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. With his warm voice, intimate lyrics, and effortless guitar work, James Taylor has been a comforting musical presence for over five decades. In this seminar, we’ll dive into the storytelling and songwriting craft of Taylor’s most beloved songs—from Fire and Rain to Carolina in My Mind. What makes his music feel so personal yet so universal? We'll explore themes of love, loss, resilience, and home, while reflecting on the emotional resonance that continues to draw listeners in. Bring your favorite James Taylor song—and the story it tells you.

Steve Bergsman Presents Fabulous Female Singers of the Fifties is a one-and-half-hour, multi-media presentation that combines my discussion of the songs and singers of the 1950s with on-screen visuals and, of course, audios of the great tunes of the 1950s. The show is based on two books I wrote: All I Want Is Lovin You (about the White female singers of the era) and What A Difference A Day Makes (about the Black female singers of the era). The show moves chronologically. With the death of Connie Francis, I’ve updated the program to talk about her contributions. So, it begins with songs like Teresa Brewer’s Music! Music! Music! and Patti Page’s Tennessee Waltz from 1950 and ends with Connie Francis’s Where the Boys Are, which is actually from the 1960s. https://youtu.be/eIoWwVlM9k8

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. Bold, introspective, and unmistakably original, Carly Simon helped redefine the singer-songwriter genre in the 1970s and beyond. From biting wit to vulnerable confession, her music spans heartbreak, empowerment, and everything in between. In this session, we’ll explore Carly’s most iconic tracks—from You're So Vain to Coming Around Again—and unpack the layers behind her lyrics, vocal style, and legacy. Come ready to share a Carly Simon song that has stayed with you—and why it still speaks today.

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. Few artists have shaped popular music like Carole King—first as a Brill Building songwriter, then as a groundbreaking solo artist. Her 1971 album Tapestry alone changed the landscape of popular songwriting with its mix of vulnerability, strength, and melodic genius. In this seminar, we’ll explore the evolution of Carole King’s music, from early hits like Will You Love Me Tomorrow to her deeply personal solo work. We’ll also discuss what makes her songs so timeless—and so deeply human. Bring your favorite Carole King song and share what it means to you.

This four-week series will delve into the music of America and how it shaped and was part of shaping the country’s identity as it matured from its infancy to today. We’ll first look at what America inherited musically from the European roots of its Colonists and how the people and the land they encountered, once they arrived, altered or added to their musical language. How did their various approaches to religious life inform the music used in their rituals and ceremonies? One huge aspect that contributed to American music was its deep roots in specific regions of the country, and we’ll examine those contributions. We’ll ask, “Is there an American sound, and if so, what might that be?” Audio, video, and visual art examples will help illustrate this journey, exploring the creation of popular music, jazz, country, American concert music, music for the theatre, rock and roll, and the contemporary sounds of today.

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. Orchestral pop meets futuristic rock in the genre-defying music of Electric Light Orchestra. With soaring strings, stacked harmonies, and Jeff Lynne’s unmistakable production, ELO created a sound that was both retro and ahead of its time. In this session, we’ll listen closely to hits like Mr. Blue Sky, Evil Woman, and Telephone Line, unpacking how classical influences, studio innovation, and pop sensibility fused into one of the most unique catalogs in rock history. Fans old and new—come ready to rediscover the magic.

This four-week series will delve into the music of America and how it shaped and was part of shaping the country’s identity as it matured from its infancy to today. We’ll first look at what America inherited musically from the European roots of its Colonists and how the people and the land they encountered, once they arrived, altered or added to their musical language. How did their various approaches to religious life inform the music used in their rituals and ceremonies? One huge aspect that contributed to American music was its deep roots in specific regions of the country, and we’ll examine those contributions. We’ll ask, “Is there an American sound, and if so, what might that be?” Audio, video, and visual art examples will help illustrate this journey, exploring the creation of popular music, jazz, country, American concert music, music for the theatre, rock and roll, and the contemporary sounds of today.

