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.

Recital Report: Pianist László Váradi Journeys Through An Afternoon of Liszt

By Alan Sherrod One doesn’t really expect Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata to lead off a recital program, yet there it was, brimming with heat to start the afternoon. László Váradi, the first pianist in this year’s Young Pianist Series recitals, clearly had…

Theatre Knoxville Downtown Begins Its Second Act And Revives a Lonely Corner

By Alan Sherrod   Urban renewal—if one can still use that term today with a straight face—has not been kind to 800 South Central Street. A mere two blocks east of the bustle of Gay Street, and on the now…

Sunday, Jan 27: ‘Young Pianist Series’ Opens 40th Season with László Váradi

The Evelyn Miller Young Pianist Series opens its 40th season of recitals with Hungarian pianist László Váradi. This first of three recitals takes place in the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall of the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center on the University of Tennessee campus on Sunday, January 27, at 2:30 PM.

Review: The Present and the Future Collide in KSO’s Majestic “New World”

By Alan Sherrod   A collision of the present and the future occurred on the stage of the Tennessee Theatre this weekend—an experience that was noticeably transformative for both performers and audience. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and its Knoxville Symphony…

Recital Report: UT’s Ready For the World – Americana

By Alan Sherrod   Sunday afternoon saw the next installment of the University of Tennessee’s Ready for the World Music Series, an offering of three programs per year intended to illuminate the music and culture of a variety of regions…

Review: “The Music of John Williams” – Fellenbaum and the KSO Summon the Force

By Alan Sherrod   It is said that everyone has at least one awakening moment in their life when music and culture collide at a particular time and place. For those in their pre-teen years, such a music/culture moment is…

Review: Virtuosity and Warm Reflection Highlight January’s Concertmaster Series Concert

By Alan Sherrod   If Tchaikovsky’s ballets, symphonies, and operas tell us anything, it is that the composer gravitated to the richness and complexity of orchestral textures as a main vehicle for musical creation. Chamber music seems to have had…

Sunday: Ready For The World Music Series – Americana

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all…

Review: KSO Ensembles Heat Up the Chamber Music Scene

By Alan Sherrod   For the last several years, it has felt like something of a triumph to report that Knoxville’s chamber music scene, once merely an under-attended curiosity for the most dedicated listeners, has grown by leaps and bounds,…

2019 Winners: Met Opera Auditions – Middle/East Tennessee District

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions for the Middle/East Tennessee District were held on Saturday, January 5, with three winners being chosen.

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