Robert
Butts
conductor
composer
educator
composer
educator
Maestro Robert W. Butts hopes you'll join for exciting discussions and discoveries of music. Courses will be offered at the following:
Fridays, 10:30-11:30 AM, August 28-September 25, Lifetime Learning, Washington Township Public Library, 37 East Springtown Road, Long Valley, New Jersey. Shake, Rattle, and Roll: Music 1945-1975, After World War II, The United States entered a boom period at the same time as it entered into The Cold War. Technology changed at an ever more rapid rate. Popular music became even more prominent with artists like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Johnny Cash. Society also changed at an ever more rapid rate as everything exploded in the 1960s and music became the sounds of the era. 908-876-3596 For further information and to register, click here.
Wednesdays, 1:00-2:30 PM, September 16-October 7, Shake, Rattle, and Roll: Music 1945-1969, Kemmerer Library, Harding Township, 19 Blue Mill Road, New Vernon, New Jersey. Music changed with world change following World War II. The next three decades were overshadowed by The Cold War and The Vietnam War, by social conflicts and challenges, and by rapid technology innovations. Music was at the heart of the period. Jazz, country music, bluegrass, folk music, Broadway musicals, and film scores all reflected the changes and moods of the times. In the mid-1950s, a new form of music grew out of the aural diversity and became rock & roll. Names that continue to define music include Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, The Beatles, Bernard Herrmann, Leonard Bernstein, John Coltrane, and Bob Dylan among many others. Many favorite songs of the period remain popular today. 973-443-9222. For further information and to register, click here.
Mondays, 9:30-10:30 AM, September 28-November 16, Leisure Learning, Bernards Township Library, 32 South Maple Ave., Basking RIdge, New Jersey. Music and the Modern Age: 1890-1920, a look at the songs, theater, technology, and compositions that developed into the Modern Age. discussed will be composers such as Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Ives, Debussy, and Stravinsky; songwriters like George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, and Franz Lehar; early jazz and ragtime; opera and musical theater, and the rise of popular music. Bernards Township Libary, 32 South Maple Ave., Basking Ridge, New Jersey, 908- 204-3031, for further information, click here.
Fridays, 7:30-9:00 PM, October 2-October 30, Friday Night at the Opera, Bernards Township Library, 32 South Maple Ave., Basking RIdge, New Jersey. Operas to be discussed include Orfeo e Euridice by Christoph Wilibald Gluck, Der Freischutz by Carl Maria von Weber, Romeo et Juliette by Charles Gounod, La forza del destino by Giuseppe Verdi, and Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. 908- 204-3031. For further information, click here.
Mondays, 1:00-2:30 PM, October 19-November 16, Monday Afternoons at the Opera, Kemmerer Library, Harding Township, 19 Blue Mill Road, New Vernon, New Jersey. Operas to be discussed include Idomeneo by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Der Freischutz by Carl Maria von Weber, Tannhauser by Richard Wagner, un ballo in maschera by Giuseppe Verdi, and Carmen by Georges Bizet. 973-443-9222. For further information and to register, click here.
