Aram Demirjian, Conductor

Fast Facts

• Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra (KSO)

• Recipient of The Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award from The Solti Foundation U.S.

• The proud child of an immigrant family, Aram is American-born and of Armenian descent. He holds a joint Bachelor of Arts in Music and Government from Harvard University and a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from New England Conservatory

Recipient of The Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award from The Solti Foundation U.S., conductor Aram Demirjian has built a reputation as an insightful interpreter of the symphonic repertoire and an engaging, dynamic presence on the podium. Widely acclaimed for his transformative work as Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra (KSO), he is sought after for his "graceful, energetic direction" (Sarasota Herald Tribune), bold programming, and distinctive communication skills with audience members and musicians alike.

As the eighth Music Director of the KSO, Aram has led the orchestra to new artistic heights and national distinction for its achievements, including being selected in 2020 as one of four orchestras to be featured at SHIFT: A Festival of American Orchestras, presented by the Kennedy Center and Washington Performing Arts. His visionary programming emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration and initiatives that both excite audiences and broaden the idea of what one can expect to see on the symphonic stage. Aram is a devoted champion of American music and has broadened the KSO’s repertoire by emphasizing music by living composers and composers from groups underrepresented on the symphonic stage.

In demand as a guest conductor, Aram was hailed in a recent debut with the San Diego Symphony for “elicit[ing] dramatic, incisive performances from the orchestra” (San Diego Story). He has enjoyed frequent collaborations with The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2016. In recent seasons, Aram also has appeared with the; the symphonies of Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, New England Conservatory, North Carolina, Omaha, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, Santa Rosa, St. Louis, and Tucson; the Louisiana and Orlando philharmonics; the Minnesota and Sarasota orchestras; plus festival appearances including the Oregon Bach Festival Modern Orchestra, Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra, and Tanglewood Music Center’s Festival of Contemporary Music. Internationally, Aram has conducted the Orquesta Sinfónico de Minería, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and Orchéstre Métropolitain de Montréal.

Aram’s 2022-23 season features exciting debuts with the Nashville Symphony at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center for Handel’s Messiah; the Colorado Symphony conducting Tchaikovsky’s Fourth, Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Paul Huang; and Symphony San Jose conducting Price’s Symphony No. 1 and Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Jon Nakamatsu. In Knoxville, he conducts an exciting range of repertoire, including the Southeast premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Piano Concerto (a KSO co-commission), the KSO’s first-ever performance of Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, and music by a range of composers of our time including Anna Clyne, TJ Cole, Viet Cuong, Caroline Shaw, and Tan Dun.

Aram’s innovative artistic leadership has yielded consistently fruitful collaborations with an eclectic range of community partners, exemplified in particular by two landmark programs that concluded his fifth season with the KSO. In April 2022, Aram, the KSO, and Tessa Lark premiered Michael Schachter’s Violin Concerto: Cycle of Life, a joint commission by the KSO and Knoxville Museum of Art. The project, which was inspired by the work of East Tennessee-based glass artist Richard Jolley, was profiled by the PBS show Craft in America. And the following month, the KSO collaborated with Knoxville-based drum ensemble Indigenous Vibes for a thunderous performance of James DeMars’ SABAR: Concerto for African Drum and Orchestra. Recent seasons also have included a fully-staged production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide with Clarence Brown Theatre; choreographed performances of Manuel da Falla’s El Amor Brujo with Appalachian Ballet Company; and performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony incorporating an ensemble from Tennessee School for the Deaf performing the Ode to Joy in American Sign Language. Aram and the KSO also regularly perform as part of the internationally renowned Big Ears Festival, most recently in a performance with jazz saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings. Early in his tenure, Aram instituted KSO: UnStaged, a series of experiential, multi-sensory events in non-traditional settings in Knoxville, co-curated by partners including craft breweries, yoga studios, and even an airplane manufacturing company.

Throughout his career, Aram has worked with internationally renowned conductors Yannick Nézet- Séguin, Stéphane Denève, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Haitink, Manfred Honeck, Louis Langrée, Fabio Luisi, Kurt Masur, and Antonio Pappano, and collaborated with an illustrious roster of artists including Julia Bullock, Michelle Cann, Augustin Hadelich, Stefan Jackiw, Yo-Yo Ma, Nicholas Phan, Jason Vieaux, and Joyce Yang.

In addition to being honored with the 2020 Solti Award, Aram also received the 2017 and 2019 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards; a 2018 Solti Foundation U.S. Buccheri Opera Residency with Lyric Opera of Chicago (for Massenet's Cendrillon, assisting Sir Andrew Davis); 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. From 2012 to 2016, he served as Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony.

The proud child of an immigrant family, Aram is American-born and of Armenian descent. He holds a joint Bachelor of Arts in Music and Government from Harvard University and a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from New England Conservatory.