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The KPAC Blog features classical music news, reviews, and analysis from South Texas and around the world.

KPACK 2013: Greenberg On How To Listen

Robert Greenberg is a celebrated author and teacher, besides a delightful composer. He has performed, taught and lectured extensively across North America and Europe. Greenberg is currently music historian-in-residence with San Francisco Performances, where he has lectured and performed since 1994. He has served on the faculties of the University of California at Berkeley, California State University East Bay, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he chaired the Department of Music History and Literature from 1989-2001 and served as the Director of the Adult Extension Division from 1991-1996. Greenberg has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Chautauqua Institute, the Ravinia Festival, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Villa Montalvo, Music @ Menlo, and the University of British Columbia.

“Bob Greenberg’s courses have been not only an excellent source of instruction, but they have greatly enhanced the pleasure I’ve always found in classical music. He’s a great teacher and entertainer, and you’ll love his sense of humor as well as his musical expertise. Much to my delight, the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra has played all nine of Beethoven’s Symphonies over the course of the past few weeks. As I listened to these superb compositions, I couldn’t forget Greenberg’s comments, “after you’ve completed these courses, you’ll never listen to classical music in the same way again. ” Truer words were never spoken. Thanks Bob for the great musical ride.” says Margaret Cawood, reader in San Antonio.

Greenberg's "How To Listen To Great Music" puts a lot of great stories in just over 350 pages. A comprehensive, accessible guide to how music has mirrored Western history, it "will transform the experience of listening for novice and long-time listeners alike. You will learn how to listen for key elements in different genres of music – from madrigals to minuets and from sonatas to symphonies-along with the enthralling history of great music from ancient Greece to the 20th century."

You’ll get answers to such questions as "Why was Beethoven so important? How did the Enlightenment change music? And what’s so great about opera anyway? 'How to Listen to Great Music' will let you finally hear what you’ve been missing."

Here is one of Robert's recent compositions:
http://youtu.be/XJse2oWi3bw

John Clare is comfortable behind a microphone, streaming video or playing violin. A former broadcaster for NPR, John has previously worked with Voice of America, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and stations in Kansas, Nevada, California, and Pennsylvania.