2019-20 Season in Review

Listen Up: Seminars on Music is a weekly gathering of music lovers every Wednesday morning, hosted by AZMF’s Resident Artist, Josh Condon.  Each session combines music history, analysis, active listening, and discussion, designed to enhance your listening experience and overall music appreciation.  Listen Up covers all genres, emphasizing our common humanity across all musical styles!  Coffee and refreshments provided. Widely considered to be the "Mount Everest" of piano concertos, Rachmaninoff's third Piano Concerto is of legendary status amongst listeners for its emotional depth...and amongst pianists for its difficulty. Composed in 1909 in preparation for a performance tour through America, Rachmaninoff premiered the piece as soloist with the New York Symphony Society under conductor Walter Damrosch. It would go onto worldwide acclaim into the 20th century, in part thanks to the recorded performances of Vladamir Horowitz, the legendary pianist who Rachmaninoff claimed could play the concerto better than himself. Join us for an in-depth exploration into Rachmaninoff's life, his deep connection to Russian musical tradition, and the music that journeys from a haunting opening theme to a triumphant finale, fully encompassing virtuosic brilliance and sweeping romanticism. Whether you're a seasoned classical music enthusiast or new to the world of concertos, this seminar will deepen your appreciation for one of the most celebrated works in piano literature! Come ready to immerse yourself in the passion, complexity, and genius of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3!

Dr. Dan Puccio takes an in-depth look at the lives and careers of the singer-songwriters whose catalogs are featured in this year’s concert season! We’ll get to hear some of the inside stories and legends surrounding Neil Diamond, America, Billy Joel, Elton John, and Lyle Lovett, along with guided listening example to some of their greatest songs. Along the way, we’ll try to answer some of the great Rock & Roll mysteries like “Why didn’t they name the horse?”, “Was Billy Joel really that angry as a young man?”, and “Can you really ride a pony on a boat?” (Honestly, it depends on the size of the boat, and how rough the seas are.) What would you do if you had a boat? Would you go out on the ocean? If you had a pony, would you ride it on your boat? These are some of the things that we will discover about Lyle Lovett. Although he’s a native Texan, Lyle has several direct connections to Phoenix, AZ, and we will examine them on Friday, March 7th. In our session, we will cover songs like “Nobody Knows Me”, “Closing Time”, “You Can’t Resist It”. We’ll also dive into his acting career, and try to answer your burning questions such as: Why would he ride his pony on his boat? How does he know you’re not from Texas? And why does he love penguins so much?

Listen Up: Seminars on Music is a weekly gathering of music lovers every Wednesday morning, hosted by AZMF’s Resident Artist, Josh Condon.  Each session combines music history, analysis, active listening, and discussion, designed to enhance your listening experience and overall music appreciation.  Listen Up covers all genres, emphasizing our common humanity across all musical styles!  Coffee and refreshments provided. Continuing our "Breaking Boundaries" mini-series, we dive into the extraordinary world of Jacob Collier, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and visionary redefining the boundaries of modern music. Widely recognized by musicians across the world as a genius, the compositions and arrangements of this young talent are already influencing an entire generation of musicians. In short, no other singular musical artist has changed the game of music in the 21st century more than Collier. Often described as a "one-man orchestra", Collier's genre-defying sound fuses jazz, pop, classical, funk, and world music with breathtaking harmonic complexity and innovative technology. This seminar will explore Collier's journey from viral YouTube sensation to multi-Grammy Award-winning artist. We'll examine his groundbreaking use of harmony, rhythm, and "microtonality", as well as his collaborations with legends such as Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock. Through guided listening and interactive discussion, participants will gain insight into Collier's creative process and his profound influence on the future of music. Whether you are a musician, music lover, or curious listener, this seminar will inspire you to hear music and creativity itself in new ways - so come prepared to have your ears expanded and your mind blown!  

Our Musical Theatre Matinee series features guest lectures from some of the Valley’s foremost experts in musical theatre, and include live performances by outstanding local singers and dancers!   This event is generously sponsored by Bob and Charlotte Otto. 

Listen Up: Seminars on Music is a weekly gathering of music lovers every Wednesday morning, hosted by AZMF’s Resident Artist, Josh Condon.  Each session combines music history, analysis, active listening, and discussion, designed to enhance your listening experience and overall music appreciation.  Listen Up covers all genres, emphasizing our common humanity across all musical styles!  Coffee and refreshments provided. To close out our sessions focusing on this year's Festival Orchestra repertoire, we are joined by special guest Matthew Kasper (Music Director of Arizona Ballet and Artistic Director of the Phoenix Youth Symphony Orchestras) to take a look at perhaps the most famous American symphony of all time: Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3. Commissioned by conductor Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra during World War II, this symphony was part of a broader search to promote American composers and the desire to create the "American sound," distinct from the European tradition. Though the work follows traditional symphonic forms, Copland brings his distinct "Americana" sound that he became famous for through his Western-themed ballet works (Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Appalachian Spring, etc) and the symphony's success firmly established Copland as the leading composer of American music. While Copland lived another nearly 45 years after composing Symphony No. 3, he did not feel the need to write another one--leaving this work as perhaps his magnum opus of all of his concert music, full of the optimism and heroism that defined the American spirit.

In their 2015 award-winning book, We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, Doug Bradley and Craig Werner placed popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. Over the next two years, they made more than 100 presentations coast-to-coast, witnessing honest, respectful exchanges among audience members. That journey prompted Bradley to write Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America and to further explore how the music of the era, shared by those who served and those who stayed, helped create safe, nonjudgmental environments for listening, sharing, and understanding.

Listen Up: Seminars on Music is a weekly gathering of music lovers every Wednesday morning, hosted by AZMF’s Resident Artist, Josh Condon.  Each session combines music history, analysis, active listening, and discussion, designed to enhance your listening experience and overall music appreciation.  Listen Up covers all genres, emphasizing our common humanity across all musical styles!  Coffee and refreshments provided.

Listen Up: Seminars on Music is a weekly gathering of music lovers every Wednesday morning, hosted by AZMF’s Resident Artist, Josh Condon.  Each session combines music history, analysis, active listening, and discussion, designed to enhance your listening experience and overall music appreciation.  Listen Up covers all genres, emphasizing our common humanity across all musical styles!  Coffee and refreshments provided.

Our Musical Theatre Matinee series features guest lectures from some of the Valley’s foremost experts in musical theatre, and include live performances by outstanding local singers and dancers!   This event is generously sponsored by Bob and Charlotte Otto. 

Listen Up: Seminars on Music is a weekly gathering of music lovers every Wednesday morning, hosted by AZMF’s Resident Artist, Josh Condon.  Each session combines music history, analysis, active listening, and discussion, designed to enhance your listening experience and overall music appreciation.  Listen Up covers all genres, emphasizing our common humanity across all musical styles!  Coffee and refreshments provided.