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.

Review: Knoxville Opera’s ‘Falstaff’ – An Exhilarating Winner

BY ALAN SHERROD   In his Friday evening pre-curtain remarks to the audience for Verdi’s Falstaff, Knoxville Opera General Director Jason Hardy asked for a show of hands of those seeing a KO production for the first time. Surprisingly, what…

Miscellany: More Things To Catch in October

As the autumn leaves drift by the window, one realizes that October is now half way toward Halloween with a packed schedule of music and arts happenings still to come in Knoxville. Knoxville Opera — Verdi’s Falstaff Giuseppe Verdi’s final…

On Sunday: UT Symphony Orchestra Takes On Sibelius, Schumann, and Brahms

BY ALAN SHERROD   It is simply too easy, if not dangerous, to take the University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra for granted.  Year after year in the 20-year tenure of Conductor and Director of Orchestras James Fellenbaum—of the now UT…

Jon Batiste Among Big Ears Second Round Line-Up Announcements

The biggest problem many Big Ears 2024 music fans will have is not whether to buy a pass for the March 21-24 festival, but rather, how to wait that long without succumbing to embarrassing displays of anticipation. As is the…

Preview: This Week…Knoxville Opera Looks To Verdi’s ‘Falstaff” For Season Opener

Knoxville Opera’s opening production of the 2023-24 season will be the lyric comic opera, Falstaff, Giuseppe Verdi’s final operatic work. Based on Shakespeare’s play, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and scene bits from Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, the opera features…

Review: KSO’s Concertmaster Series—Nostalgia and History

BY ALAN SHERROD   “Nostalgia is just History after a few drinks.” The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster Series as hosted by Concertmaster William Shaub has always enjoyed displaying its dual personality of virtuosic violin showmanship contrasted with deep dives into…

Review: River & Rail’s Thought-Provoking ‘A Case for the Existence of God’

BY ALAN SHERROD   The last ten years, or so, have been big ones for playwright Samuel D. Hunter. Along with a MacArthur Fellowship, his seventeen produced plays since 2010 include The Whale from 2012 which he subsequently adapted for…

Review: KSO Begins 2023-24 Season with Trumpets and Triumphs

BY ALAN SHERROD   A sip of cold champagne, a trumpet fanfare, and an energetic welcome from Maestro Aram Demirjian greeted audience arrivals at the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s opening Masterworks concerts this past weekend. While similar to previous versions of…

Review: KSO Opens Chamber Classics Series with Variego, Smyth, and Mozart

BY ALAN SHERROD   It would be nice if we could pretend that the past weekend was a normal one for classical music in Knoxville. The fact is, there was nothing normal about it. Knoxville was treated to an unusual…

Big Week for Knoxville Symphony Orchestra — 2023-24 Season Openings in Two Series

It rarely happens this way, but thanks to the whims of the calendar, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will be opening the 2023-24 season for two of its major series within a few days of each other.  The KSO’s always-intriguing Chamber…

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