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Sinatra’s career took flight from the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliff, NJ, when trumpeter Harry James rescued him from the ranks of singing waiters in 1939. Yet not until Tommy Dorsey coaxed him into his band later that year did Sinatra begin to soar as the idol of the bobby-soxers. Within three years, he led [...]

Baritone Frank Sinatra was indisputably the 20th century's greatest singer of popular song. Though influenced by Bing Crosby's crooning, and by learning from trombonist Tommy Dorsey's breath control and blues singer Billie Holiday's rhythmic swing, Frank Sinatra mainstreamed the concept of singing colloquially, treating lyrics as personal statements and handling melodies with the ease of [...]

The musical theatre of the Victorian era radiated the brilliance of librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and to the works they jointly created. Between 1871 and 1896 they collaborated on fourteen comic operas of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known. Along with Gilbert’s [...]

Sinatra’s career took flight from the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliff, NJ, when trumpeter Harry James rescued him from the ranks of singing waiters in 1939. Yet not until Tommy Dorsey coaxed him into his band later that year did Sinatra begin to soar as the idol of the bobby-soxers. Within three years, he led [...]

The evening includes live performances of the solo version of Rhapsody in Blue, early and unpublished music, the piano improvisations and other Gershwin hits. Rare film footage obtained from the Gershwin family is projected, along with unpublished photographs of the composer and his friends. Archival recordings of his 1932 – 33 radio programs, Music by [...]

Holiday music always warms the spirits. Sing your favorite carols, hymns or popular Christmas music.

In this lively and engaging afternoon, pianist, raconteur, and American music specialist Robert Wyatt celebrates the lives and works of Rodgers and Hammerstein.  Through original cast recordings, film clips, interviews, correspondence, and other primary materials furnished by The Library of Congress and The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, learn about the lives of these two icons [...]

The Great War was over, times were upbeat and a sense of prosperity, freedom and excitement was evident across the country. In New York City, the Harlem nightclubs were the happening places. From dusk to dawn their rooms were filled with boisterous patrons, the aroma of cigarette smoke and alcohol, and the sounds of a [...]

It was truly a “ragtime to riches” path chosen by the immigrant Russian Jew Israel Baline. A teen aged waif slumming an existence in the Bowery during the earliest years of the twentieth-century, Irving Berlin, as he was later known, began writing songs before he knew how to read music. A self-taught and rather pathetic [...]

Spanning forty-five years of achievement with vaudeville, films, TV specials and voluminous concert extravaganzas, Judy Garland thrilled audiences who adored her stunning intellect. Whiz kid Frances Ethel Gump was twelve years old when she changed her name to Judy Garland in 1934. Louis Mayer began her enchantment the next year by signing her at MGM, [...]

Join pianist and ragtime enthusiast Dr. Robert Wyatt perform many of the more popular rags including Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” “The Maple Leaf Rag,” “Solace,” “The Cascades” and “Bethena” as well as the best rags of James Scott, Lamb, Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin. Contemporary rags written in the 1970s by William Bolcom and William [...]

The Cotton Club, favored by the city’s elite, was dubbed “the Aristocrat of Harlem.” Its patrons included British royalty and celebrities like George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Paul Whiteman and Marlene Dietrich. Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway conducted their innovative jazz bands and great black entertainers like Ethel Waters, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, [...]

The Cotton Club, favored by the city’s elite, was dubbed “the Aristocrat of Harlem.” Its patrons included British royalty and celebrities like George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Paul Whiteman and Marlene Dietrich. Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway conducted their innovative jazz bands and great black entertainers like Ethel Waters, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lena Horne and Josephine [...]

The Cotton Club, favored by the city’s elite, was dubbed “the Aristocrat of Harlem.” Its patrons included British royalty and celebrities like George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Paul Whiteman and Marlene Dietrich. Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway conducted their innovative jazz bands and great black entertainers like Ethel Waters, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lena Horne and Josephine [...]

Enjoy your remembrances of Judy Garland as American music specialist Robert Wyatt takes you through her extraordinary life. Film clips will be abundant, starting with The Broadway Melody of 1938 and moving through 1944 blockbuster Meet Me in St. Louis, The Harvey Girls, Cole Porter’s gem-ridden The Pirate of 1948 and the sizzling A Star [...]

The Cotton Club, favored by the city’s elite, was dubbed “the Aristocrat of Harlem.” Its patrons included British royalty and celebrities like George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Paul Whiteman and Marlene Dietrich. Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway conducted their innovative jazz bands and great black entertainers like Ethel Waters, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lena Horne and Josephine [...]

Enjoy your remembrances of Judy Garland as American music specialist Robert Wyatt takes you through her extraordinary life. Film clips will be abundant, starting with The Broadway Melody of 1938 and moving through 1944 blockbuster Meet Me in St. Louis, The Harvey Girls, Cole Porter’s gem-ridden The Pirate of 1948 and the sizzling A Star [...]

Join pianist and ragtime enthusiast Dr. Robert Wyatt perform many of the more popular rags including Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” “The Maple Leaf Rag,” “Solace,” “The Cascades” and “Bethena” as well as the best rags of James Scott, Lamb, Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin. Contemporary rags written in the 1970s by William Bolcom and William [...]

Enjoy your remembrances of Judy Garland as American music specialist Robert Wyatt takes you through her extraordinary life. Film clips will be abundant, starting with The Broadway Melody of 1938 and moving through 1944 blockbuster Meet Me in St. Louis, The Harvey Girls, Cole Porter’s gem-ridden The Pirate of 1948 and the sizzling A Star [...]

Join pianist and Gershwin authority Robert Wyatt, co-editor of Oxford University Press’ The George Gershwin Reader, in this lively program exploring George Gershwin’s life and legacy.  The evening includes live performances of the solo version of Rhapsody in Blue, early and unpublished music, the piano improvisations and other Gershwin hits.  Rare film footage obtained from [...]

Join pianist and ragtime enthusiast Dr. Robert Wyatt perform many of the more popular rags including Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” “The Maple Leaf Rag,” “Solace,” “The Cascades” and “Bethena” as well as the best rags of James Scott, Lamb, Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin. Contemporary rags written in the 1970s by William Bolcom and William [...]

Join pianist and ragtime enthusiast Dr. Robert Wyatt perform many of the more popular rags including Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” “The Maple Leaf Rag,” “Solace,” “The Cascades” and “Bethena” as well as the best rags of James Scott, Lamb, Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin. Contemporary rags written in the 1970s by William Bolcom and William [...]

Sinatra’s career took flight from the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliff, NJ, when trumpeter Harry James rescued him from the ranks of singing waiters in 1939. Yet not until Tommy Dorsey coaxed him into his band later that year did Sinatra begin to soar as the idol of the bobby-soxers. Within three years, he led [...]

The Cotton Club, favored by the city’s elite, was dubbed “the Aristocrat of Harlem.” Its patrons included British royalty and celebrities like George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Paul Whiteman and Marlene Dietrich. Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway conducted their innovative jazz bands and great black entertainers like Ethel Waters, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lena Horne and Josephine [...]

The Cotton Club, favored by the city’s elite, was dubbed “the Aristocrat of Harlem.” Its patrons included British royalty and celebrities like George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Paul Whiteman and Marlene Dietrich. Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway conducted their innovative jazz bands and great black entertainers like Ethel Waters, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lena Horne and Josephine [...]