Beethoven's Ninth

Dr. Eric Thorson, Knoxville Choral Society Artistic Director

Conductor of the Knoxville Choral Society since 1995 and artistic director since 1996, Dr. Eric Thorson is professor of music and director of choral activities at Carson-Newman College, where he conducts A Cappella Choir, Men’s Chorus, and Oratorio Chorus. In 2003, Thorson was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Award, the highest award given to faculty at Carson-Newman.

A native of Iowa, he received his bachelor of arts degree from Buena Vista College and both his master of music and doctor of education degrees from Arizona State University. Thorson’s professional music education career spans more than two decades and includes teaching at the elementary, secondary, college, and university levels.

His choirs have given honor performances at divisional conventions and have toured both nationally and internationally, performing with orchestras in Atlanta, Phoenix, New Orleans, and Knoxville. In the summer of 2002, the Knoxville Choral Society appeared with orchestras in Prague, Czech Republic; Bratislava, Slovak Republic; and Cottbus, Germany. Thorson and members of the Knoxville Choral Society joined a mass chorus in New York City in June 2005 to sing Verdi's Requiem at Carnegie Hall. His Carson-Newman singers also recently toured Brazil.

Thorson's A Cappella Choir and the Knoxville Choral Society have been invited to perform in Israel and Jordan as part of a peace initiative between the Israeli and Palestinian governments. Concerts will be held in Amman, Jerusalem, and Nazareth, and the tour will culminate with a concert in Manger Square in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 2007.

Thorson has prepared choirs for such notable conductors as Eduardo Mata, Douglas McEwen, Robert Page, John Rutter, Gregg Smith, Noel Tredinnick, and, in Knoxville, Kirk Trevor and Lucas Richman. He has participated in divisional conventions, served on the advisory board of the American Choral Directors Association, and produced five professional recordings with his choruses. He has served as president of the Tennessee chapter of the American Choral Directors Association and is a member of the advisory board for the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts.

Thorson is also the founder of the Knoxville Chamber Chorale, a highly select ensemble auditioned from within the ranks of the Knoxville Choral Society that specializes in significant chamber literature.

Also an active church musician, Thorson is the current minister of music at West Hills Baptist Church in Knoxville, having served there since April 1995.

Jeffrey Biegel, piano

Jeffrey Biegel is one of today's most revered artists having created a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer and arranger. His electrifying technique and mesmerizing touch has received critical acclaim and garners praise worldwide. Known for his standard-setting performances of the standard repertoire, Mr. Biegel stepped in on short notice in 2009 to perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota in Colombia, with Muhai Tang conducting. His recent recordings include Leroy Anderson's 'Concerto in C', conducted by Leonard Slatkin with the BBC Concert Orchestra on the Naxos label, along with solo Vivaldi transcriptions also on the Naxos label, and 'Classical Carols' on the Koch International Classics label, as well as the Complete Sonatas by Mozart on the e1 label. Richard Danielpour composes a new concerto for Mr. Biegel, which will be premiered with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in February, 2010, Carl St. Clair conducting, and, during the 2010-11 season, he premieres William Bolcom's 'Prometheus for Piano, Orchestra and Chorus'. Mr. Biegel is currently assembling a global commissioning project for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's next work for piano and orchestra for the 2011-13 seasons. In 2010, Naxos releases Mr. Biegel's world premiere recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's "Millennium Fantasy" (2000) and "Peanuts Gallery". 2010 also sees the release of Mr. Biegel's 'Hanukah Fantasy' for SATB/piano, published by the Hal Leonard Corporation, along with Lucas Richman's orchestral arrangement with choir, published by the LeDor Group.

The career of pianist Jeffrey Biegel has been marked by bold, creative achievements and highlighted by a series of firsts: He initiated the first live internet recitals in New York and Amsterdam in 1997 and 1998, and, in 1999, assembled the largest consortium of orchestras (over 25), to celebrate the millennium with a new concerto composed for him by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The 'Millennium Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra' was premiered with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2000, which will be recorded for Naxos in 2009 with the orchestra of Florida State University. He performed the Boston premiere of the restored, original 1924 manuscript of George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' with the Boston Pops. He also transcribed Balakirev's 'Islamey Fantasy' for piano and orchestra, premiered with the American Symphony Orchestra in 2001, followed with Charles Strouse composing a new work titled 'Concerto America' for Mr. Biegel, premiered with the Boston Pops in 2002. He further arranged the piano part for Billy Joel's 'Symphonic Fantasies' in 2006, with performances at the Eastern Music Festival, the Boris Brott Festival and with the Indianapolis, Harrisburg, and other US orchestras. His new editions for Schirmer's Performance Editions include Schumann's 'Scenes from Childhood', a new 'Sonatina Album', Tschaikowsky's 'Nutcracker Suite' and Prokofiev's 'Music for Childre, Opus 65' with accompanying audio cds.

Mr. Biegel joined 18 co-commissioning orchestras for Lowell Liebermann's 'Concerto no. 3 for Piano and Orchestra' composed exclusively for him for the 2006-07-08 seasons. The World Premiere took place with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andreas Delfs, and the European Premiere featured the Schleswig Holstein Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Oskamp.

Until the age of 3, Mr. Biegel was unable to hear nor speak, until corrected by surgery. The 'reverse Beethoven' phenomenon can explain Mr. Biegel's life in music, having heard only vibrations in his formative years. Born a second-generation American, Mr. Biegel's roots are of Russian and Austrian heritage. A Russian cousin, pianist Herman Kosoff, emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century, and had studied with the great Leopold Godowsky in Austria.

Mr. Biegel, with his son, Craig, composed 'The World In Our Hands', published by the Hal Leonard Corporation. Also published through Hal Leonard are 'Christmas In A Minute', a choral setting of Chopin's 'Minute Waltz', an arrangement of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', and 'Hey Ho, the Wind and the Rain' from William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night'. Carl Fischer also publishes 'Ho Ho Hanukah! Ho Ho Christmas!' and 'Different Kind of Hero' in 2008, and, Earthsongs includes Mr. Biegel's 'Elegy of Anne Boleyn' in their catalogue. Mr. Biegel is also an exclusive recording artist for PianoDisc (www.pianodisc.com).

Leonard Bernstein said of pianist Jeffrey Biegel: 'He played fantastic Liszt. He is a splendid musician and a brilliant performer.' He won the First Grand Prize in the 1989 Marguerite Long International Piano Competition and First Prize in the 1985 William Kapell/University of Maryland International Piano Competition. He studied at The Juilliard School with Adele Marcus, herself a pupil of Josef Lhevinne and Artur Schnabel.

Mr. Biegel is currently on the piano faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, a City University of New York (CUNY), and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). he resides outside New York City with his wife, Sharon, his sons, Craig and Evan. His web site is www.jeffreybiegel.com

Discounts up to 20% are available for groups of 10 or more!  To bring your group to a KSO performance call Lusada at 865-521-2337.