Music Enrichment Classes

If you love music and want to gain a broader understanding of your favorite or a new genre, music enrichment classes are for you. These lecture-based classes let you explore music without having to play an instrument. Music enrichment classes offer the opportunity to refine listening skills, deepen your awareness of the intrinsic beauty of music, and explore the history, key figures, and the cultures from which it emerged.  In a relaxed format, outstanding instructors lecture on various topics in Western music and guide explorations of music from different areas of the globe.

Our mission

In the Division of Continuing Studies, we offer a variety of lecture-based classes for those who want to pursue a broader and deeper understanding of music.  We strive to present the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic instructors for these enrichment classes, whose professional experiences as scholars, historians, musicians, writers, teachers, and public speakers are sure to engage the musical mind.

Coming in Winter 2012

Contact us by calling 608-265-5629 or email: music@dcs.wisc.edu.
Mailing list: Join the mailing lists for the music program that interests you most!
Tell a friend: Tell a friend about these music programs.

Winter 2012 classes

Great Composer Series: Hindemith, Rossini, Schutz, Tchaikovsky

Presented in a style light on jargon and rich in listening, this nine-week course is for anyone interested in learning more about the major composers of Western classical music. Come learn about and experience the lives and music of four great composers: Paul Hindemith, Gioachino Rossini, Heinrich Schutz, and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Instructor: Steve Kurr (MM in musicology, UW-Madison) has been teaching continuing education music courses for over a decade. He is principle violist for the Beloit-Janesville Symphony Orchestra and teaches orchestra and music history at Middleton High School.

Dates: Mondays, Feb 6-Apr 9, 7-8:30 pm (no class Mar 26).
Location: 1703 Middleton High School, 2100 Bristol St. Middleton, WI,
Fee: $130
 Register by Jan 30, 1.4 CEU, Program #3759
To register call 608-262-2451, print and mail a registration form, or register online.

NEW History of country music: 1922-1953

This four-week course presents a history of American country music from its earliest commercialization, through radio and recordings, to the death of Hank Williams in 1953.

Instructor: Bill C. Malone is the author of Country Music, USA, compiler of the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music, and a two-time Grammy Award nominee who hosts WORT-FMs "Back to the Country".

Dates: Thursday, Apr 12-May 3, 7-8:30 pm
Location: James Reeb Unitarian, 2146 E Johnson St
Fee: $85
 Register by April 5, Limit 25, 0.6 CEU, Program #3785
To register call 608-262-2451, print and mail a registration form, or register online.

Music theory basics 2

In this eight-week course, a continuation of Music Theory Basics 1, you move beyond introductory understanding
of intervals, rhythm, harmony, keys, and melodies. Classes include hands- on exercises to sing and play on
the piano.

Instructor: Chiwei (Jerry) Hui (DMA, UW-Madison) conductor and award-winning composer, has performed extensively in the U.S. and Hong Kong, and in various Madison ensembles. He also serves on the Madison Early Music Festival staff.
Date: Mondays, Jan 30-Mar 19, 5:30-7 pm,
Location: 2561 Humanities, 455 N Park St,
Fee: $115
Register by Jan 23, Limit 12,1.2 CEU, Program #3750
To register call 608-262-2451, print and mail a registration form, or register online.

Musical traditions of the Celtic world

Music of the Celtic world has become tremendously popular over the past 25 years. In this six-week course the term “Celtic music” becomes a point of departure to examine current musical artists from Celtic-identified regions along the Atlantic seaboard. We compare and contrast their histories in relation to continuity and change within each specific musical tradition.

Instructor: Robert Newton (PhD, UW-Madison) teaches online and in the classroom at UW-Madison. His research and teaching interests are in oral and performance traditions in West Africa and the Celtic regions. He has performed traditional Irish music for more than 30 years.
Dates: Tuesdays, Jan 24-Feb 28, 7-8:30 pm,
Location: Madison Campus
Fee: $115
Register by Jan 17, Limit 30, 0.9 CEU, Program #3751
To register call 608-262-2451, print and mail a registration form, or register online.

Opera theater excursion

Join opera/early music expert John W. Barker on a trip to the Chicago Opera Theater for a matinee performance completing a trilogy based on the Greek myth of Medea. In Handel’s Teseo, Medea matches wits with Theseus, losing the battle but stealing the show. Includes performance, chartered coach, and lecture en route. Dinner on your own in the Water Tower district following the performance.

Instructor: John W. Barker is a UW-Madison professor emeritus of history and a specialist in medieval and music history. He has published articles and books in both fields and is an active recording reviewer, music critic, and radio host.
Date: Sun, Apr 29, 11 am-11 pm,
Location: Departure from Dutch Mill Park & Ride, Madison/Chicago
Fee: $130
Register by Apr 5, Limit 25, 0.4 CEU, Program #3786
To register call 608-263-6670 or email music@dcs.wisc.edu.

NEW Rock and roll journalism

Combine your passions for music and writing. This three-week course covers what it takes to be a music reviewer and a published author/biographer/historian. We discuss various approaches to publication, from self-publishing to pitching your ideas to a publisher and writing a formal book proposal.

Instructor: Susan Masino , a rock journalist for 30 years, has published four books, including Let There Be Rock, The Story of AC/DC, and Family Tradition: Three Generations of Hank Williams.
Dates: Wednesday, May 2-16, 5-7 pm,
Location: 2401 Humanities, 455 N Park St ,
Fee: $85
Register by Apr 25,Limit 20, 0.6 CEU, Program #3787
To register call 608-262-2451, print and mail a registration form,or register online.

NEW Romantic music of the 19th century: beauty, nature, and fantasy

Romanticism in the 19th century inspired composers to reveal the deeper meaning of life through music. In this six-week class, myths, folklore, sacred texts, and great literature guide us through the music of Wagner, Berlioz, Liszt, Schubert, Brahms, Chopin, Mahler, Mussorgsky, Franck, Grieg, and Foster, among others. Each class focuses on one genre: song, piano music, chamber music, symphony, and concerto, culminating in romantic opera.

Instructor: Stephen Kleiman (degrees from Mannes College of Music and Univ. of Michigan) devotes his time to writing music. He has conducted throughout Europe and was music director of the National Chamber Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.

Dates: Monday, Jan 30-Mar 5, 5:30-7 pm
Location: Room 7246, 21 N Park St.
Fee: $95
Register by Jan 23, Limit 150.9 CEU, Program #3753
To register call 608-262-2451, print and mail a registration form, or register online.

What our students say about our enrichment classes


From Great Composer Series Classes (Instructor Steve M. Kurr)

“The course was full of wonderful enthusiasm and excellent preparation.  The instructor revealed a sincere love and dedication to the subject.”


“I have no musical background at all but enjoyed listening to classical music – very selectively.  This course enables me to appreciate a much broader selection of differing styles, listening with a better understanding (limited though it may be).  ‘Hungry’ for more knowledge!  This course was fun and interesting!”



File last updated: January 24, 2012
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