How Clayton Comes Together
Behind the scenes of Knoxville’s favorite holiday tradition
For 39 years, the Clayton Holiday Concerts have brought together thousands of East Tennesseans for a festive weekend of music at the Civic Auditorium. With four performances – one Friday, two Saturday, and a Sunday matinee – the concerts are among the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s largest annual undertakings. This year, the KSO joins forces with the Knoxville Choral Society, the Knoxville Symphony Youth Choir, and GO! Contemporary Dance Works to create a joyful, fast-moving celebration of the season.
What audiences see onstage each December is the result of months of coordination and planning. Behind the scenes, the Clayton Holiday Concerts function more like a theatrical production than a traditional symphonic performance, with music, choreography, lighting, sound, staging, and video elements.
The coordination required is substantial. A backstage team calls lighting and sound cues, manages entrances, times staging transitions, and keeps the program flowing from one moment to the next. Performers from four different organizations share hallways, warm-up spaces, and dressing rooms. GO! dancers execute costume changes and navigate choreography around a full orchestra. Choirs move ensembles on and off stage, adjusting to the pace of the program.
“It’s a lot of herding cats,” says the KSO’s CEO Rachel Ford, “but I’m always impressed by how it all comes together.”
While the audience experiences a polished holiday production, backstage carries its own traditions and rhythms. Dancers rehearse last-minute spacing, choir members gather for a shared meal between rehearsals, and musicians exchange small holiday gifts. Many performers describe the weekend as a reunion, an annual chance to collaborate across artistic disciplines.
For some participants, the Clayton Holiday Concerts offer one of the largest audiences they will experience all year. For the KSO, the concerts highlight the strength of its partnerships and the organization’s capacity to produce large-scale, community-centered events.
“This concert shows what a good team we have,” says Ford. “It shows how well people can collaborate, how strong these partnerships are, and what the KSO is capable of producing.”
39th Annual Clayton Holiday Concert
at the Knoxville Civic Auditorium and sponsored by Clayton, Clayton Foundation, and Clayton Volvo.
Friday, December 19 at 7:30 p.m. | Saturday, December 20 at 3:00 p.m. | Saturday, December 20 at 7:30 p.m. | Sunday, December 21 at 3:00 p.m.