By Alan Sherrod Perhaps it is the unseasonably warm weather that persists—although we’ve survived warm, dry autumns before. Still, things feel a bit different in Knoxville’s classical music scene this fall. First, it was the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s opening…
Review: KSO’s “Mozart in the City” Wraps Its Chamber Classics Season
By Alan Sherrod Creating concert programs that satisfy and challenge an audience, as well as providing intellectual connections that intrigue the listener, is an art—an art that Knoxville Symphony Orchestra maestro Aram Demirjian obviously relishes. His program for the…
Review: Pianist Chih-Long Hu and KSO Brighten a Sunday, Rainy Sunday
By Alan Sherrod It is sheer speculation on my part, but I’m betting that if KSO music director Aram Demirjian had known that Sunday afternoon would be yet another gloomy, rainy, soporific day, he might have programmed his Chamber Classics…
Review: A Feast of Variety in “Classical Christmas” from KSO and Knoxville Chamber Chorale
By Alan Sherrod In 2015, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra took a chance and moved its November Chamber Classics concert to the weekend following Thanksgiving and titled it “Classical Christmas.” That incredibly popular concert took a different direction from the…
Review: KSO Chamber Orchestra Goes for a French Connection
By Alan Sherrod You didn’t have to be a music history nerd to enjoy yesterday’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Chamber Classics concert “A Touch of France”. But if you did self-identify that way, you were probably in a state of…
Review: KSO Goes Bach to Mozart with a Freshness and Sparkle
Confessions of a Bachophile — Chapter 17 In my review of the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra’s February concert that included the J.S. Bach Concerto for Two Violins, I stated—humorously, I thought—that it seemed listeners simply could not get enough of…
Review: KSO Brings Ecstasy and Enlightenment with Bach and Shostakovich
After Sunday afternoon’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Chamber Classics concert, several things should now be readily apparent to the KSO’s audience.
Strad and Rad: KSO Brings Two Stradivarius Violins To Knoxville for Bach, Shostakovich, and Schnittke
Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra’s Chamber Classics Conductor: Aram Demirjian Schnittke: Moz-Art à la Haydn Golijov: Last Round (Muertes Del Angel) Bach: Concerto For 2 Violins (Soloists William Shaub and Edward Pulgar) Jessie Montgomery: Starburst Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony Sunday, February 4,…
Review: KSO’s Concertmaster Series Explores the Power of String Duos
In a way, it feels like eons have passed since October 2012 when the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra launched its Concertmaster Series of solo and small ensemble music events under then-Concertmaster Gabriel Lefkowitz. During those five seasons, much has changed: the…
Review: KSO’s ‘Classical Christmas’ a Joyous and Welcome Alternative
It had become a familiar theme for me every December. “Where’s the Music?” was the question one article’s headline posed to the realization that in the most festive, and seemingly busiest, month of the year, there were actually few music…