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Get to know James Kenon Mitchell, the new Director of UT Opera Theatre

Melony Dodson talks with the new Director of UT Opera Theatre (UTOT), James Kenon Mitchell, and conductor, Kevin Class, about UTOT's Italian double-bill productions taking place at the Bijou Theatre this weekend.

The University of Tennessee Opera Theatre (UTOT) presents an Italian double-bill this weekend, November 14, 15, and 16 at the Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville. Performances are at 7:30pm, with 2:30pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Conducted by Dr. Kevin Class (Professor of Collaborative Piano at UT and music director of UTOT), the opera theatre will perform two one-act operas by Italian composers: La cambiale di matrimonio by Gioachino Rossini and Amelia al ballo by Gian Carlo Menotti.

Learn more about these comic operas and get to know the new Director of UTOT, James Kenon Mitchell, in this conversation with WUOT's Morning Concert host, Melony Dodson.

Tickets and additional information at https://knoxbijou.org/events/

Melony calls the beautiful mountains of Boone, N.C., home, although she was born near Greensboro, N.C. There’s just something about those Blue Ridge Mountains that got in her blood and never left after she moved there to attend Appalachian State University (ASU). While at ASU, she majored in piano performance and music therapy and began to cultivate a love for accompanying and for collaborating with other musicians. This soon led her to earn a master’s degree in collaborative piano at the University of Tennessee, which she attended from 2006-2008.