Brandon Knisley, vice president of patron engagement at the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (MSO), has to be a great juggler. He’s intimately involved in the mission of the MSO as it marches on into the 21st century, and, it turns out, that requires keeping a lot of diverse ideas in the air at once. Music history, music appreciation, economics, and a bit of sociology are all part of the equation in today’s MSO, which has evolved by leaps and bounds since adopting that name in 1960. Speaking with Knisley recently revealed just how ambitious, diverse, and locally grounded the MSO is, not to mention what musical treasures we can expect from their 2021-22 season.
Memphis Flyer: The MSO has really expanded its mission since you came aboard in late 2019, in spite of the pandemic. How would you describe that mission now?
Brandon Knisley: Right from the beginning, [MSO CEO] Peter Abell and I lined up on what we wished for the musicians and what we thought an orchestra is for a city. He and I both believe that it’s not just concerts you put on. An orchestra is what happens when you make it possible for artists to be a part of your community. How do we make the music education program better? How do we partner with the library system and their literacy program? To do these things, you have to make it possible for artists to live here. Our hope is that we can, over time, build some civic infrastructure. Instead of raising money to build a building, we want to raise money to ensure that we can pay musicians to live here. And endowment funding is how we’re really trying to do that.
So the days when musicians had to take a pay cut just so MSO could survive have gone?
A lot of work has been done, so we’ve raised a large portion of an endowment for the orchestra, and that’s closed that structural gap. The orchestra’s always going to be here. Our hope now is to really, significantly grow that endowment so that, long term, we can create a competitive wage for our musicians, attract great talent, and keep the really great musicians who come here and want to stay.
How has the mission evolved beyond the performers themselves?
Ten years ago, the orchestra started an initiative called the Circle of Friends. And at its core was the belief that art and music should be used as instruments for intentional inclusion. It really started as a women’s philanthropic initiative, and we brought together a really incredible group of women. About 200 women have been a part of this group over the past 10 years, and they really became a strong force in our board recruitments.
This approach applies to the orchestra and the programming itself. Our music director, Robert Moody, has decided that including diverse voices should not be something special. It should just be what we do. Pretty much every program on our new season features composers who are either women or people of color. Or we have an artist who is a person of color. It’s just something we do, a part of our everyday work.
What does the current season look like?
We are presenting a season that looks a lot more normal, including five fairly traditional concerts at the Cannon Center. Then we’ll have a chamber music series at the Germantown United Methodist Church, but we’re also going to do that series at Crosstown Theater, which will have an educational component for the high school that’s there.
Then we also have our Orchestra Unplugged series at the Halloran Centre, where Robert Moody speaks about a single piece of music or an idea about music or a particular composer and does a deep dive into it. Then, as it’s performed, you hear the music with new ears. We’ll continue to do live radio broadcasts on WKNO, and we’re also considering more YouTube livestreams. While the pandemic has been an awful period for so many reasons, it’s been interesting from a creativity standpoint.
The new season launches with MSO at the Botanic Garden, Saturday, September 25th, 7 p.m. Free. Visit memphissymphony.org for details.
RR Jones