More Than Just Country in “Music City”


While Nashville might be most well-known for country music, that’s definitely not everything it has to offer. As GoNOMAD writer Sony Stark points out in her article Nashville: A Renaissance in Music City, “Besides blues, bluegrass and country, this city turns up the volume on jazz, rock, hip-hop, alternative and come this Fall, classical.”

“The Schermerhorn Symphony Center (One Symphony Place, 615-259-4767) is the most anticipated performance structure in the world, inspired by the best of seven European venues including Berlin’s Konzerthaus and Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana.

Whether at the “founders’ level” against the back wall or the upper balcony, all vantage points are unimpeded and the room is enveloped with unparalleled tonal quality. You can hear the quietest note because of a state-of-the-art technology explained to me called ‘acoustic isolation joints’.

Happily, I scored a personal tour of the inside with video to share of its work-in-progress. Nothing is amiss here. There is barrier-free access to handicapped patrons, a 35-hundred pipe organ and a main floor that magically turns into a cabaret-style seating configuration for Pops concerts.

I’ve shot television shows in dozens of concert halls around the world and I can attest that all 1,872 intimate seats are bound to sell out nightly. Unique exterior elements like the sweeping colonnade and the neoclassical pillars are defining Tennessee iconography.”