EVDOL 31 - The Producers: George Martin, Berry Gordy, and Quincy Jones

Edward Barnes
A series of Sunday afternoon lectures exploring three of the most successful music producers in history – George Martin, Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones – along with the stars they helped guide to artistic triumph. Not only successful as record label executives, these highly skilled, multi-Grammy Award-winning mega-talents were also composers and arrangers in their own right whose work proved key to the success of the artists they produced. A look at the lives and careers of each producer, including what a music producer does – songwriting, arrangements, orchestrations, recording techniques, business management and marketing – and their impact on the creation of some of the world’s most iconic hit songs and record albums.

SESSIONS 1: GEORGE MARTIN & The Beatles

October 6

Parlophone Records, Peter Sellers, EMI Records, Brian Epstein, The Beatles, studio and musical innovations and experimentation, Sgt Pepper, Yellow Submarine, “All You Need Is Love” telecast, Abbey Road, movie scores, Cirque du Soleil, AIR Studios Montserrat

SESSION 2: BERRY GORDY & Diana Ross

October 20

Detroit in the 1950s, Doo Wop, Jackie Wilson, Smokey Robinson, founding of Motown, “Shop Around”, Mary Wells, Temptations, Miracles, Supremes, Stevie Wonder, move to Los Angeles, the Jackson Five, film producing, the rise of Diana Ross

SESSION 3: QUINCY JONES & Frank Sinatra, Leslie Gore and Michael Jackson

October 27

Paris, Nadia Boulanger, Olivier Messiaen, Dizzy Gillespie, Mercury Records, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, film scores, Leslie Gore, Frank Sinatra, The Wiz, Michael Jackson, Thriller, Roots, The Color Purple, We Are the World, Miles Davis, Jacob Collier

Biography: Edward Barnes (BM ‘79, MM ‘80, composition) is the award-winning composer-lyricist and/or producer of more than 50 works of opera, theater, radio shows, and recordings. His work has been seen around the world at venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the Opera Company of the Philippines and San Francisco Mime Troupe. He has been a resident artist at the Instituto Sacatar (Brazil), Ucross Foundation (Wyoming), and Fundación Valparaìso (Spain), and served as the executive director of Gotham Chamber Opera, producing director of MasterVoices, and managing director of American Lyric Theater. Hhe has won Guggenheim and NEA fellowships and the Stephen Sondheim Award for the creation of innovative musical theater.

3 weeks

Sundays 4–6pm ET

October 6–27 (No class on October 13)

In Person Only

$240