Tenor, Jonathan Pilkington

Knoxville: Summer of 1915 began as an autobiographical text

American novelist, poet, screenwriter, and Pulitzer Prize winner James Agee (1909-1955), is said to have composed the prose “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” in about 90 minutes as a stream-of-consciousness or free-form exercise. This writing became a nostalgic recollection of his own childhood memories and was published in The Partisan Reader in 1938. It was this writing that caught the attention of composer Samuel Barber.

Putting it to music

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) was an American composer who, with great success, set a portion of James Agee’s poetry to music. Barber kept Agee’s title of the full text, but specifically, it was the last third of the writing that intrigued him. Together the words and music drift peacefully through summer evenings in perfect recollection of summer heat, lying in the grass, crickets, stories, and so on. Although Agee’s depiction was of his time in Knoxville, Tennessee, the lyrical reminiscing relates to almost any small town. You will most likely also feel a connection to this composition.

Jonathan Pilkington

The LaGrange Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is pleased to bring Jonathan Pilkington, tenor, to the stage on September 17th during the premier concert of the 2024/25 Season of Celebration, which honors the 10-year anniversary of LSO music director and conductor, Richard Prior. On September 17th, Mr. Pilkington will perform Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.

Jonathan Pilkington has performed with the LSO before under the baton of Maestro Prior. On December 10th, 2019, Mr. Pilkington was one of six soloists for Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Op 80 (1808) with the Choral Society of West Georgia. This was the “Sounds of Peace” Concert. If you would like to read a review of the 2019 “Sounds of Peace” concert, you can find it HERE.

Jonathan Pilkington’s recent solo engagements include Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He sang the tenor solo in New York premiere of Mendelson’s Humboldt Cantata and was the tenor soloist for Elliott Carter’s The Defense of Corinth with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall. He was a guest soloist at the 2014 Bassi Brugnatelli International Conducting and Singing Symposium in Robbiate, Italy. Additional performances include concerts with Lyric Intermezzo in Augusta, GA, a recital appearance at Reinhardt University, and solo recitals at Piedmont College and Winthrop University. In early 2017, he completed a tour of concerts with Karen Sigers, piano, featuring the songs of Samuel Barber, including a performance at Spivey Hall in Atlanta. In October 2018, he toured California to promote an album of songs with classical guitar, including transcriptions of Schubert’s Winterreise. Pilkington has performed many major choral works with the New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and others, and has been guest lecturer in vocal pedagogy for University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, the Sautee Chorale, and St. Bartholomew’s Church in Atlanta. With degrees from Shorter College (B.M.), Westminster Choir College (M.M.), and the University of Georgia (D.MA.), Pilkington, currently teaches at Emory University and United Music Studios, in addition to his own private voice studio. As a dedicated voice teacher, he has participated in the highly selective NATS Intern Program and competed further training at the LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ at Baldwin Wallace University, as well as One Body/One Voice at Penn State University. He also serves as a staff singer at Trinity Presbyterian in Atlanta. Additionally, with a passion for travel that equals his love of singing, he is a Professional Travel Advisor and owns Pilkington Travels, LLC.

Mr. Pilkington also sings with the eight-voice choral group STELLARUM. Founded in 2022, this group performs without a conductor, singing mostly unaccompanied repertoire.