Grammy-winning Guitarist Jason Vieaux Makes Debut with Knoxville Symphony Orchestra

Performing Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez 

Thursday, May 16, 2019 at 7:30pm

Friday, May 17, 2019 at 7:30pm

Tennessee Theatre | 604 S Gay Street | Knoxville, TN

Tickets ($15 - $88) and information: www.knoxvillesymphony.com

“perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.” – NPR

Watch Vieaux perform Duke Ellington's In a Sentimental Mood

Jason Vieaux: www.jasonvieaux.com 

Knoxville, TN – Grammy-winning classical guitarist Jason Vieaux makes his debut with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra performing Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez at the Tennessee Theatre (604 S. Gay Street) in two performances onThursday, May 16, 2019 at 7:30pm and Friday, May 17, 2019 at 7:30pm. Music Director Aram Demirjian leads the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in this season finale program of its Moxley Carmichael Masterworks Series, which also features MichaelSchachter’s Five-Six-Seven-Eight; Maurice Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole; and George Gershwin’s An American in Paris. Tickets and more information.

Concierto de Aranjuez was one of Joaquín Rodrigo’s first compositions and immediately established him as one of the most significant Spanish composers of the twentieth century. The piece was inspired by the Palacio Real de Aranjuez and Rodrigo described the concerto as capturing “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains” in the gardens. 

Of the piece Vieaux says, “So many people are familiar with this wonderful work for guitar and orchestra, and there are many others who may not know it by name but certainly know the second movement tune. That theme has been in movies and commercials, interpreted by jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Chick Corea, and even featured during extended improvisations by Led Zeppelin during their 1977 tour. I’ve probably performed Aranjuez nearly 200 times at this point in my career, but the experience of performing it for a live audience only gets richer and more meaningful for me with each concert season. I look forward to making my debut with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and working with Maestro Demirjian in sharing this great music.”

Grammy-winner Jason Vieaux, “among the elite of today's classical guitarists” (Gramophone), is the guitarist that goes beyond the classical. NPR describes Vieaux as, “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation.” Among his extensive discography is the 2015 Grammy Award winning album for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, Play.

Vieaux has earned a reputation for putting his expressiveness and virtuosity at the service of a remarkably wide range of music, and his schedule of performing, and recording commitments is distinguished throughout the U.S. and abroad. 

Jason Vieaux has performed as concerto soloist with over 100 orchestras, including Cleveland, Toronto, Houston, Nashville, San Diego, Buffalo, Auckland Philharmonia, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Recent highlights include performances at Caramoor Festival as Artist-in-Residence, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Curtis Presents, Phillips Collection, National Gallery of Art, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, New York's 92Y, and Ravinia Festival.He has forged his reputation as a first-rate chamber musician and programmer through performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Bard Music Festival, Music@Menlo, San Francisco Performances, Cleveland Chamber Music Society, Strings Music Festival, Grand Teton, and many others.

Recent and upcoming chamber music collaborators include the Escher Quartet; Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; violinists Anne Akiko Meyers, Kristin Lee, and Tessa Lark; acclaimed harpist Yolanda Kondonassis; and accordion/bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro. Vieaux’s passion for new music has fostered premieres of works by Jonathan Leshnoff, Avner Dorman, Jeff Beal, Dan Visconti, David Ludwig, Vivian Fung, José Luis Merlin, and more. Jason recently premiered Visconti’s “Living Language” Guitar Concerto with the California Symphony and recorded Leshnoff’s Guitar Concerto live with the Nashville Symphony. 

Vieaux’s latest CD release is a performance of Jeff Beal’s “Six Sixteen” Guitar Concerto with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (BIS).  Slated for release in 2019 is the premiere recording of the Jonathan Leshnoff Guitar Concerto with the Nashville Symphony(Naxos), and a new album with the Escher String Quartet featuring Boccherini’s Guitar Quintet and Aaron Jay Kernis’ 100 Greatest Dance Hits (Azica). In addition to his Grammy-winning 2015 solo release Play, his previous albums include Infusion (Azica) with accordionist/bandoneonist Julien Labro; Ginastera’s Guitar Sonata, on Ginastera: One Hundred (Oberlin Music) produced by harpist Yolanda Kondonassis; Together (Azica), a duo album with Kondonassis; a recording of Astor Piazzolla’s music with Julien Labro and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra; Bach: Works for Lute, Vol. 1; Images of Metheny; and Sevilla: The Music of Isaac Albeniz. Vieaux was the first classical musician to be featured on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk” series.

In 2012, the Jason Vieaux School of Classical Guitar was launched with ArtistWorks Inc., an unprecedented technological interface that provides one-on-one online study with Vieaux for guitar students around the world. In 2011, he co-founded the guitar department at the Curtis Institute of Music, and in 2015 was invited to inaugurate the guitar program at the Eastern Music Festival. Vieaux has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1997, heading the guitar department since 2001.

Vieaux is affiliated with Philadelphia's Astral Artists. In 1992 he was awarded the prestigious GFA International Guitar Competition First Prize, the event's youngest winner ever. He is also honored with a Naumburg Foundation top prize, a Cleveland Institute of Music Distinguished Alumni Award, and a Salon di Virtuosi Career Grant. In 1995, Vieaux was an Artistic Ambassador of the U.S. to Southeast Asia. His primary teachers were Jeremy Sparks and John Holmquist. Jason Vieaux is represented by Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd and plays a 2013 Gernot Wagner guitar with Augustine strings. For more information, visit www.jasonvieaux.com.

About the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra
Led by Music Director Aram Demirjian, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra (KSO) consists of 80 professional musicians and performs 300 programs throughout the region each season, reaching audiences of more than 200,000 people. The KSO performs in traditional venues such as the Tennessee Theatre, Bijou Theatre and the Civic Auditorium as well as non-traditional places like hospitals, schools, city parks and churches.  Students K-12 can attend classical performances free with purchase of an adult ticket (some restrictions apply). Offer not redeemable online or at the door. Students must be in Kindergarten through 12th grade; limit 3 students per one paying adult; Contact the KSO box office to redeem prior to the day of the concert. For more information regarding the KSO, please visit www.knoxvillesymphony.com or call 865-291-3310.  Press inquiries: Contact Rachel Dellinger, Director of Communications, at rdellinger@knoxvillesymphony.com or 865-521-2317.

About Music Director Aram Demirjian
Aram Demirjian is the eighth Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, internationally sought after for his dynamic performances, innovative programming concepts and distinctive ability to forge connections with both audiences and performers. Previously Associate Conductor with the Kansas City Symphony, Demirjian is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and Harvard University, and he is the winner of a 2017 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award and the 2011 Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, where he was a three-time Conducting Fellow in the Aspen Conducting Academy. Under Demirjian’s galvanizing leadership, the KSO’s audiences have continued to grow and the KSO has routinely found itself in the regional and national spotlight. His charismatic rapport with audiences has brought East Tennesseans of all ages, backgrounds and circumstances to the concert hall, and his warm collaboration with the musicians has brought about meaningful artistic growth.