Hitting the road together for the first time, Jordan Wax and Jake Shulman-Ment draw from many combined decades as bearers and innovators of klezmer and Yiddish song. They masterfully traverse oceans and centuries to conjure ancestral melodies and songs, landing in a playfully genre-bending 21st century America. Their live performance, rich with musical virtuosity as well as the oral history and lore that connects their music to centuries of culture, is a testament to the magic that has sustained secular Yiddish creativity in the face of incredible odds and continues to shed a unique light on the contemporary human condition. Shulman-Ment and Wax will lead the audience through a chronological musical program starting with the oldest roots of Ashkenazi instrumental music (klezmer) and Yiddish, demonstrating how musical sensibilities and cultural context have evolved over time. In the process they’ll discuss the origins and cultural context of the music as they’ve learned from elders and give examples of the influence of cross-culture synergies with co-territorial Eastern European cultures. They’ll conclude with contemporary compositions and discuss some of what’s exciting today in the global field of klezmer and Yiddish music. https://youtu.be/MBOFYf1rKvg

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. Is it the phrasing? The tone? The way a voice can dance around the beat or dive deep into emotion? In this seminar, we explore what defines a jazz singer—from legends like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday to modern innovators like Diana Krall and Gregory Porter. Through active listening and discussion, we’ll examine how jazz vocalists interpret melody, use improvisation, and bring personal expression to every note. Whether you're a lifelong jazz fan or just curious, come ready to listen closely and maybe even hear your favorite voices in a whole new way.

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. A sweeping portrait of America at the turn of the 20th century, Ragtime is a musical that blends hope, heartbreak, and history with an unforgettable score. In this seminar, we’ll explore how Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty use music—from ragtime piano to soaring ballads—to give voice to a diverse cast of characters navigating race, immigration, wealth, and justice. Through close listening and guided discussion, we’ll examine how the score deepens the show’s themes and what makes Ragtime both a period piece and a timely reflection of American identity. Bring your thoughts, your questions, and perhaps a favorite moment or lyric that’s stayed with you.

This four-week series will delve into the music of America and how it shaped and was part of shaping the country’s identity as it matured from its infancy to today. We’ll first look at what America inherited musically from the European roots of its Colonists and how the people and the land they encountered, once they arrived, altered or added to their musical language. How did their various approaches to religious life inform the music used in their rituals and ceremonies? One huge aspect that contributed to American music was its deep roots in specific regions of the country, and we’ll examine those contributions. We’ll ask, “Is there an American sound, and if so, what might that be?” Audio, video, and visual art examples will help illustrate this journey, exploring the creation of popular music, jazz, country, American concert music, music for the theatre, rock and roll, and the contemporary sounds of today.

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. A sweeping portrait of America at the turn of the 20th century, Ragtime is a musical that blends hope, heartbreak, and history with an unforgettable score. In this seminar, we’ll explore how Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty use music—from ragtime piano to soaring ballads—to give voice to a diverse cast of characters navigating race, immigration, wealth, and justice. Through close listening and guided discussion, we’ll examine how the score deepens the show’s themes and what makes Ragtime both a period piece and a timely reflection of American identity. Bring your thoughts, your questions, and perhaps a favorite moment or lyric that’s stayed with you.

This four-week series will delve into the music of America and how it shaped and was part of shaping the country’s identity as it matured from its infancy to today. We’ll first look at what America inherited musically from the European roots of its Colonists and how the people and the land they encountered, once they arrived, altered or added to their musical language. How did their various approaches to religious life inform the music used in their rituals and ceremonies? One huge aspect that contributed to American music was its deep roots in specific regions of the country, and we’ll examine those contributions. We’ll ask, “Is there an American sound, and if so, what might that be?” Audio, video, and visual art examples will help illustrate this journey, exploring the creation of popular music, jazz, country, American concert music, music for the theatre, rock and roll, and the contemporary sounds of today.