Wednesday, April 9, 2025
10:00 am - 11:30 am
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.
There is simply no piece of music quite like Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 4. While we often discuss “groundbreaking” music, this piece attempts to redefine what that “ground” even is, existing on the very fringes of what music can even be. On top of that, this mind-blowingly creative work continues to stun, fascinate, and inspire listeners over 100 years after it has been written!
The “program” of the symphony has been described by Ives as such:
The aesthetic program of the work is that of many of the greatest literary and musical masterpieces of the world—the searching questions of What? and Why? which the spirit of man asks of life. This is particularly the sense of the prelude. The … succeeding movements are the diverse answers in which existence replies.
Join us for an enlightening seminar on this work that encapsulates the composer’s innovative spirit and philosophical depth. Composed between 1910 and the mid-1920s (though never performed in Ives’ lifetime due to the fact musicians at the time deemed it “unperformable”) this symphony is renowned for its complexity, requiring an extensive orchestra and often two conductors to navigate its intricate layers. Through a blend of hymns, folk tunes, and original themes, Ives explores profound existential questions, crafting a musical journey that challenges and inspires. Our seminar will delve into the symphony’s structure, its historical context, and its lasting impact on American music. Whether you’re a seasoned musician or a curious listener, this event offers a unique opportunity to deepen your understanding of one of the 20th century’s most ambitious compositions.
Getting Here
Music Alive! Studio
7950 E. Thompson Peak Parkway
Scottsdale, AZ 85255
7950 East Thompson Peak Parkway
7950 East Thompson Peak Parkway, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Instructor
Josh Condon
As a pianist equally adept in the genres of jazz, pop, and classical, Josh Condon has served as music director/supervisor for over 40 musical theatre productions, in addition to leading concerts with symphony orchestras, choirs, jazz ensembles, and pop/rock bands. He has traveled the world as a music director and pianist for the Norwegian, Celebrity, and Princess Cruise Lines where he worked with numerous Broadway and West End performers.
Currently, Josh serves as Resident Artist and Director of Community Music Programs for Arizona Musicfest in Scottsdale, an organization which features concert performances of the music industry’s top talent. In addition to serving as Assistant Conductor for the Musicfest Festival Orchestra, he lectures on topics surveying a huge breadth of music history and analysis, including popular song, symphonic repertoire, jazz performance practice, musical theatre, and everything in between.
He also serves as Assistant Conductor for the North Valley Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared as Guest Conductor with the Scottsdale Symphony Orchestra, the Scottsdale Philharmonic, and the Arizona Musical Theatre Orchestra. Josh is passionate about using flexibility, positivity, and encouragement to create spaces where all can learn and perform to their best ability. He holds a BM in Jazz Studies from Ithaca College and an MM in Musical Theatre/Opera Music Direction from Arizona State University, and resides in Phoenix, AZ with his wife Lexy, their son Arlo, and their cat Sadie.