“Garrett McQueen, the second bassoon in the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and host of [Knoxville radio station] WUOT’s afternoon concert, tends bar on weekends at the Stillhouse Tavern in Bearden, even though he doesn’t need the extra income,” writes Carol Shane in Wednesday’s (12/7) Knoxville Mercury (Tennessee). “A black man with thick dreadlocks, McQueen … [is] on a mission to educate people…. Originally from Memphis, McQueen’s musical life began in the seventh grade, when his middle-school band director handed him a bassoon…. He won KSO’s second bassoon position while he was finishing [a fellowship with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra], and moved to Knoxville in 2013. He’s one of only a handful of African-American players in the orchestra.… McQueen’s latest venture into new territory is his new gig as host of the afternoon concert on WUOT…. ‘My goal with the afternoon concert is to expose people to classical music that they’ve never heard before and to get new listeners in … a lot of mostly 20th- or 21st-century music, and if not that, it’s going to be late Romantic. Also music by female and black composers, and not only in February.’ ”
Posted December 8, 2016
