BY ALAN SHERROD Sometimes, if we’re lucky, there is more to a concert than just a collection of music, more than just sounds in the air and notes on a page. That was the case for the Knoxville Symphony…
Review: Knoxville Opera’s ‘Gianni Schicchi’ — An Ensemble Masterpiece
BY ALAN SHERROD Composer Giacomo Puccini was reportedly adamant that the three one-act operas—Il tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi—comprising his triptych Il Trittico be performed together. Clearly, music history had other ideas. While the works premiered as a…
Review: KSO Wraps 2025-26 Chamber Series With Sublime Ives and Copland
BY ALAN SHERROD As it turns out, one doesn’t necessarily need one of Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches to feel the nostalgia at end-of-the-season concerts. Last Sunday, Maestro Aram Demirjian and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra beautifully accomplished the…
Review: ‘The Outsiders’ National Tour
BY ALAN SHERROD Strangely, time has a way of both marching on and standing still. In a sense, that is the case with The Outsiders, the 1967 best-selling novella by S. E. Hinton about teenage gangs in Tulsa, Oklahoma.…
Review: Eccentricity Abounds, Hilarity Ensues in CBT’s ‘You Can’t Take It With You’
BY ALAN SHERROD From Shakespeare to TV sitcoms, the trials and travails of eccentric families are a common theme of comic and tragic literature. One would be hard pressed, though, to find a more perfect example in the theatre…
This Week: UT Opera Theatre Presents Janacek’s ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’
For its spring production, the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre will present The Cunning Little Vixen, a three act opera by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček. UTOT will offer four performances with double casting, Friday thru Sunday, April 24–26, at…
Review: A Superb Midori and KSO Combine for a Memorable Beethoven Violin Concerto
BY ALAN SHERROD It is an inarguable truth that every concert comes with its own set of expectations, a delicious combination of factors—conductor, orchestra, soloists—that ideally turn the “merely intrigued” into “definitely compelled” ticket buyers. Clearly, concert expectations were…
Review: Poetry in Pugilism – ‘The Royale’ at CBT’s Jenny Boyd Theatre
BY ALAN SHERROD Is there poetry in pugilism? Admittedly, boxing isn’t necessarily the first vehicle that comes to mind when one thinks of a poetic and lyrical battle against systemic racism. Yet, that battle that moves far beyond fists,…
Next for CBT at the Jenny Boyd Theatre – ‘The Royale’ by Marco Ramirez
Next up at CBT’s Jenny Boyd Theatre—The Royale is Marco Ramirez’ fictionalized story inspired by the legendary real-life black prizefighter and first African-American heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson. If this sounds vaguely familiar, elements of Johnson’s life were previously explored…
Amadeus Concert Ensemble Presents Passover Musical Feast Concert
The Amadeus Concert Ensemble, known for its thematic exploration concerts of classical music in the Cathedral Concert Series, will present a free Passover Musical Feast concert on Sunday, March 22, 2026 at 4:00 PM at the Arnstein Jewish Community Center,…
