Review: Concertmaster Series Explores a Different Side of Romance

BY ALAN SHERROD   For the winter installment of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster Series, Concertmaster and host William Shaub offered up an intensely intriguing program with an evocative title: “Tides of Solitude.” That title, of course, referred to a…

This Week: KSO Concertmaster Series Explores the Subtle Side of Romance

BY DIANA SALESKY   Concertmaster William Shaub has something for everyone in his upcoming Concertmaster Series installments February 4/5 at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Pre-Valentine’s Day, Shaub will explore the “inward, reflective side of romance.” Shaub says he doesn’t…

Review: KSO Concertmaster Series Opens With ‘Vices’ and Virtues

BY ALAN SHERROD   In the space of only two weeks, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra has launched four of its five performance series, with a fifth series opening just days away. The most recent of these season openers was last…

Review: KSO Concertmaster Wraps Season With Schumann Piano Quartet

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster William Shaub, host and performer of orchestra’s Concertmaster Series, wrapped up the 2024-25 season of three concerts this week with an eclectic program of works that once again featured showcase pieces for violin and piano followed by a notable ensemble work chosen from the gems of chamber music history.

Review: Guest Conductor Conner Gray Covington Leads KSO in Clyne, Schumann, and Rimsky-Korsakov

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra turned to Maestro Conner Gray Covington to helm last Thursday and Friday’s Masterworks concert pair. The concert included Anna Clyne’s ‘This Midnight Hour’, Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheherazade.’ Janice Carissa was the pianist in the Schumann concerto.

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.

This Week: KSO Concertmaster Series Leaps Into Autumn — and the Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2

This week on Wednesday and Thursday at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster William Shaub and his colleagues will be opening the 2024-25 Concertmaster Series with the spirit of early autumn evocatively infused into its programming—an evening…

Grit and Glitz: William Shaub and Friends Release Album

BY DIANA SALESKY   Since William Shaub’s arrival in Knoxville in 2017 at age 24, I’ve watched his musical and personal evolution with fascination. He’s always been a great violinist, which is why he won the Concertmaster position with the…

Confessions of a Bachophile: Chenette, Shaub, and Friends Take on J.S. Bach in Concertmaster Series

After the first half of magnificently rendered solo violin works including a movement from the Bach Violin Sonata No.3, the Baroque-inspired Ysaye Sonata No. 4, and Corelli’s variations on La Folia, Shaub was joined by colleagues from the orchestra for two Bach works: the Violin Concerto in A minor, followed by the Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor, BWV 1040R. The oboist was KSO Principal Claire Chenette.

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