September 19, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 19, 2013
Contact: Rachel Dellinger
KSO Director of Communications
Direct: 865-521-2317
Cell: 865-660-3037
[email protected]
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Knoxville, TN – Maestro Lucas Richman, Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has announced that he will conclude his tenure with the KSO following the 2014-2015 season. While the Maestro’s current contract has him at the helm through the end of the 2013-14 season, he has agreed to continue on with the organization for one additional season, extending his leadership through the 2014-15 season-his 12th with the orchestra.
Maestro Richman was named the seventh Music Director of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in 2003. Since then, he has overseen unparalleled artistic growth in the Orchestra, spurred the organization to expand its education and outreach programs and served as the driving force in the introduction of the KSO’s Music & Wellness program (which now, a decade strong, has multiple national recognitions to its credit).
During his tenure in Knoxville, Maestro Richman received a GRAMMY Award (2011) in the category of Best Classical Crossover Album for having conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Christopher Tin’s classical/world fusion album, Calling All Dawns. Since 2010 he has also served as Music Director and Conductor for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and last season’s guest-conducting engagements took him abroad to Canada, Iceland, Norway and China. Recent recordings he has led from the podium include Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project, Noel Paul Stookey’s recent solo release One & Many, and Marvin Hamlisch’s final score, written for the HBO movie, Behind the Candelabra. Additionally an accomplished composer, Mr. Richman has had his music performed by over two hundred orchestras in the last fifteen years.
The KSO has been the beneficiary of Maestro Richman’s artistic knowledge, industry savvy, and passion for the art form for over a decade. His work has left a permanent mark on the KSO and the Knoxville community, where he has been deeply involved with the Joy of Music School, the Arts & Culture Alliance, the Volunteer Ministry Center and the Knoxville Jewish Day School.
“It has been my good fortune to work with Lucas for the past six years,” said KSO Executive Director Rachel Ford. “He is an artist of exceptional depth and passion and has a creativity that is unsurpassed. His wit and humor are matched by his grace and kindness. He will be sorely missed, but I am absolutely confident that the next stage in his career will be filled with exciting new projects and will find him busier than he has ever been. We look forward to his return engagements in Knoxville.”
“Lucas Richman has grown the artistic quality of the Knoxville Symphony beyond what anyone might have imagined when he took the reins in 2003” said Board President A. Richard (Rick) Johnson. “We have enjoyed amazing concerts, from the reopening of the Tennessee Theatre to multiple collaborative productions with the Clarence Brown Theatre; from family concerts with his animated character Picardy Penguin to entertaining Pops performances-Lucas is the complete package. We are deeply sad to see him go but realize how lucky we have been that he chose Knoxville as his home for so long and through such a growth period in his own career and in the life of our Orchestra.”
The KSO Board of Directors will form a search committee that will be tasked with the search for a new Music Director to occur during the 2015-16 season.
The KSO has contributed to the cultural life in East Tennessee since 1935. The orchestra consists of 75 professional musicians and performs more than 250 programs throughout East Tennessee each season. Performing in traditional venues such as the Tennessee Theatre, Bijou Theatre and the Civic Auditorium and in non-traditional places like hospitals, school classrooms, nursing homes, city parks and churches – the KSO reaches more than 200,000 people throughout the region each year. For more information regarding the KSO, please call 865-291-3310.
