Melony Dodson
Music Director and Morning Concert Host/ProducerMelony 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.
While a graduate student, she worked at WUOT as a student announcer, hosting Saturday afternoons and evenings. Melony rapidly developed another passion: that of being a radio personality/host. Soon after graduating, she began hosting weekend mornings, including the Early Morning Concert, and produced the highly popular Top 60 for 60, a special series commemorating WUOT’s 60th anniversary. Two years later, she was honored to become the new host of the Morning Concert, of which she is currently the host and producer. Melony is also a choral accompanist for the UT School of Music’s Concert Choir and the Men’s Chorale. In her spare time, Melony loves to music-direct musicals. She is secretly (or perhaps not so secretly!) obsessed with the musicals of Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown. She also loves to travel, cook, hike and explore all of the cultural (and food!) attractions Knoxville has to offer.
You can reach Melony via email.
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Melony Dodson talks with Ian Passmore, conductor of the Oak Ridge Symphony, about the free Halloween-themed family concert, coming up on October 24th. -
Melony Dodson talks with Maestro Aram Demirjian and mezzo-soprano, Renee Tatum, about Leonard Bernstein's Songfest. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra performs it on Thursday and Friday, October 15th and 16th, along with Ye Who Seek the Truth by Julia Perry and Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony. The concerts will be presented at 7:30pm in the Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville. -
Melony Dodson talks with conductor, Aram Demirjian and mandolinist, Jeff Midkiff. Midkiff will collaborate with the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra in a concert featuring music by J.S. Bach, Jennifer Higdon, Mark O'Connor, Caroline Shaw, and several original pieces by Midkiff himself. The concert is Sunday, September 27th at 2:30pm in the historic Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville. -
Melony Dodson talks with Ian Passmore, the newly appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra. The symphony kicks off its 2026-2027 season this Saturday night, with a performance given at the historic Grove Theatre at 7pm. -
Melony Dodson talks with Brian Salesky, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Amadeus Concert Ensemble, about their upcoming performance, Rachmaninoff & Friends. The concert will take place on Sunday, May 31st at 5:30pm at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, as part of the Cathedral Concert Series. -
Melony Dodson talks with Aram Demirjian and Vance Thompson about the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's (KSO) May Masterworks series program, which features a collaboration between the KSO and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra. The two ensembles will present selections from the Swing Symphony by Wynton Marsalis. -
Melony Dodson talks with guest conductor, Ben Makino, and bass-baritone, Andrew Wentzel, about Knoxville Opera's upcoming production of Puccini's Gianni Schicchi. -
Melony Dodson talks with conductor, Aram Demirjian, and composer, Nicky Sohn, about the music on the May 2026 Roy Cockrum Chamber Series concert. The program reflects themes of home and storytelling. -
Melony Dodson talks with James Kenon Mitchell, director of UT Opera Theatre and Kevin Class, music director of UT Opera Theatre and director of Collaborative Piano. The University of Tennessee Opera Theatre and Opera Orchestra present Leos Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen, April 24th, 25th and 26th at the Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville. -
Melony Dodson talks with John Orr, conductor of the Knoxville Choral Society (KCS), and composer and pianist, Andrew Duncan. The KCS celebrates its 75th anniversary with the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Duncan titled Images of Knoxville.
