BY DIANA SALESKY Composer Jennifer Higdon: A Tennessee Treasure Comes Home Composer Jennifer Higdon once remarked that she grew up “a stone’s throw as the crow flies” from Cold Mountain, the setting of her twice Grammy-nominated opera based on…
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Announces 2023-2024 Season
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, led by Music Director Aram Demirjian, has announced the program lineups and dates for the 2023-24 season for each of its five main series. • The eight Masterworks concert pairs at the Tennessee Theatre feature the…
Review: KSO Finds Delightful Sunday Companions in Mozart, Rossini, and Schubert
BY ALAN SHERROD Sunday afternoon’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Classics concert at the Bijou was not “Mostly Mozart,” but it was—at least—“partly Mozart” in much the same clever spirit and variety that has been showcased in the notable long-running…
Sunday Spotlight: Pianist Emi Kagawa & KSO Chamber Orchestra—Mozart, Rossini, Schubert
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra—Chamber Classics Series “Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27” Conductor: Aram Demirjian • Gioachino Rossini: Overture To Il Signor Bruschino • W.A. Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 In B-Flat, K. 595 (Pianist Emi Kagawa) • Franz Schubert: Symphony No.…
Review: KSO and Violinist Blake Pouliot Take Mendelssohn Concerto To An Electric Finale
BY ALAN SHERROD If art thrives on turmoil and risk-taking—which is often the case—it should come as no surprise that the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, last week faced with the turmoil of a last-minute soloist cancellation, would find an exciting…
Review: Exploring Appalachian and Slavic Roads with Mandolinist Jeff Midkiff and KSO Strings
BY ALAN SHERROD Knoxville’s Bijou Theatre enjoys a whirlwind of concert bookings during its busy season, covering every imaginable genre of performance from every imaginable description of performer. Few of these guests, however, can showcase and illuminate the hall’s…
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra: January Concerts Abound
• • • • • • • • Knoxville Symphony Orchestra: January Concerts • • • Q-Series at The Elks Lodge • • • This monthly series of chamber music invites listeners to a Wednesday Lunchtime performance by the KSO’s…
Review: Knoxville Symphony Orchestra et al. — Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and ‘A Carol Symphony’
BY ALAN SHERROD Believe it or not, it has only been since 2015 that the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has marked the beginning of its busy holiday season with a “Classical Christmas” offering for its late-November Chamber Classics Series concert.…
Review: Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Salutes Veterans Day
BY ALAN SHERROD Seizing on the opportunity of November 11th and Veterans Day coinciding with its Masterworks concert schedule for November, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Aram Demirjian chose to honor the occasion with a program entitled “Service…
KSO Joins 30-Orchestra Consortium in League of American Orchestras’ Commissioning of Women Composers
As the story from 1943 goes—composer Florence Price once wrote a letter to Maestro Serge Koussevitsky asking him to consider programming her music with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In introducing herself, she wrote: “To begin with, I have two handicaps,…