Tuesday Arts Miscellany: February 18, 2020

The actual 250th Birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven is not until December of this year, but that hasn’t stopped a two-year worldwide focus on all things Beethoven.

If you’ve been saving up your Beethoven concert-going energy for something really big, this is definitely the week you’ve been waiting for—there are performances from both the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and the University of Tennessee School of Music.

KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

On Thursday and Friday evenings (Feb 20/21), the KSO’s Masterworks concerts, led by Aram Demirjian, feature Beethoven’s Third Symphony (“Eroica”).

Another focus of the concert are two African American composers who have been sorely neglected until recently: George Walker, who was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1996, will be represented by Lyric for Strings. Following the Walker is Florence Price‘s Violin Concerto No. 1 with violinist Bella Hristova. This is a return visit to the KSO for Hristova—she performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto with guest conductor Andrew Grams in January, 2017.

7:30 PM, Thursday and Friday, February 20, 21 – Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street
Tickets and Information

UT SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Tonight (Tuesday evening, Feb 18), the Edison Piano Trio, a faculty trio from the School of Music consisting of Kevin Class, piano, Geoffrey Herd, violin, and Wesley Baldwin, cello, will perform the second of three recitals of Beethoven’s piano trios. On this recital are three of Beethoven’s most famous:
• Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1, “Ghost”
• Piano Trio in E Flat major, Op. 70, No. 2
• Piano Trio in B Flat Major, Op. 97

The free recital is at 8 PM in the Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall of the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center. [Note: a UT home basketball game will no doubt affect parking options.]

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
On Sunday evening (Feb. 23), in what will probably be the culmination of the UTSOM’s Beethoven250 celebration, the UT Symphony Orchestra,  UT choral ensembles, and soloists will join for a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

7:30 PM, Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Downtown – Tickets

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This is the final week for Noël Coward’s sparkling and witty Blithe Spirit at Clarence Brown Theatre.
Read the Arts Knoxville review here.

Runs Wednesdays – Saturdays at 7:30 PM; Sundays at 2:00 PM; through February 23.
Tickets and Information

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Now up and running at the Knoxville Museum of Art is the anxiously awaited Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin: Through the Unusual Door.
The exhibition totals over 50 paintings, works on paper, and unpublished archival material that explores the 38-year relationship between painter Beauford Delaney and writer James Baldwin. The exhibition makes use of the KMA’s growing Delaney holdings, as well as works from public and private collections around the country. The KMA’s Stephen Wicks is the curator of the exhibition, which is accompanied by a color-illustrated catalogue published by the University of Tennessee Press. The exhibition runs through May 10.

Knoxville Museum of Art, 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive
Tuesday – Saturday: 10 AM – 5 PM; Sunday: 1 PM – 5 PM

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February shows at the Emporium Center
Continue through February 28
Regular Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

• National Juried Exhibition of 2020
• Yumee Eun: From Within
• Josh Collins: Story of a City: East Knoxville
• Ellen Alvarez: Driftwood Creations

The Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, Downtown Knoxville

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Opening at Theatre Knoxville Downtown on Friday, February 21 is Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park

Knoxville Children’s Theatre: Junie B. Jones, The Musical, Jr.