The Knoxville Museum of Art's Alive After Five series of live music performances celebrates its 16th anniversary with a performance by Hector Qirko Band on Friday, September 4, from 5:30-8:00 pm.

Launched in October 1993, Alive After Five (AA5) has become a unique fixture in the Knoxville entertainment scene. Presented on 35 early Friday evenings per year, in four seasonal series, AA5 features live music by local, regional, national and even international artists in the casually elegant atmosphere of the art museum.  The event provides table seating with food available from different restaurants and caterers each week. Additionally, AA5 offers two cash bars, free freshly popped popcorn, licensed therapeutic masseuse/masseur on site, and the museum's art galleries.  This family friendly event (age 17 and under are admitted free) is also a popular romantic rendezvous, and it attracts one of the most diverse audiences in Knoxville.

The Hector Qirko Band, with Hector Qirko on guitar and vocals, Dirk Weddington on saxophones, Jim Williams on bass, and Steve Brown on drums, has been performing together for twenty-four years, and it has been one of the most popular bands at Alive After Five. Their first performance there was in the fall of 1994, and this upcoming performance will be their 15th appearance in the sixteen years of the series. They have been named Best Blues Band in Knoxville many times, and the core of their musical repertoire is Chicago blues, but they often venture off into other genres such as Latin, Cajun, jazz and rock. Even a polka has been known to appear in their set list. Because of these forays into other musical realms, their music has sometimes been referred to as "World Blues", and that's just fine with them.

Born in New York City and raised in South America by his Cuban mother and Albanian father, Hector Qirko has called East Tennessee home for almost thirty years. He has played the blues clubs of Chicago with Lonnie Brooks, punk clubs in New York City with Balboa, backed up scores of country music greats on Nashville music television, and performed on the road all over the USA and beyond. These days he records and tours with singer-songwriter R.B. Morris, the Texas-swing and honky-tonk band, The Lonesome Coyotes, and his own band.

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