By Alan Sherrod Last week, Arts Knoxville offered up our admittedly subjective opinions on 2019’s Most Memorable Classical Music Performances, with Andrew Swafford and Reid Ramsey tickling our interest on important 2019 films. Now, we get to reveal what readers…
Most Memorable Classical Music Performances of 2019
By Alan Sherrod Regular readers of Arts Knoxville will recall that we have been unabashed advocates for the resurgence of Downtown Knoxville as a focal point for the city, if for no other reason than the environmental vitality it…
Twas the Week Before Christmas: Last Call for Seasonal Theatre and Music
The Winter Solstice comes this Saturday evening, so while we are relatively ice and snow free, check out some of Knoxville’s secular seasonal entertainments in their final performances. As of this writing, tickets are still available for all of these,…
Review: Virtuosic Percussion and a Sublime Beethoven Seventh Mark KSO’s “Beethoven and the Art of Rhythm”
By Alan Sherrod While double bass players might argue to the contrary, it is an orchestral fact that percussionists—generally relegated to the back corner of the concert stage and, yet, responsible for a virtually infinite diversity of sounds—receive the…
KSO Masterworks This Week: Beethoven’s Seventh + Dorman’s ‘Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!’ with Nief-Norf
Beethoven and the Art of Rhythm • Beethoven: Overture from The Creatures of Prometheus • Dorman: Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! (with Nief-Norf) • Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks —Aram Demirjian, conductor Thursday and Friday, November 21 and 22,…
Review in Brief: Timeless Tales Mark KSO’s “Peter and the Wolf” Chamber Classics
By Alan Sherrod All four of the works on Sunday afternoon’s Chamber Classics Series concert by the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra came from the tonal side of the 20th Century, but each of the works seem to possess an ineffable…
Review: Natasha Paremski and KSO Find a Show-Stopper in Grieg’s Piano Concerto
By Alan Sherrod There is both an art and a logic to the program arrangement of concerts, a fact that this weekend’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks audience apparently appreciated. While symphonies are generally saved for the end due to…
Review: Baroque Excitement from KSO Concertmaster William Shaub and Friends
By Alan Sherrod One of the themes that musical Baroque-ophiles love to espouse about their adored Baroque era—after the impassioned joy it produces in them as musicians or listeners—is the inspirational effect that the music has had on subsequent…
Review: KSO Opens Its Chamber Classics Series With Layers, Conversation, and Honey
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: Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Aims For The Stars and ‘The Planets’ in Season Opener
By Alan Sherrod In whatever way the musicians of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra spent their summer—playing festivals, traveling, or just chilling—they arrived on the stage of the Tennessee Theatre last evening to begin the 2019-20 Masterworks season visibly energized…