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…
Review: A Clarence Brown Theatre Tradition Refreshed — Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’
BY ALAN SHERROD It is fair to say that our Christmas season today would be vastly different had Charles Dickens not treated us to the novella masterpiece that is A Christmas Carol. The work influenced and popularized many of…
Review: Pianist Park, Guest conductor Di Russo, and KSO Shine in ‘Rhapsody’ et al.
BY ALAN SHERROD With the beginnings of the holiday season now upon us, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Maestro Aram Demirjian took the week off and handed the baton for its November Masterworks pair of concerts this past weekend to guest…
Review: A New Beginning – UT Opera Theatre Presents Rossini and Menotti Comedies
BY ALAN SHERROD As the Bijou Theatre’s red curtain closed on the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre’s performance of two one-act comic operas this past weekend, one had the distinct feeling that this was not a closing at all,…
KSO Extends Aram Demirjian’s Contract Through 2030
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has announced that Music Director Aram Demirjian has signed a new four-year contract that will continue his leadership of the orchestra through the 2029-30 season.  “We have made such inspiring strides together over the last 10…
Review: ‘The Book of Mormon’ at the Tennessee Theatre – Still Outrageous Fun
‘The Book of Mormon’ is now well-ensconced in a third U.S. tour—this one non-AEA— that took to the road in 2022. That tour is currently making a stop for eight performances at the Tennessee Theatre through November 16.
UT Opera Theatre Introduces a New Stage Director … and an Italian Double Feature
Stepping into the spotlight with his first production as Director of Opera Theatre at UT is James Kenon Mitchell.
For the fall production of the 2025-26 UTOT season, two one-act comic operas were chosen: La cambiale di matrimonio (The Marriage Contract) by Gioachino Rossini and Amelia al ballo (Amelia Goes to the Ball) by Gian Carlo Menotti.
Review: Knoxville Opera Brings a Superb Cast to Bizet’s ‘Carmen’
BY ALAN SHERROD Note for note, minute for minute, Georges Bizet’s Carmen can seem today like one hit tune after another. Interestingly, it didn’t start its operatic life that way, the premiere in 1875 being quite the disaster. Thankfully,…
