“Probably at no time in his life before he applied for the job did Aram Demirjian ever imagine himself as artistic director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra,” writes Wayne Bledsoe in Friday’s (5/12) Knoxville News Sentinel (Tenn.). “ ‘I wound up being where I was supposed to be,’ says Demirjian … in his first year with the KSO…. Demirjian [was] born in Boston, Mass., and raised in nearby Arlington and Lexington… Aram played cello and sang in choir … and [studied at] the New England Conservatory Preparatory School.” At Harvard University, Demirjian “won the position of orchestra director for Harvard’s Bach Society Orchestra…. ‘Something about being on that podium felt right … ’ [says] Demirjian.” After serving as assistant conductor and associate conductor at the Kansas City Symphony, the Knoxville Symphony music director position “was the first job Demirjian applied for.” Says Demirjian, “Fast forward to a year and a half later, here I am…. You have to have conviction….. That’s not the same thing as arrogance.” At the Knoxville Symphony, Demirjian “wants to keep old familiar favorites in the KSO’s programs, but he also wants to bring new audiences in and showcase new works.”
Posted May 16, 2017
Aram Demirjian photo by David Bickley
