By Alan Sherrod I strongly insist on telling myself that the state of dramatic criticism has evolved noticeably since playwright Tom Stoppard, a former critic himself, wrote The Real Inspector Hound in the 1960s. Otherwise, his delicious parody of…
Big Ears 2019: Making Everything Seem Possible
By Alan Sherrod With minds mostly boggled and ears now feeling oversized, 2019 Big Ears Festival attendees have drifted back to their corners of the world, left to replay in their minds their adrenaline-fueled, four-day romance with music and…
Review: Shaub, Chen, and KSO Combine for An Evening of Symphonic Delights
By Alan Sherrod It is something of an understatement that Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor is a vehicle for violinist stardom—either for those who already have acclaim and reputation, or for those who seem destined for acclaim…
Review: Portraits of Three Strong Women Mark Marble City Opera’s Latest at Blount Mansion
By Alan Sherrod Strength and courage in the face of the ugliness of war was the thread running through Marble City Opera’s latest evening of chamber opera performances—a production with the emphasis squarely on “chamber.” A period room in…
KSO’s 2019-20 Masterworks Season Lineup: A Q&A with Maestro Aram Demirjian
By Alan Sherrod The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra released the news of their 2019-20 season programming last month, planting the seeds of excitement in Knoxville classical music listeners. KSO music director and conductor Aram Demirjian took the time to answer…
Review: Southern Gothic Meets Comedy in Flying Anvil Theatre’s ‘Crimes of the Heart’
By Alan Sherrod The tradition of Southern Gothic literature from Faulkner, O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Tennessee Williams, and many others, runs deep in our consciousness, throwing open the shutters and exposing the dusty rooms of cultural decay, and the dusty…
Sunday, March 10: Young Pianist Series Wraps With Elliot Wuu
“Young” has been a key word in the 2019 Evelyn Miller Young Pianist Series recitals. Following last month’s recital by 17-year-old Ray Ushikubo, the series wraps up this month with 18-year-old Elliott Wuu this Sunday, March 10, at the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall.
Review: Pianist Chih-Long Hu and KSO Brighten a Sunday, Rainy Sunday
By Alan Sherrod It is sheer speculation on my part, but I’m betting that if KSO music director Aram Demirjian had known that Sunday afternoon would be yet another gloomy, rainy, soporific day, he might have programmed his Chamber Classics…
Review: The Cast of CBT’s ‘Detroit ’67’ Finds Treasure in the Basement
By Alan Sherrod Detroit in the incendiary “long, hot summer of 1967” is the setting for Dominique Morisseau’s Detroit ’67 which opened on Friday evening at Clarence Brown Theatre’s Carousel Theatre. While that summer was defined by racial tensions…
Review: Nief-Norf’s Knoxville Concert Series – Fresh Ink
By Alan Sherrod The overture for the evening was the random, staccato beat of raindrops on an umbrella, a sound that somehow made for a reassuring counterpoint to the sloshing of footfalls on wet concrete. Coming upon Market Square…
