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…
Big Ears 2024 Announces Headliners and Starting Line-Up
Big Ears has announced its headliners and lineups for the 2024 festival that will occupy downtown from Thursday, March 21 thru Sunday, March 24, 2024. Headliners include some big-name newbies and some old favorites. Herbie Hancock – Laurie Anderson –John…
Review: CBT’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ Enjoys a Sensational Second Trip
BY ALAN SHERROD The show must go on, even when Covid deals out nasty surprises. Clarence Brown Theatre opened a snazzy production of Ken Ludwig’s stage adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express last September, only to…
Preview: CBT’s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ Builds Up Steam This Week
Murder on the Orient Express Based on the Agatha Christie novel—Adapted for the stage by Ken Ludwig Clarence Brown Theatre Previews on Wednesday and Thursday, September 6 and 7 with opening night on Friday, September 8; Runs through Sunday, September…
Tuesday Arts Miscellany: The 2023-24 Arts Season Begins!
Although summer doesn’t end for another three weeks—and we have the hot, humid weather to prove it—there are major signs that the Fall music and arts season is upon us. Not only do we have First Friday this week, but…