Alan Sherrod

Simply stated, there are those operatic singers who consider themselves Rossini singers, and there are those who don’t. The diction and voice flexibility required for Gioachino Rossini’s characteristic style of rapid-fire runs of little notes is both an art and ...

The work of the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini returns to the Knoxville Opera’s 2013 Rossini Festival with a production of Cinderella (La Cenerentola) featuring mezzo-soprano Leah Wool as Cinderella and tenor Michael Dailey as the Prince.

Audiences will find a few twists to the story they probably know very well.

When the audience steps into the world of The Rape of Lucretia, the 1946 Benjamin Britten chamber opera that is being staged this weekend by the University of Tennessee Opera Theatre, they may discover some puzzling contradictions that have baffled ...

While gray skies and winter’s final chill were stubbornly resisting the onset of spring last weekend, inside the Tennessee Theatre was a different story altogether.

It wasn’t that long ago—six years, maybe—that I worried quite a bit about the amount and variety of classical music performances in Knoxville. While I still hold out hope for some new music venues, new local ensembles, and more booking ...

One of the occupational hazards of writing about the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky is that the composer’s addictive little phrases and orchestral textures seep into the recesses of the brain and stick there, ready to replay for days on ...

The commemorative concert will focus on Rachmaninoff’s work as a composer and his professional life in the United States after fleeing the Russian Revolution in 1917, culminating in that fateful last concert in 1943 and centered heavily on his reputation ...

The old theater cliché that “there are no small parts, only small actors” is regularly bandied about glibly—perhaps to justify scene-stealing or to motivate an otherwise unmotivated performer. In the overwhelmingly positive sense, however, this sentiment fully describes the multiple ...

There were a number of firsts for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and their Masterworks concerts last weekend—some matter of fact, some exciting, while others were, well, unfortunate.

One of the real joys of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Classics Series has always been the potential for musical adventure, and even some discovery, that can be found in the vast territory outside of the usual full orchestra repertoire ...

Choosing the most memorable performances of 2012 becomes something of a task, if for no other reason than that the overall performance levels have risen so noticeably. But here goes.

Two years ago, I reviewed a Knoxville Symphony Orchestra concert that centered mostly on the guest appearance of the violinist Midori and her performance in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor. On that same concert, however, was the audition ...

Whether viewed as innocuous fun or lightheartedness run amok, Johann Strauss II’s operetta Die Fledermaus and its infectiously tuneful score have become, for modern audiences, an infamous vehicle for all manner of opera-company celebratory occasions such as galas and New ...

With new musical journeys in mind, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and the University of Tennessee School of Music departed the beaten path to alternative venues for their small-ensemble concerts that invited listeners to explore the performance intimacy of chamber music, ...

Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is probably one of those works, like Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik, that is so iconic in both atmosphere and melody that some think of it as too frequently performed. But, ...

While symphonies and operas close down elsewhere in the U.S., the KSO and Knoxville Opera both report stable financial situations despite the seesaw battle in balancing costs, audience expectations, and artistic achievement. How do they do it? And can Knoxville’s ...

Perhaps like no other recent work for the musical stage, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is so eminently adaptable and bendable as theater that it practically cries out for fresh treatments. In the case of ...

With a flourish and a grand gesture of au revoir, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra finished its 2011-12 Masterworks season last weekend with its usual pair of concerts: “A Touch of France,” covering four works by French composers. As usual, time ...

Knoxville Opera’s superlative Rossini Festival production of Otello last weekend fused the brilliance and solidity of seasoned operatic performers with a solid cast of younger singers possessing major, and truly exciting, vocal talents.

With just a glance, even without a note of music being heard, one knows instantly why tenor Michael Austin is known in opera houses of the world for his portrayal of the title role in Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello—he looks exactly ...

This was not the Verdi of Rigoletto or La Traviata, but a Verdi who had possibly been influenced, subconsciously of course, by his musical nemesis, Wagner. The work had musical continuity and complex orchestration—the first that one might call truly ...

Due to its familiarity with audiences, a work such as Gustav Holst’s early 20th-century suite The Planets, the headliner on last weekend’s concerts, burdens a conductor with the weight of numerous comparisons.

With the benefit of historic distance, it seems only natural that the music of Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg belongs together on the same program, as it did with Sunday afternoon’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Chamber Classics Concert.

One need look no further than last weekend’s Knoxville Opera production of Charles Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette to see what has changed in Knoxville over the last five years or so. In contradiction to the tired stereotype of opera-goers, the ...

