Nashville

Performing Arts

Although known primarily as the capital of country-and-western music, Nashville also has regular classical music concerts by the Nashville Symphony and Nashville Opera. The music departments of the city's universities also enrich the classical music scene through such resources as the Vanderbilt Orchestra and both student and faculty performances sponsored by Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music and the Belmont University School of Music. In addition, the Friends of Music brings touring artists and ensembles to the city, and the Scarritt-Bennett Center Series features free performances by local musicians.

Nashville's theater troupes include the Tennessee Repertory Theater, Circle Players, Lakewood Theater Company, the Nashville Shakespeare Festival, and Mockingbird Public Theatre. The American Negro Playwright Theater presents plays focusing on the African American experience and heritage, as does Blue Wave Productions. The Nashville Ballet has been offering regular dance concerts since the 1980s, and the Tennessee Dance Theater concentrates on modern dance. Touring dance groups are brought to Nashville in concert series sponsored by such groups as Friends of Music, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, and Vanderbilt University.

As the home of the Grand Ole Opry and the major center for recordings of country-and-western music, Nashville is the world's undisputed capital of country music, a position celebrated in the city's nickname of "Music City USA." Live performances by both established and up-and-coming country artists can be heard weekly at the Grand Ole Opry House in Opryland USA. Country, folk, and rock concerts still take place at historic Ryman Auditorium, home of the Opry from its inception in the 1920s until the 1970s and newly restored in 1994. Other Nashville venues for country music are the "Midnight Jamboree" at Ernest Tubb's Record Shop, which is broadcast live on WSM-AM radio; taping sessions of the "Prime Time Country" television show at the TNN studios; and Nashville on Stage. A variety of local clubs also feature country music.