Penny4Arts

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Bach & Bluegrass
September 27 at 2:30 PM
Bijou Theatre (803 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902)

The Roy Cockrum Chamber Series opens with Bach & Bluegrass, a program that places the music of Johann Sebastian Bach alongside bluegrass and bluegrass-inspired works. Music Director Aram Demirjian doesn’t claim a historical connection between the traditions. Instead, he hears a natural affinity in their transparency and in the prominent roles both give to strings and plucked instruments. Bach provides a musical foundation throughout the program, from the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and the familiar Air from his Orchestral Suite No. 3 to selections from the St. Matthew Passion, The Art of the Fugue, and A Musical Offering. The Third Brandenburg Concerto showcases an ensemble of strings in nine parts: three each of violins, violas, and cellos.

Mandolinist Jeff Midkiff, a longtime KSO collaborator, joins the orchestra for a program that includes his own A Visit from the Muse and Run for Your Life!, along with Bill Monroe’s Monroe’s Hornpipe in an arrangement by Midkiff. The program also features Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz and Jennifer Higdon’s Mandolin Concerto. Higdon composed the concerto during the pandemic as an expression of her belief that the world would emerge stronger from a period of tremendous loss. The connections extend beyond musical style. Caroline Shaw’s Punctum draws directly on Bach, quoting the chorale “Erkenne mich” from his St. Matthew Passion, which the audience will hear immediately before Shaw’s work. Later, Bach’s Contrapunctus XIII from The Art of the Fugue appears in its original and inverted forms with Monroe’s Hornpipe placed between them.

The concert concludes with the six-voice Ricercar from Bach’s A Musical Offering, heard in an arrangement for strings by Demirjian. The work traces its origins to Bach’s 1747 visit to the court of Frederick the Great, where the king challenged Bach to improvise a fugue on a theme of his own creation. Bach later developed that royal theme into the collection that became A Musical Offering.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: Friday, September 25 at 5:00PM
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Bach & Bluegrass – Knoxville Symphony

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony
October 15 & 16 at 7:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 anchors a program exploring the many voices of American poetry. Alongside one of the great symphonies of the Romantic repertoire, Music Director Aram Demirjian brings together works by Julia Perry and Leonard Bernstein that use words and music to explore American experiences across generations.

The evening opens with Ye, Who Seek the Truth by Julia Perry, a prolific American composer whose career took her from the Juilliard School and Tanglewood to studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Perry wrote both the words and music for the anthem, originally composed for tenor, choir, and organ and heard here in an arrangement for strings and harp. In 1965, Perry became the first African American woman to have a work performed by the New York Philharmonic. Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest brings six vocal soloists together with the orchestra in a sweeping portrait of American poetry. Conceived for the nation’s Bicentennial and premiered in 1977 with Bernstein conducting, the work draws on 13 poets spanning three centuries, including Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Bradstreet, e.e. cummings, June Jordan, and Frank O’Hara. Their words explore love, identity, race, sexuality, artistic expression, loss, and mortality, creating a wide-ranging portrait of American voices and experiences. The program concludes with Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Although Tchaikovsky insisted the symphony did not tell a specific story, his sketches suggest he was contemplating a confrontation with Fate as he composed it. A recurring musical idea travels through all four movements, changing along the way before emerging as a triumphant march in the finale. At its 1888 premiere in St. Petersburg, conducted by Tchaikovsky himself, the symphony received a rousing ovation.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: 4pm on day of show
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony – Knoxville Symphony

Bijou Theatre presents The Snowy Day and Other Stories
Sunday, October 18, 2026 Doors 2pm Show Time 2:30pm
The Bijou Theatre, 803 S Gay Street Knoxville, TN 37902

The Snowy Day celebrates the magic and boundless possibilities of the first snowfall! Follow Peter and his friends as they romp and play, starting snow ball fights and making snow angels in this imaginative musical play about the childhood joys and challenges of growing up. Using innovative shadow puppetry, Keats’ treasured characters come to life in this humorous and fun adaptation of Whistle for Willie, Goggles!, A Letter to Amy, and The Snowy Day.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts: 24
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: 2:30pm on Show Day or until Sold Out
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

For more information, please contact: To purchase tickets, please call our box office at 865-684-1200 ext 2 or visit in person at 224 Clinch Avenue.

Website link for more information: https://knoxbijou.org/bijou-events/the-snowy-day-and-other-stories/

The Knoxville Opera presents Die Fledermaus
October 23 at 7:30 PM & October 25 at 2:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus revels in the elegance and excess of a single night gone slightly off course. Through an elaborate game of disguise, friends, spouses, and rivals cross paths at a glittering masquerade ball where champagne flows freely and no one is who they claim to be. Beneath the comedy, Strauss keeps a sharp eye on social pretense and the thin line between mischief and consequence, all set to some of the most irresistible waltzes ever written.