With over 400 years of music in our western repertoire, modern concerts devoted to just one composer often run the risk of appearing overly focused, fussy, and academic, even for listeners with more than a casual interest. The Knoxville Symphony ...

The reasons for La Traviata's popularity are clear—Giuseppe Verdi’s score is tuneful, lush, and addictively evocative; the libretto has a seemingly perfect balance of character complexity, stage simplicity, and literary intrigue. The challenge, of course, is to embrace the popularity ...

It was an evening of exploration—and perhaps even discovery—as the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra trod familiar trails and also ventured into some new territory with its concerts last weekend.

Of huge importance to the theme of “American” music on the program is the presence of the world premiere of Theodore Wiprud’s Violin Concerto (Katrina).

The orchestra was back, and in ways that were phenomenally impressive in both form and spirit.

When I first saw the programming lineup for the University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra fall season, I sensed right away that something big and significant must be afoot.

I admit I never asked whether the joint occurrence of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy and the opening concert last Sunday of the University of Tennessee Faculty Chamber Series was by design or by coincidence of the calendar. ...

“School’s Out” was a big hit for Alice Cooper in 1972, and has since become an iconic statement of euphoria for a summer with little to offer except a few mindless pleasures. Unfortunately, though, the song’s anthemic refrain—“School’s out for ...

Given recent sad events and important personnel changes, I wasn’t necessarily expecting the final Masterworks concerts of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s 2010-11 season to be an exhilarating and euphoric experience, but that’s exactly what happened last weekend.

Making sense of the Baroque period of music today is no small task, for probably no other period of music has suffered as much at the hands of both history and contemporary marketers.

Performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 today have unfailingly been presented and accepted as big events.

It is an inescapable fact that opera-goers are not likely to confuse Vincenzo Bellini’s 'I Puritani' for one of the repertoire’s great dramatic operas. Improbable plot points and a shaky view of English history, however, cannot diminish its status as ...

When I first sat down to chat with soprano Rachele Gilmore in January of 2010, she had just arrived in Knoxville for rehearsals of last season’s Knoxville Opera production of Lucia di Lammermoor, in which she was singing her debut ...

Even more so than his contemporaries Rossini and Donizetti, Bellini was known as a major proponent of the bel canto (“beautiful singing”) style of opera. Beyond mere vocal fireworks, Bellini’s bel canto is exemplified by long, exquisite melodies punctuated by ...

A moral crisis triggered by the inability to find a virginal maiden sounds like just the thing for a mythological tale or a Baroque opera. But that idea and its necessary aftermath are, more or less, the crux of Albert ...

Kirk Trevor ended his 18 seasons as music director and conductor of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra in 2003, but many Knoxville concertgoers still remember his tenure with the KSO for producing exquisitely detailed, emotional, energetic performances with a distinct stylistic ...

As the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s 75th anniversary season winds down, we’ve had reminders of how the orchestra began its life in 1935 as well as numerous solid examples of the status the orchestra holds today. This week, Knoxville audiences will ...

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra made a substantial pre-Rossini Festival operatic statement last weekend with its concert at the Bijou Theatre titled “Opera Highlights,” the bulk of which was an intelligently constructed grouping of overtures and arias from operas inspired by ...

For someone who dedicated his musical life to writing for the piano, it has always seemed a little odd that Frédéric Chopin, who at the age of 19 was not really adept at writing for an orchestra, should boldly begin ...

Two events last weekend were great examples of the musical diversity that’s available in Knoxville—and great examples of music-making that we should be hearing more of on a regular basis.

Knoxville Opera music director Brian Salesky and stage director Keturah Stickann filled their Manon cast last weekend with singers capable of illuminating characters through their portrayals, not just through their voices.

“I’d rather be lucky than good” is not an expression you are likely to hear from Jeremy Wilson, the 29-year old trombonist and University of Tennessee alumnus who is now in his fourth season as the second trombonist with the ...

As any regular concertgoer can tell you, the Tennessee Theatre is a miracle of acoustics, with a rich, warm, natural resonance and an almost uncanny ability to project sonic details to every seat in the house. However, the appearance of ...

Legacies come in all sorts of symbolic shapes and sizes, some exaggerated by history, others understated in humility. The legacy of pianist and teacher Evelyn Miller, though, is one that has such fundamental value to Knoxville’s music history that its ...

Chamber music, by its very definition, should be a personal and up-close experience, both for audiences and musicians. With that goal in mind, the University of Tennessee Faculty Chamber Series returns to its new temporary digs, the intimate performance space ...