By Alan Sherrod You didn’t have to be a music history nerd to enjoy…
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
Review: KSO’s Q Series Finds A New Home At The Emporium Center
The KSO’s Q-Series, built around its Principal Quartet and the Woodwind Quintet, has seen a major venue change this season, leaving the Square Room and its presentational arrangement for the long rectangular gallery of Gay Street’s Emporium Center.
Review: Symphony of Voices Make Their Debut on Knoxville’s Choral Music Scene
By Alan Sherrod When it began almost 20 years ago, the revitalization of downtown…
Review: KSO’s Season Opener Finds Warmth and Sparkle in Brahms and Rachmaninoff
The arriving audience for the weekend’s concerts by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in the Tennessee Theatre were greeted with glasses of champagne, no doubt to add a bit sparkle and lightness to the usual anxious expectations of season-opening concerts. For those who had missed the real season-opener for the orchestra, the production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide with the Clarence Brown Theatre, the bubbly reinforcement may have been necessary. However, those who had already been dazzled by Candide arrived warmed up and ready for the season.
After a performance of Jonathan Leshnoff’s Starburst, the pianist Joyce Yang joined the orchestra for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with the second half taken up by Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.
Spotlight: A New Choral Music Ensemble – Symphony of Voices
Symphony of Voices, a new Knoxville-based professional choral ensemble, presents their inaugural concert this Sunday…
Sunday: UT Symphony Launches ‘Beethoven250’ with the Seventh Symphony
One hardly needs an excuse to listen to more of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven—but if one did demand an excuse, the inevitable march of time is about to provide one. The year 2020 represents the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, so you can be sure that there will be a host of musical explorations of the composer’s works across the globe between now and then.
The University of Tennessee School of Music has launched its own program of focus, Beethoven250, which will act as an organizing umbrella for concerts, recitals, discussions, and lectures over next two years. The UT Symphony Orchestra, under Director of Orchestras James Fellenbaum, is kicking off their participation this Sunday with their season-opening concert that will feature Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major.
KSO This Week: Pianist Joyce Yang, “Brahms and Rachmaninoff”
There have been some notable anniversaries in the music world of 2018, among them Leonard Bernstein’s 100th birthday, for which there have been global celebrations of his music. It was also composer Charles Gounod’s 200th birthday, and the 100th anniversary of the first performance of Gustav Holst’s The Planets. And—although you probably won’t find it on any national lists—2018 was the 75th anniversary of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s last public performance in Knoxville, on February 17, 1943.
The KSO’s opening Masterworks concert of the season features works by Jonathan Leshnoff, the Piano Concerto No. 2 of Rachmaninoff, and Brahms Symphony No. 1.
Review: An Auspicious Start to Chamber Music Season
The distinction of being the first chamber music recital of the 2018-19 season in Knoxville goes to violinist Miroslav Hristov of the University of Tennessee School of Music, along with four notable guests, for their “An Evening of Chamber Music” recital this past Sunday evening. Their performance of Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major, along with works by Reinhold Glière and Beethoven, was their second of the weekend—the first being on Friday evening at East Tennessee State University where two members of the quintet, violist David Kováč and cellist Sean Hawthorne, are on the music faculty. The quintet also included violinist Yu-Fang Chen of Ball State University and cellist Daniel Veis of Park University in Missouri.
Review: CBT/KSO’s ‘Candide’ – The Best of Dazzling Possibilities
By Alan Sherrod For the last year or so, productions of Leonard Bernstein’s comic…
Monday Arts Miscellany – August 27
One can feel September sneaking furtive glances at us as August stubbornly hangs on a…