Performing October 23 and 25, this production captures the spirit of escape and reinvention at the heart of Strauss’s beloved comedy. Identities blur and champagne carries everyone a little further than they intended. Knoxville Opera invites you to settle in and enjoy the ride – an evening where appearances shift, alliances change, and the consequences don’t arrive until morning.

Sung in English with projected English Translations.

Please call the Knoxville Opera box office at 865-524-0795 to reserve Penny4Arts tickets.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts: N/A
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: October 23, 2026 at 3 p.m.
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

Contact e-mail: Marie Butler at 865-524-0795 or boxoffice@knoxvilleopera.org
Website link for more information: https://www.knoxvilleopera.org/die-fledermaus

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Bartok & Bolero
November 12 & 13 at 7:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

The program begins with Claude Debussy’s Clair de lune and concludes with Maurice Ravel’s Boléro, framing an evening that explores connections among four composers active during a period of significant change in European music. Music Director Aram Demirjian notes that Bartók was strongly influenced by Debussy and that Ravel belonged to the generation that followed, creating a historical relationship among several of the works on the program.

Debussy’s Clair de lune originated as part of his Suite bergamasque for solo piano and has since been arranged for many different combinations of instruments. The KSO opens the concert with a 1905 orchestration by French composer and conductor André Caplet. Pianist Jeremy Denk joins the KSO for Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Bartók, himself a pianist, was the soloist at the work’s 1933 world premiere in Frankfurt. He conceived the concerto as a counterpart to his First Piano Concerto, seeking music that would be more approachable for the orchestra and audience while retaining formidable writing for the soloist. Demirjian describes the Second Concerto as one of the most technically demanding works in the piano repertoire, making Denk’s appearance a central feature of the concert. The program continues with Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension, four symphonic meditations composed in 1933 and rooted explicitly in the composer’s Catholic faith. Each meditation carries its own title and accompanying Biblical text, moving through reflections on Christ, heaven, celebration, and the Ascension. Messiaen described expressing the truths of his faith as the foremost idea behind his music.

The evening concludes with Ravel’s Boléro, created at the request of dancer Ida Rubinstein. Ravel originally planned to orchestrate music from Isaac Albéniz’s Iberia, but copyright restrictions led him instead to compose an original ballet, initially titled Fandango before becoming Boléro. The work premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1928, with Rubinstein dancing the lead role.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: 4pm on day of show
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Bartok & Bolero – Knoxville Symphony

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Immortal Beethoven
January 14 & 15 at 7:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Beethoven’s music has inspired composers for more than two centuries, and this program explores his enduring influence through works that span from the early 19th century to the present day. Music Director Aram Demirjian pairs two of Beethoven’s most celebrated overtures with his Piano Concerto No. 3, performed by pianist Jonathan Biss, the 2026-27 Morman Guest Artist.

The program opens with subito con forza by South Korean composer Unsuk Chin. Written to commemorate Beethoven’s 250th birthday, the work draws its title from one of Beethoven’s most familiar performance markings and reflects on his musical legacy from a contemporary perspective. Demirjian describes it as an ideal way to begin a program celebrating Beethoven’s lasting influence. Caroline Shaw’s watermark continues that conversation between past and present. Together with Chin’s work, it demonstrates how today’s composers continue to engage with the traditions Beethoven helped establish. Framed by the Coriolan and Egmont overtures and anchored by the Piano Concerto No. 3, the program offers audiences an opportunity to hear Beethoven alongside voices that continue to expand the orchestral repertoire.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: 4pm on day of show
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Immortal Beethoven – Knoxville Symphony

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Mostly Mozart
January 24 at 2:30 PM
Bijou Theatre (803 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: Friday, January 22 at 5:00PM
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Mostly Mozart – Knoxville Symphony

The Knoxville Opera presents Madame Butterfly
January 29 at 7:30 PM & January 31 at 2:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Puccini’s Madame Butterfly offers one of opera’s most intimate and devastating portraits. In Nagasaki, a young geisha marries an American naval officer, placing her faith in a future that proves heartbreakingly uncertain. As the years pass, Butterfly holds fast to what she believes is true, even as the world around her shifts. Puccini’s score captures every shade of that journey, from quiet anticipation to overwhelming loss, with remarkable clarity and restraint.

Performing January 29 and 31, this production focuses on sharing Butterfly’s story with directness and honesty. Knoxville Opera invites you to witness a work of profound emotional depth and a tale shaped by memory, endurance, and the lasting imprint of love.

Sung in Italian with projected English Translations.

Parental warning: This production contains mature themes and staged violence.

