It is difficult to believe that 11 years have passed since the University of Tennessee…
Music
“If you don’t know what to do, there’s actually a chance of doing something new.”
― Philip Glass, Words Without Music: A Memoir
Sunday: Amadeus Concert Ensemble Presents Chanukah Music Fest
Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Knoxville Jewish Community Family of Funds, Amadeus Concert Ensemble is…
Review: KSO Kicks Off Christmas Season With Handel’s ‘Messiah’
Of all the creations of music in the “classical” realm, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is the perfect example of a beloved musical work that has survived a multitude of twisted traditions and misunderstandings, not to mention the performance abuse that comes with the well-meant intentions of over-popularity. Completed in 1741 and first performed in April of 1742 in Dublin, Ireland, at Neale’s Music Hall, Handel originally intended his oratorio Messiah for an Easter-time event. Handel also created the work with modest instrumentation, yet by the 1850s, Messiah was receiving lavish productions with huge choruses and orchestras and was often performed as a spectacle for Christmas audiences.
Review: Fire and Ice—KSO Takes A Journey Through Stravinsky, Debussy, and John Williams
In his opening remarks for the audience at the past weekend’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra concerts, conductor Aram Demirjian offered that one would invariably find that the program would be a showcase of sorts for the orchestra’s players, one chock full of impressive moments for a host of individual musicians. That was certainly the case. But in the bigger picture, this was also a program of five very different works that meshed brilliantly with each other, rewarding the audience both musically and intellectually. Demirjian’s programming included two works by Igor Stravinsky, Firebird Suite and the Violin Concerto. Yet, Stravinsky style did not overwhelm. Somehow, John Williams’ “Hedwig’s Theme,” Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and Lera Auerbach’s Icarus, were deliciously purposeful and appropriate as concern companions.
KSO This Week: Demirjian and Violinist William Shaub Prepare a Feast of Stravinsky
This week, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra is offering a veritable feast of Stravinsky, including the Violin Concerto in D with KSO Concertmaster William Shaub as the soloist. Concluding the concert will be Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, a suite of five movements taken from the composer’s score for Sergei Diaghilev’s ballet, The Firebird, for the Ballets Russes. Aram Demirjian conducts.
Review: Knoxville Opera Finds Treasure with ‘The Pirates of Penzance’
Although the American musical theatre has had a colorful existence of innovation and evolution, it owes that existence to the genre of operetta that graced stages of England and Europe in the last half of the 19th Century. Admittedly, though, time and changing theatrical sensibilities have relegated the bulk of operetta to the dusty shelves of yesteryear, their music and topical stories existing only as curiosities for historians. There are exceptions to that fact—most notably the English operettas of librettist William S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and their topsy-turvy world of comic satire that mocks twisted logic and laughable human conceits. Along with some significant attention from Broadway producers, U.S. opera companies have been drawn to the works as a way of expanding their repertory into lighter fare to contrast with their traditional operatic offerings, retaining the emphasis on impressive voices and eye-catching staging. That is certainly the case with Knoxville Opera and their delightful and incredibly entertaining production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Tennessee Theatre.
This Week: Knoxville Opera’s ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ at Tennessee Theatre
On first glance, the very idea of mentioning Broadway’s musical hit, Hamilton, and the Gilbert…
Review: KSO Brings Back Paul Huang For a Spectacular Tchaikovsky Concerto
It did not require a seer or soothsayer to predict what would happen at the end of the first movement of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto at this past weekend’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks concert. Given violinist Paul Huang’s flight of speed, dazzling technique, and breathtaking virtuosic storytelling, it was practically inevitable that the ending would yank the audience out of their seat for a performance-stopping, extended ovation that included cheers and a few bravos.
Review: Marble City Opera’s Haunting ‘dwb (Driving While Black)’
Marble City Opera’s latest production is ‘dwb (driving while black)’, a one-act opera that dives headlong into the inherently intensifying anxiety faced by Black families as children approach driving age and face the intersection of modern mobility and the horrors of profiling and racist policing. With music by Susan Kander and a libretto by Roberta Gumbel, the 45 minute work features three performer/musicians: Mother (soprano Allison Sanders), Cellist (Cremaine Booker), and Percussion (David Verin). ‘dwb’ is directed by Ivan Griffin, who previously directed MCO’s The Christmas Spider.
On Sunday: UT Symphony Celebrates 100th Anniversary of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ With Pianist Sean Chen
The University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s Rhapsody…
