By Alan Sherrod We generally consider operatic performance to be one of singers with…
Music
“If you don’t know what to do, there’s actually a chance of doing something new.”
― Philip Glass, Words Without Music: A Memoir
Love, Jealousy, Revenge – A Preview of Knoxville Opera’s Unique ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’
By Alan Sherrod It has been three years since Knoxville Opera last took its…
Review: KSO’s “Mozart in the City” Wraps Its Chamber Classics Season
By Alan Sherrod Creating concert programs that satisfy and challenge an audience, as well…
Review: A Seductive and Luscious ‘Carmen’ From UT Opera Theatre
By Alan Sherrod Performances in this review— Saturday evening, April 12, and Sunday afternoon,…
Review: KSO and Choral Colleagues Combine for a Sublime Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
By Alan Sherrod If works of music were living human beings, they would no…
Big Ears 2019: Some Overlooked Festival Gems
Overlooked is a bit of a loaded word when it comes to the Big Ears Festival. The festival features so much music unlike anything you’ve ever seen, that it’s truly impossible to see it all. For an introvert like myself, FOMO became a relatively new and profoundly constant state-of-mind throughout the weekend. Some of the most talked about performances of the weekend — such as Spiritualized, Mountain Man, the Messthetics, and Dejohnette Coltrane Garrison, only the last of whom I saw — simply conflicted with other performances on my schedule. So having missed some of the most impressive and mind-bending performances, how can I even refer to other acts as overlooked? Big Ears just offers so much.
Big Ears 2019: Making Everything Seem Possible
By Alan Sherrod With minds mostly boggled and ears now feeling oversized, 2019 Big…
Plan or Improvisation? – Life Lessons From Big Ears 2019
By Eric Dawson Many musicians have talked about how an improvisational approach to music…
Strolling Through Big Ears – Part 2
Well the weather cleared up for Friday and Saturday, sunshine and warmer weather prevailed, and you couldn’t have asked for nicer days to be strolling around downtown. Hope the visiting Hawaiians felt more at home.
The Pilot Light and Big Ears
Let’s talk about the Pilot Light. The Old City club, which will hit its 20th(!) anniversary next year, has hosted a mind-boggling number of acts in its time, many if not most that are right at home in the Big Ears universe, with many festival alumni having performed there before they were later booked for the big show. It’s a natural venue for the festival, along with Big Ears stalwarts the Tennessee Theatre, Bijou and KMA, a venue for the original festival in 2009.
