BY ALAN SHERROD “Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root…” “Strange Fruit” – Abel Meeropol, recorded by Billie Holiday (1939) Dominique Morisseau’s 2014 play Blood at the Root takes…
Review: Knoxville Opera Returns with the Devilish Spectacle of ‘Mefistofele’
BY ALAN SHERROD After an absence of over two years from the performing stage, Knoxville Opera returned to life on Friday evening with a production of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele. Those two years have no doubt seemed like an eternity…
First Friday of March: On Stage and On the Walls
Theatre, Music, and Opera UT Symphony Orchestra: Concertos and Classics This concert will feature the winners of the annual SOM Concerto Competition. Livestream information can be found at https://music.utk.edu/events/live.php. Sunday, March 6 at 4:00pm Alumni Memorial Building, James R. Cox Auditorium…
Review in Brief: KSO Offers Beautiful Bach; Coincidences Abound in Shostakovich
BY ALAN SHERROD As Maestro Aram Demirjian indicated in his preface of Sunday afternoon’s Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra concert, the programming for it had been done over a year in advance. So, it was both a grand and somber…
This Week: Knoxville Opera Returns to the Stage with Boito’s ‘Mefistofele’
BY ALAN SHERROD In the opera world of the 1860s, more than the mere Alps separated Italy from Germany. The battle between the influences of Giuseppe Verdi in the Italian opera world and the supporters of Richard Wagner and…
Review: Marble City Opera Premieres Important Theatre in ‘I Can’t Breathe’
BY ALAN SHERROD It would be impossible to find a more relevant topic for contemporary theatre than that found in the Marble City Opera production of I Can’t Breathe, a new opera that received its world premiere on Thursday…
Confessions of a Bachophile: KSO’s Rachel Loseke and I-Pei Lin Take on Bach’s Double Violin Concerto
It is unlikely that any musician living today can claim that they were thrown into prison by their employer for petty affronts and for asking to be let out of a contract. Yet, that was the situation for one Johann…
Performances This Week: ‘I Can’t Breathe’ Premiere, Master Arts Recital at CSUMC, KSO Chamber Orchestra
Marble City Opera: World Premiere of I Can’t Breathe Demand was great for tickets to Marble City Opera’s World Premiere production of a new opera, I Can’t Breathe, music by Leslie Burrs and libretto by Brandon Gibson. The three performances…
Review: KSO, Pianist Weiyin Chen, Conductor Sameer Patel Combine for a Memorable Evening
BY ALAN SHERROD While Knoxville Symphony Orchestra maestro Aram Demirjian was away on a guest conductor gig with the Santa Rosa Symphony this month, the baton in this week’s KSO Masterworks concerts went to guest conductor Sameer Patel. It…
This Weekend: UTSOM presents UT Symphony Orchestra and Recitals
University of Tennessee School of Music Concerts and Recitals UT Symphony Orchestra Music director and conductor James Fellenbaum is focusing on the musical “Narrative” in this Sunday’s UT Symphony Concert. In the three works on the program, composer Caroline Shaw…
