Adult Studies

June 10 – July 15
Mondays: 9:30 – 11:00 am
Instructor: Dr. Vatché Mankerian
Tuition: $144

With the release of The Beatles’ astounding album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the path of Rock music changed, at least for the next two decades. The term concept album came to be utilized and with the development of what came to be known as Classic Rock, the music world saw the creation of some formidable as well as interesting albums from the late 1960’s to late 1980’s or so. The course will discuss the contributions of rock bands such as Pink Floyd; RUSH; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; ELO; Alan Parsons Project; Supertramp; up to Linkin Park, and others, who have recorded at least one influential and what some may call “timeless” classic rock albums.

June 20 – August 1 (No class on July 4)
Thursdays: 9:30 – 11:45 am
Instructor: Dr. Nic Gerpe
Tuition: $192

Bach. Beethoven. Brahms. Everyone knows “The Three B’s”. But which other composers can lay claim to the “Great B” title? We’ll travel throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st Centuries to uncover masterworks by a bevy of brilliant (musical) brains, including Bartok, Berlioz, Britten, Bernstein, and more!

September 15 – November 17, 2024
Fridays: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Instructor: Dr. Oliver Greene
Tuition: $320

Festivals, concerts, and recordings have served as artistic mediums to promote pop, rock, rhythm n’ blues, funk, folk, jazz and other styles of music for many decades. From the late 1960s through the 1980s these mediums of expression provided popular musicians opportunities to communicate beliefs they shared with other Americans on the Vietnam war, civil rights and racial injustices, famines, genocides, oppression, sexual identity and freedom, gender issues, and cultural recognition. This was a time when musicians openly protested the wrong-doings and inequalities of society without fear of retribution from record labels, politicians, or influential corporations.

This course is a chronological overview of ten of the most influential music events in American history. These include the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, Monterey International Pop Festival, Woodstock, Harlem Cultural Festival (Black Woodstock), Altamont Free Concert, Atlanta International Pop Festival, Concert for Bangladesh, Wattstax Concert, Live Aid Concerts and the “We Are the World” recording, and the Farm Aid Concert for America.

September 14 – November 16, 2024
Thursdays: 9:30 – 11:30 am
Instructor: Dr. Vatche Mankerian
Tuition: $192

It was the insatiably curious genius, Liszt, who, by aspiring to tell stories through instrumental music, sans paroles, came up with the concept of the Symphonic Poem, both for orchestra and the piano.

This course focuses on works for orchestra which are not symphonies but are (or not) Symphonic Poems, works such as, Liszt’s Les preludes, Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Debussy’s La Mer, Strauss’ Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Sibelius’ Lemminkäinen Suite, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, and Holst’s The Planets, among countless others, which have become and remain audience favorites.