Things aren’t going well for Casey, a less-than-successful Elvis impersonator in a less-than-successful, if not seedy, beach bar in Panama City, Florida. In fact, things are so bad, Casey and his wife, Jo, are facing eviction, and the bar’s owner, Eddie, is hoping Elvis would leave the building. Truly, things are looking downright dismal for Casey when Eddie’s cousin, a drag queen named Miss Tracy Mills, arrives to save the failing bar with a “new” type of act.
Modern Studio Becoming Holler! Performing Arts Center
By Alan Sherrod Update: Holler! Performing Arts Center, the former Modern Studio, has closed permanently. To say that Knoxville’s local theatre and performing arts scene is evolving is something of an understatement—and the keyword here seems to be “local.”…
Market Square ‘Concerts on the Square’ Summer Schedule
It’s rather commonplace to find music and entertainment when you enter Market Square in the warm months. But there is a method to the music, at least on Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer. The concerts are free thanks to the…
James Fellenbaum Named Artistic Director/Conductor of Brevard Philharmonic
By Alan Sherrod One of Knoxville’s busiest musicians is about to get just a bit busier. James Fellenbaum, who holds multiple conductorships in the Knoxville classical music world, has recently been named Artistic Director/Conductor of the Brevard Philharmonic. Fellenbaum…
Review: KSO Ends 2017-18 Season With Some Excitement and Risk-Taking
Perhaps it’s the warm weather, or perhaps it’s the seasonal idea of commencement—an ending that’s also a beginning. Whatever the impetus, the final concerts of the season for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra each May always seem to evoke a mix of heart-tugging nostalgia and optimism for what the future may bring. On those final May concerts this past weekend, however, those usual emotions were joined by something new, a curious, but restrained sense of excitement and anticipation similar to what one feels when embarking on an adventure.
KSO This Week: A Feast of American Composers to End the Season
I have to admit that prior to February 2017 my knowledge of Florence Price and her music was that of her name on a list of American women composers. In my shaky defense to never having heard a live performance of her music until then, or even a recording, I can say that I wasn’t totally alone even among those who write about the subject.
Review: Marble City Opera Examines Our Personal Baggage in ‘Postcard From Morocco’
This weekend found Marble City Opera’s final staged production of the year, Dominick Argento’s one-act work from 1971, ‘Postcard From Morocco’, in the event end of Jackson Terminal. The placement of a piece like Argento’s opera (libretto by John Donahue) in a space like the Terminal felt strangely natural—seven people find themselves waiting in a train station, all the while examining their existences in terms of their personal “baggage” in a surrealist dramatic environment. Dare I say it? It’s a bit like “Waiting For Godot in a Train Station.” And I mean that in the nicest—and most enticing—possible way.
Friday: Inner Voices String Quartet at Modern Studio
Inner Voices String Quartet returns this Friday evening with a new and different program: III.
Review: Knoxville Opera Wraps Its 40th Season With A Superb ‘Aida’
By Alan Sherrod It was probably inevitable that Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida would be Knoxville Opera’s choice to conclude the 2017-18 season—its 40th anniversary season. After all, it was to be a season designed to make a major statement for…
Preview: ‘Postcard From Morocco’ On Its Way From Marble City Opera
Guessing in which intriguing, non-theatrical location Marble City Opera will stage their next chamber opera production has become something of a game in the Knoxville music scene. Following last season’s finale of La Traviata staged at Historic Westwood, this season…
