It’s rather commonplace to find music and entertainment when you enter Market Square in the warm months. But there is a method to the music, at least on Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer. The concerts are free thanks to the…
James Fellenbaum Named Artistic Director/Conductor of Brevard Philharmonic
By Alan Sherrod One of Knoxville’s busiest musicians is about to get just a bit busier. James Fellenbaum, who holds multiple conductorships in the Knoxville classical music world, has recently been named Artistic Director/Conductor of the Brevard Philharmonic. Fellenbaum…
Review: KSO Ends 2017-18 Season With Some Excitement and Risk-Taking
Perhaps it’s the warm weather, or perhaps it’s the seasonal idea of commencement—an ending that’s also a beginning. Whatever the impetus, the final concerts of the season for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra each May always seem to evoke a mix of heart-tugging nostalgia and optimism for what the future may bring. On those final May concerts this past weekend, however, those usual emotions were joined by something new, a curious, but restrained sense of excitement and anticipation similar to what one feels when embarking on an adventure.
KSO This Week: A Feast of American Composers to End the Season
I have to admit that prior to February 2017 my knowledge of Florence Price and her music was that of her name on a list of American women composers. In my shaky defense to never having heard a live performance of her music until then, or even a recording, I can say that I wasn’t totally alone even among those who write about the subject.
Review: Marble City Opera Examines Our Personal Baggage in ‘Postcard From Morocco’
This weekend found Marble City Opera’s final staged production of the year, Dominick Argento’s one-act work from 1971, ‘Postcard From Morocco’, in the event end of Jackson Terminal. The placement of a piece like Argento’s opera (libretto by John Donahue) in a space like the Terminal felt strangely natural—seven people find themselves waiting in a train station, all the while examining their existences in terms of their personal “baggage” in a surrealist dramatic environment. Dare I say it? It’s a bit like “Waiting For Godot in a Train Station.” And I mean that in the nicest—and most enticing—possible way.
Friday: Inner Voices String Quartet at Modern Studio
Inner Voices String Quartet returns this Friday evening with a new and different program: III.
Review: Knoxville Opera Wraps Its 40th Season With A Superb ‘Aida’
By Alan Sherrod It was probably inevitable that Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida would be Knoxville Opera’s choice to conclude the 2017-18 season—its 40th anniversary season. After all, it was to be a season designed to make a major statement for…
Preview: ‘Postcard From Morocco’ On Its Way From Marble City Opera
Guessing in which intriguing, non-theatrical location Marble City Opera will stage their next chamber opera production has become something of a game in the Knoxville music scene. Following last season’s finale of La Traviata staged at Historic Westwood, this season…
Review: A Different Sort of Holmes and Watson in ‘Sherlock’s Last Case’ at Theatre Knoxville Downtown
Theatre Knoxville Downtown presents ‘Sherlock’s Last Case’ by Charles Marowitz
Previewing Knoxville Opera’s ‘Aida’: Soprano Michelle Johnson
In almost every decade, it seems, music writers love to dig up an age-old question: “where are the great Verdi sopranos?”
