Alan Sherrod
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Drawing from a career background in music, motion pictures, and theatre, Alan Sherrod has been writing about Knoxville's diverse art and music scene since 2007 — first as the classical/new music writer for the alternative weekly Metro Pulse, then later in the same capacity for the Knoxville Mercury. After the closure of Metro Pulse in 2014 by its parent company, Sherrod created ARTS KNOXVILLE to provide a home for Knoxville arts journalism. In August, 2017, he expanded ARTS KNOXVILLE into the site it is today — a site dedicated to continuing the arts journalism legacy of those alternative weeklies. In addition to covering Knoxville's arts scene, he has also contributed music content to the Nashville Scene and other arts and entertainment publications around the U.S, including the website, Classical Journal. Mr. Sherrod was a recipient of a 2010 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts — the Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera — under the auspices of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 2019, Sherrod was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame.

UT Symphony Orchestra This Week: John Williams, Florence Price, and ‘The Pines of Rome’

The University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra offers a Valentine’s Evening concert featuring music by John Williams, Florence Price, Ennio Morricone, and Ottorino Respighi. James Fellenbaum conducts. •   University of Tennessee, Cox Auditorium in the Alumni Memorial Building •   Saturday evening,…

Review: Concertmaster Series Explores a Different Side of Romance

BY ALAN SHERROD   For the winter installment of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster Series, Concertmaster and host William Shaub offered up an intensely intriguing program with an evocative title: “Tides of Solitude.” That title, of course, referred to a…

Review: Amadeus Concert Ensemble Delivers an “Organ Spectacular”

BY ALAN SHERROD   This past Sunday afternoon, the Amadeus Concert Ensemble continued its 2025-26 season of concerts as part of the Cathedral Concert Series in a program that was both a “first” and a landmark occasion. This was the…

Review: KSO Chamber Classics Warm Up a Cold Day with Elgar, Bach, and Haydn

BY ALAN SHERROD   It is a regular theme—one can hardly talk about the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s January concerts without mentioning the possibility of weather complications. That was the case for this past Sunday’s Chamber Classics concert at the Bijou,…

Review: ‘MJ the Musical’ – All that Glitters

BY ALAN SHERROD   Jukebox musicals have become an important slice of the pie that is the craft and business of Broadway, mixing the power of nostalgia with a wink and a nod,  and a dusting of exploitation. Fueled by…

On Sunday: Amadeus Concert Ensemble Presents “Organ Spectacular”

Knoxville will witness a musical first this Sunday when Amadeus Concert Ensemble pairs its orchestra with the towering Casavant Frères organ at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Internationally renowned organist Dr. Byongsuk Moon will be featured…

Review: Gluzman and KSO Combine For A Dynamic Brahms Violin Concerto

BY ALAN SHERROD   For a variety of reasons, the January Masterworks concerts of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra always seem to acquire a disproportionate amount of unforeseen drama. For example, it was ten years ago this month that Aram Demirjian…

2025 Most Memorable Classical Music Performances in Knoxville

Change in the art and music world can come swiftly or cautiously, but finding meaning in either one is not necessarily easy to manage. Generally, new start-up organizations are a good sign, as is major news from those groups already…

From the Archives: “The Most Famous Reindeer of All” (2016)

BY ALAN SHERROD   [This story was originally published in 2016] You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donder and Blitzen, But do you recall The most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the Red-Nosed…

Review: River and Rail Theatre Company – ‘Little Women’

BY ALAN SHERROD   Adapting classic literature for the stage filtered through a contemporary lens has been the province, if not the raison d’etre, of playwright and actress Kate Hamill. Concentrating on works with significant and important female characters, Hamill…

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