Please call the Knoxville Opera box office at 865-524-0795 to reserve Penny4Arts tickets.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts: N/A
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: January 29, 2027 at 3 p.m.
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

Contact e-mail: Marie Butler at 865-524-0795 or boxoffice@knoxvilleopera.org
Website link for more information: https://www.knoxvilleopera.org/madame-butterfly

Primary Players Children’s Theatre Group presents Shrek Jr.
Saturday, February 6 (performances at 2:00PM and 7PM) & Sunday, February 7 (performance at 2:00PM)
Clayton Center for the Arts at Maryville College, 502 E Lamar Alexander Pkwy, Maryville, TN 37804

Primary players Children’s theatre group will be performing Shrek Jr with availability for Penny4theArts on Saturday and Sunday February 6-7, 2027. People wishing to purchase tickets must come in person the MC box office and identify they are purchasing for the Penny4theArts show of their choosing.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts: Unlimited
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: N/A
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: NO

For more information, please contact: Lauren Fugate, lauren@primaryplayers.org
Website link for more information: https://primaryplayers.org/

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Valentine’s Romance: Swan Lake & More
February 11 & 12 at 7:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Three celebrated works explore the passion, drama, and lyricism of the Romantic tradition. Music Director Aram Demirjian leads a program featuring music by Richard Wagner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with violinist Bella Hristova returning to the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra as soloist.

The evening opens with music from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, an opera that transformed the course of Western classical music through its bold harmonic language. Demirjian describes the work as one of the most influential scores ever written, setting the stage for a program that traces the evolution of Romantic expression. Hristova performs Korngold’s Violin Concerto, one of the composer’s best-known concert works. The program concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Suite from Swan Lake, bringing audiences some of the ballet’s most memorable music. Together, these works span nearly a century of musical history while celebrating composers whose melodies, orchestral color, and dramatic storytelling continue to captivate audiences today.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: 4pm on day of show
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Valentine’s Romance: Swan Lake & More – Knoxville Symphony

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Peter and the Wolf
February 21 at 2:30 PM
Bijou Theatre (803 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: Friday, February 19 at 5:00PM
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Peter and the Wolf – Knoxville Symphony

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Symphonie fantastique
March 18 & 19 at 7:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Guest conductor Noam Aviel returns to the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra to lead a program of dramatic storytelling through music, joined by Concertmaster William Shaub as soloist in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3.

The evening opens with Giacomo Puccini’s La Tregenda, an orchestral scene from his first opera, Le Villi, depicting a supernatural legend of spirits who seek vengeance on unfaithful lovers. Demirjian describes the work as an ideal introduction to the evening’s centerpiece, Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, another work built around a vivid narrative. Between these two dramatic works, Shaub performs Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, one of the composer’s most enduring concertos. The program concludes with Berlioz’s groundbreaking Symphonie fantastique, a work that helped redefine the possibilities of orchestral storytelling and remains one of the defining achievements of the Romantic repertoire.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: 4pm on day of show
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Symphonie fantastique – Knoxville Symphony

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Brahms’ Requiem
April 15 & 16 at 7:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Music Director Aram Demirjian leads one of the choral repertoire’s most profound and deeply human masterpieces in a program exploring themes of remembrance, reflection, and consolation. Joined by soprano Ashley Fabian, baritone Ethan Vincent, and the Knoxville Choral Society, the KSO performs Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem, a work unlike the traditional Latin requiem mass. Demirjian describes Brahms’ Requiem as a work written not for the dead, but for those left behind. Rather than following the traditional liturgy, Brahms selected passages from the German Bible that speak to comfort, hope, and the shared experience of grief. That perspective shapes the entire program.

The evening opens with Michael Schachter’s Four for Gideon and selections from Randall Thompson’s Frostiana, inspired by the poetry of Robert Frost. Together, these works create a thoughtful introduction to Brahms’ vision of remembrance and renewal, culminating in one of the most enduring achievements of the choral-orchestral repertoire.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: 4pm on day of show
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Brahms’ Requiem – Knoxville Symphony

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Tchaikovsky’s Serenade
April 25 at 2:30 PM
Bijou Theatre (803 South Gay Street, Knoxville, TN 37902)

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: Friday, April 23 at 5:00PM
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Tchaikovsky’s Serenade – Knoxville Symphony

Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Presents Mozart & Shostakovich
May 13 & 14 at 7:30 PM
Tennessee Theatre (604 S Gay St, Knoxville, TN 37902)

The Masterworks season concludes with pianist Ying Li performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 alongside works by Grażyna Bacewicz and Dmitri Shostakovich. Music Director Aram Demirjian leads a program spanning more than 150 years of orchestral music, from Bacewicz’s vibrant Overture to one of the 20th century’s landmark symphonies.

Shostakovich composed his Symphony No. 5 shortly after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. Demirjian describes the work as one of the composer’s most powerful orchestral statements, concluding the Masterworks season with a symphony of remarkable scale, intensity, and emotional depth.

Number of seats reserved for Penny4Arts:  Limit three children per paying adult
We stop giving out seats/admissions for Penny4Arts at: 4pm on day of show
Open to students outside of Knox County: YES
Advanced reservations required: YES

To request Penny4Arts tickets, contact the KSO Box Office:
865-291-3310 | boxoffice@knoxvillesymphony.com
Website link for more information: Mozart & Shostakovich – Knoxville Symphony