By Alan Sherrod Mah•ler•i•an noun – an admirer of the Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, or his work In a preface to the orchestra’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 (“Titan”) this weekend, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra maestro…
Critical Bind: Knoxville Opera Seeking New Scenery Storage Space
Knoxville Opera Seeking Scenery Storage Space Those platforms, columns, steps, and props that are used, reused, and repurposed for Knoxville Opera’s productions have to go somewhere when they are not onstage. Unfortunately, the opera company has received notice that their…
2020 Winners: Met Opera Auditions – Middle/East Tennessee District
Auditions for the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Middle/East Tennessee District were held on Saturday, January 4 at McAfee Concert Hall at Belmont University in Nashville. The auditions yielded four winners who will advance to the Southeast Regional MONC auditions…
The Beethoven 250 Celebration Year Begins for KSO and UT School of Music
By Alan Sherrod Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, probably a day or so earlier than his recorded baptismal date of December 17, 1770. The composer’s subsequent life and work of 57 years shaped western music in ways…
The Most Popular Arts Knoxville Stories of 2019
By Alan Sherrod Last week, Arts Knoxville offered up our admittedly subjective opinions on 2019’s Most Memorable Classical Music Performances, with Andrew Swafford and Reid Ramsey tickling our interest on important 2019 films. Now, we get to reveal what readers…
Most Memorable Classical Music Performances of 2019
By Alan Sherrod Regular readers of Arts Knoxville will recall that we have been unabashed advocates for the resurgence of Downtown Knoxville as a focal point for the city, if for no other reason than the environmental vitality it…
Twas the Week Before Christmas: Last Call for Seasonal Theatre and Music
The Winter Solstice comes this Saturday evening, so while we are relatively ice and snow free, check out some of Knoxville’s secular seasonal entertainments in their final performances. As of this writing, tickets are still available for all of these,…
Review: ‘A Christmas Carol’ – CBT’s Spectacular Tradition Continues
By Alan Sherrod Traditions are all about customs and events made familiar through the passage of time. By that definition, the Clarence Brown Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol certainly qualifies in a big way. Although stage versions of…
Review: Virtuosic Percussion and a Sublime Beethoven Seventh Mark KSO’s “Beethoven and the Art of Rhythm”
By Alan Sherrod While double bass players might argue to the contrary, it is an orchestral fact that percussionists—generally relegated to the back corner of the concert stage and, yet, responsible for a virtually infinite diversity of sounds—receive the…
KSO Masterworks This Week: Beethoven’s Seventh + Dorman’s ‘Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!’ with Nief-Norf
Beethoven and the Art of Rhythm • Beethoven: Overture from The Creatures of Prometheus • Dorman: Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! (with Nief-Norf) • Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks —Aram Demirjian, conductor Thursday and Friday, November 21 and 22,…
