While summer heat still prevails, one can sense the coming of fall. One sign of the inevitable change is the arts calendar for September, which is already bulging with opening concerts, shows, and events for the 2022-23 season. Most organizations have diverted their subscription sales efforts to the offering of tickets for individual performances. Here is a curated selection of September events (in rough chronological order) that you will probably want to note for future reference.
First Friday: September 2
Gallery crawlers will find the usual openings downtown. The UT Downtown Gallery (106 S. Gay Street) is offering the 2022 Artist in Residence Biennial from September 2 – October 15. The 2022 AIR Biennial will showcase the work of four past Artists in Residence at the University of Tennessee School of Art: Heidi Howard, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Zahar Vaks, and Curtis Santiago.
Next door at the Emporium Center (100 S. Gay Street), the September exhibitions will open with the monthly First Friday reception from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
• Tom Owens & Marianne Woodside: Capturing People, Recording Environments – A Decade of Recent Work
• Larry Cole: Figures, Faces and Fantasy
• Greg Lach: Paint and Pixels
• Risa Hricovsky: Stranger Things
• Jan Burleson: Things Pile Up
This is only the tip of the iceberg of First Friday offerings. Check out the Knoxville Arts and Culture Alliance website for a complete rundown.
Knoxville Opera: Glory Denied
In partnership with the Medal of Honor Celebration hosted this year in Knoxville, Knoxville Opera is offering the local premiere of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied. This 2007 work is based on the book by Tom Philpott that relates the true story of America’s longest-held prisoner of war, Colonel Floyd James Thompson. Cipullo’s opera is in two acts. Stage direction is by Dean Anthony with the chamber orchestra conducted by Steven White. Singers are Craig Irvin, Caroline Worra, John Riesen, and Emma Marhefka.
Active duty or veteran members of the armed forces can get complimentary tickets upon request.
James R. Cox Auditorium in UT’s Alumni Memorial Building on the UT Campus
Friday, September 9, at 7:30 PM
Sunday, September 11, at 2:30 PM
Tickets and Information
Clarence Brown Theatre: Murder on the Orient Express
The Clarence Brown Theatre begins its 2022-23 season with Murder on the Orient Express, a play adapted by Ken Ludwig from the well-known mystery novel of Agatha Christie.
The work features Christie’s famous detective, Hercule Poirot, stranded on the luxurious train by a snowdrift. An American tycoon lies dead in his compartment, stabbed numerous times, his door locked from the inside. Isolated and with a killer in their midst, the passengers rely on Poirot to identify the murderer.
Previews for Murder on the Orient Express are Wednesday, September 14 and Thursday, September 15 followed by Opening Night Friday, September 16. The production runs through October 2.
Clarence Brown Theatre on the UT Campus
Tickets and Information
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
There has been a change in the program for this Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks concert pair due to a personal injury to pianist Joyce Yang. Yang was to perform a work co-commissioned by the KSO, Jonathan Leshnoff’s Piano Concerto. Substituting for Yang will be pianist Charlie Albright, who will play Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto. KSO music director Aram Demirjian will be on the podium.
Anna Clyne: Masquerade
Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto In A Minor (Charlie Albright, Piano)
Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street
Thursday, September 15, and Friday, September 16, 7:30 PM
Tickets and Information
The KSO is also offering a free concert on Market Square on Thursday, September 8, at 7:30 PM
Marble City Opera: Stalactites, Sopranos & Stilettos
Prior to Marble City Opera’s first major production in October, Heartbreak Express, you might want do a bit of operatic spelunking with them on Sunday, September 18, at the local Cherokee Caverns. MCO sopranos Kathryn Frady, Kayla Beard, and Whitney Wells are offering an afternoon of song at the unsual and historic underground site off of Oak Ridge Highway.
Marble City Opera at Cherokee Caverns
8524 Oak Ridge Highway
Sunday, September 18, 2:00 PM
Tickets and Information
River and Rail Theatre Company: The Little Prince
Written by Rick Cummins and John Scoullar and based on the book of the same name by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince offers the story of a world-weary aviator who is stranded in a strange new world, where the friendship and guidance of a small child enables him to pay attention to the life and beauty before his eyes.
River and Rail Theatre Company
Old City Performing Arts Center, 111 State Street, Downtown Knoxville
September 23 – October 9 (Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:00 PM; Sundays at 2:30 PM; check site for Student Performances)
Tickets and Information
UT School of Music
• Sunday, September 18, 4:00 PM — University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra, Cox Auditorium, Free
• Friday, September 23 at 7:30 PM — Faculty/Guest Artist Recital: Melisa Barrick Baldwin, soprano; Eileen Downey, piano; Wesley Baldwin, cello
Natalie Haslam Music Center, Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall, Free
• Friday, September 23 at 7:30 PM —Fall Choral Concert
James R. Cox Auditorium, Alumni Memorial Building
Amadeus Chamber Ensemble – Mozart: Coronation Mass (K. 317) & Regina Coeli (K. 108)
The Cathedral Concert Series features the Amadeus Chamber Ensemble in two full works by Mozart: Coronation Mass (K. 317) & Regina Coeli (K. 108). The ensemble and choir is under the direction of Howard Skinner and features soloists Abigail Santos Villalobos, Diana Salesky, Kirk Dougherty, and KC Armostrong. Ensemble Concertmaster will be Miroslav Hristov.
Sunday, September 25, 5:30 PM
The Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, 711 Northshore Drive, Knoxville
Admission is FREE but registration is requested
Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra – ‘Mozart & Ginastera’
For the first 2022-23 performance in their Chamber Classics Series, the KSO is offering Mozart & Ginastera, an afternoon concert with works by Mozart, Caroline Shaw, and Alberto Ginastera. Aram Demirjian conducts.
W.A. Mozart: Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”)
Caroline Shaw: The Mountain That Loved A Bird — with Laura Beth Wells, narrator
Alberto Ginastera: Variaciones Concertantes
Sunday, September 25, 2:30 PM
Bijou Theatre, 803 S. Gay Street
Tickets and Information
