Friday, April 4, 11, 18, 25, 2025
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
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.
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
Dr. Jeff Kennedy
Jeff Kennedy is an associate professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance at Arizona State University. He researches and writes about American theatre and is a leading scholar on the Provincetown Players, writing extensively about Eugene O’Neill and Susan Glaspell. He is a former president of the Eugene O’Neill International Society, chair of their 2011 international conference in New York City, and on their board of directors. He received a Fulbright Scholar award to research Colonial American theatre at the British Library in 2020. Jeff’s latest book is Staging America, the Artistic Legacy of the Provincetown Players, and he is the creator of the theatre websites www.macdougalstreet.com and www.provincetownplayhouse. As a musical theatre professional, he has been the music director for Broadway performers Pamela Myers and Carol Lawrence, been the music director of over a hundred musicals, most recently at Phoenix Theatre, has conducted for Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx in concert, and was a production assistant for Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.