Every symphony concert is like a bubbling cauldron of ingredients, a mixture of music, performers, and performances that takes on a dynamic life of its own. Add or remove one ingredient, or alter the mixture’s balance, and something new emerges.…
This Weekend: An Overwhelming Diversity of Events
Gospel music, opera, Agatha Christie, Ravel, Shostakovich, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Opera, horror films, documentaries, home movies, Appalachian Ballet — oh my. For at least 10 years, we’ve been predicting a time would come in Knoxville’s surging arts and…
‘The Mousetrap’ at Theatre Knoxville Downtown
It is said that novelist and playwright Agatha Christie always became quite angry when reviewers would reveal the plot, and possibly even the surprise endings, of her mystery works. To keep the spirit of Christie at bay, I shall not…
Review: Into the Woods with Flying Anvil Theatre’s ‘The Love Talker’
The hypnotic drone of cicadas smoothed over by a warm Appalachian mountain breeze; sun-dappled fields of tall grass that give way to dark, forbidding woods; a simple cabin of rough-hewn boards inhabited by two sisters at the mercy of their…
New Faces in the KSO — 2017 Edition
There was a time when American symphony orchestras had the reputation for stubbornly resisting change, entities that embraced neither innovation nor diversity in their ranks. However, the last 25 or 30 years have brought miraculous changes to the makeup of…
Review – Marble City Opera Explores Human Communication in ‘The Telephone’ and ‘The Human Voice’
Human communication via the telephone—both the attempt and the psychological result—was the broad premise of Marble City Opera’s compelling productions this weekend at the Square Room via two one act operas, The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti and The Human…
KSO and CBT To Team Up Again in 2018 With Bernstein’s ‘Candide’
(Above: CBT Artistic Director Calvin MacLean and KSO Music Director Aram Demirjian) Artistic collaborations may seem like natural extensions of a performing arts scene, but they aren’t necessarily that easy to accomplish for a number of reasons. However, in a…
Preview – Marble City Opera Presents Menotti’s ‘The Telephone’ and Poulenc’s ‘The Human Voice’
Marble City Opera presents Menotti’s The Telephone and Poulenc’s The Human Voice Friday and Saturday, October 6 and 7, at 8:00 PM The Square Room, 4 Market Square in downtown Knoxville Above: Kathryn Frady in ‘The Human Voice’ Where…
William Shaub Takes the Reins of the KSO’s Concertmaster Series
Most regular concertgoers have, at least, a vague idea of the role of an orchestra’s concertmaster. He or she symbolically represents the orchestra as a whole, occupies the first chair position of the first violins, calls for tuning at the…
Review – The Desperation of Inaction in Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’
In many ways similar to how “Shakespearean” is an accepted adjective, so is “Chekhovian” in referring to the works of the playwright and short story writer, Anton Chekhov. However, while “Shakespearean” is an expansive reference by virtue of quantity, scale,…
