to flow into the orchestra, instead of the musicians having to pay dues to cover the cost of the music they performed. For the first time, conductor Bertha Walburn Clark was paid ($50 per concert) for the tireless work she had put into developing the KSO from its beginnings as her ‘Little Symphony.’ As an important part of the KSO 75th anniversary season celebration, Sunday afternoon Nov. 7, at 2:30 at the Bijou Theatre, the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra will pay homage to Clark and her pioneering musicians by playing the program of music the KSO’s first audience of 300 heard. … Sunday afternoon, pianist Slade Trammel, who studied with David Brunell at the University of Tennessee, as well as the noted pianist-composer Earl Wild, will be the soloist for [Mozart’s Piano Concert No. 20 in D Minor]. … Also being played from the original program will be Glazunov’s ‘Prelude from ‘Trois Morcheaus’,’ Sibelius’ ‘Valse Triste’ and Mozart’s ‘Symphony No. 39,’ K543, the first of three great symphonies written in less than eight weeks during the summer of 1788.”
Posted November 1, 2010
