New Podcast / Announcing Conversations / Last Call for Wristband Delivery
Schedule Updates
We are deeply disappointed to announce that both Adrian Sherwood and Chucho Valdés have had to cancel their planned performances at Big Ears, due to circumstances beyond their control. We hope to have them perform at a future edition of the festival.
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Your Festival Wristband: Mailing & Registration
Big Ears 2026 is just two weeks away, opening Thursday, March 26 — and your RFID wristband is your key to the festival, required for admission to all paid festival events.
Monday, March 16 is the last day to purchase passes and have your wristband shipped directly to your door. After that, passes must be picked up at the on-site box office. Order now and hit the ground running when you arrive in Knoxville.
Once your wristband arrives, please take a moment to register it before the festival. Scan the QR code included in your package or register your pass at the link below. Registration adds an emergency contact to your account and makes replacement simple if your wristband is ever lost or stolen. It only takes a minute — and it’s absolutely worth it.
New Podcast Episode: Kaoru Watanabe & Larry Blumenfeld
Flutist and taiko drummer Kaoru Watanabe discusses Bloodlines Interwoven, a multi-year project exploring heritage, immigration, and diaspora through music and storytelling. The son of Japanese immigrants and symphonic musicians, Watanabe’s path has included formative time on a remote Japanese island, years touring with the taiko ensemble Kodo, and collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Laurie Anderson, Jason Moran, André 3000, and Rhiannon Giddens and the Silkroad Ensemble. Launched in 2024 with support from the Mellon Foundation, Loghaven Artist Residency, and the Aslan Foundation, Bloodlines Interwoven brings together musicians and storytellers to transform family histories into shared creative work. At Big Ears 2026, the project unfolds across four performances at venues throughout downtown Knoxville. Culture journalist Larry Blumenfeld, who has followed the project since its early development, joins Watanabe for a conversation about its origins and how it will come to life at Big Ears.
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Gregory Uhlmann: Extra Stars
A Chicago-born, Los Angeles-based guitarist, composer, and producer, Gregory Uhlmann has become one of contemporary music’s most quietly indispensable voices through collaborations with Perfume Genius, Hand Habits, and trance-jazz collective SML. His debut for International Anthem, Extra Stars, pulls him further into the spotlight. At Big Ears, he performs with SML bandmate Booker Stardrum and Will Miller of Resavoir.
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Announcing Talks, Panels, & Conversations
At Big Ears, the music sparks conversation, and community grows from there. Our 2026 Panels and Talks program features more than 20 distinct conversations, bringing artists, writers, and cultural voices together for thoughtful, lively exchanges about the ideas, histories, and collaborations that shape creative music today. These gatherings are an essential part of the festival experience: a chance to listen closely, share perspectives, and deepen connections. More details coming in the weeks leading up to the festival.
Critics’ Picks: Navigating Big Ears 2026
with Ann Powers, Ashley Kahn, Jeremy Larson, Nate Chinen & John Schaefer
Thu 4:30pm / Blue Note Lounge
Five of music journalism’s sharpest voices — Ann Powers, Ashley Kahn, John Schaefer, Jeremy Larson, and Nate Chinen — gather to share the artists and performances that have captured their attention heading into Big Ears 2026. A wide-ranging conversation about what’s worth hearing, why it matters, and what to look for over the course of the festival. Whether you’re a first-timer or a festival veteran, this is the ideal way to start your Big Ears weekend.
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He Made the World Bigger: The Legacy of John Zorn
with John Medeski, Dave Lombardo, Barbara Hannigan, Jorge Roeder, & Hank Shteamer
Fri 9:30am / Knoxville Museum of Art
For more than four decades, John Zorn has operated at the center of an extraordinary creative community — one that cuts across jazz, metal, contemporary classical, electronic music, free improvisation, and whatever categories resist easy naming. Those who’ve worked with him tend to say the same thing: he challenged what they thought was possible and left them with a larger sense of what music could be. As vocalist Mike Patton told Rolling Stone, Zorn “made the world bigger.” Music writer Hank Shteamer, who explored Zorn’s vast output in that 2020 piece, brings together Zorn associates to reflect on his influence — how he pushed them, inspired them, and opened doors they didn’t know were there.
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Emancipation Proclamations
Larry Blumenfeld in conversation with Melvin Gibbs, J.T. Lewis, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Brandon Ross
Sat 11:00am / Blue Note Lounge
Prior to the April 14 publication of his ground-breaking book, How Black Music Took Over the World, bassist Melvin Gibbs joins his bandmates in the powerhouse trio Harriet Tubman — guitarist Brandon Ross and drummer J.T. Lewis — along with singer, writer, and musician Georgia Anne Muldrow, to celebrate their collaborative album, Electrical Fields of Love. Culture reporter and music critic Larry Blumenfeld leads a discussion about how that triumph of Black music gets reflected in their work and in our lives.
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Knoxville Music History
with Jack Neely
Thu 4:30pm / PostModern Sound Exchange
Knoxville’s musical history runs deeper and stranger than most people realize. Historian Jack Neely traces the city’s role as a crossroads of American sound — from its earliest performances and festivals, organized largely by immigrants and rooted in opera, to its outsized influence on the popular music that followed. Yes, there’s country. But there’s much more.
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Music Writing for the Digital Age
John Schaefer in conversation with Nate Chinen, Grayson Currin, and Ann Powers
Sat 9:30am / PostModern Sound Exchange
Writing about music has always been about more than criticism — it’s a way of building community, amplifying artists, and keeping culture in conversation with itself. But the landscape for music and cultural journalism has never been more uncertain. Veteran music writers Ann Powers (NPR Music), Nate Chinen, and Grayson Currin join WNYC’s John Schaefer, host of New Sounds, to talk honestly about the evolving role of arts journalism — what’s been lost, what’s possible, and why it still matters.
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And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain
A Two-Part Audio/Visual Presentation by Joe Boyd
Fri 10:00am & Sat 10:00am / The Blackbox
Following up on his presentation at last year’s Big Ears, the legendary producer of Nick Drake, R.E.M., Toots and the Maytals, and Pink Floyd brings his riveting, world-spanning tour de force of a book to life. Weaving stories, rare film clips, photographs, and recordings, each program illuminates the artists, histories, controversies, and collaborations that have shaped global music and cultures.
Winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Book Award in Pop Music
Part 1 Part 2
