Music for Listeners
Classical Music Courses in Tucson, Arizona!
Music for Listeners is a series of short courses for high school students and adults presenting the works of composers from a listening enjoyment rather than a music theory perspective.
Each course presents the life and music of a composer chronologically and is taught by lifelong classical music enthusiast David Oesper.
Current/Upcoming
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Seven 90-minute sessions beginning June 6, 2026:
Past
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): Seven 90-minute sessions available upon request
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904): Seven 90-minute sessions available upon request
Gustav Holst (1874-1934): Six 90-minute sessions available upon request
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953): Seven 90-minute sessions available upon request
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975): Seven 90-minute sessions available upon request
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958): Seven 90-minute sessions available upon request
Challenges and Opportunities
As a relatively new resident of Tucson who has lived most of my life in much smaller communities, I am finding it uniquely difficult here to get the word out about the wonderful (yes, I can provide references!) music listening courses I teach. I know I do not have a fancy website but we all have our priorities and mine is focusing on curating the music and content I teach. Each course I develop is a result of hundreds of hours of research and focused effort, and that leaves little time for marketing and self-promotion. Obviously, with so much effort put into each course, it would be a shame to only teach it once to a dozen or so people when Greater Tucson has thousands of people with at least a passing interest in classical music. I am teaching the kind of courses I wish I had had when I was in high school and as a younger adult.
I would love to have a sponsoring organization for the courses I teach, but there is no organization in Tucson that sponsors lifelong learning evening and weekend courses without restrictions on the age of the participants (e.g. ages 50+). I firmly believe that more people would develop a lifelong interest in classical music if they were simply introduced to it by a teacher who is an experienced listener and passionate about the music, which I certainly am. And, as we know, it is the younger folks who are going to be our future listening audience for both live and recorded music, so why exclude them?
If anyone reading this in the Tucson metro area also has an interest in providing in-person classes for all adults, both younger and older, at times when most working folks can attend (i.e. not daytime M-F), please reach out to me at doesper@icloud.com as I would love to talk with you about this. I could pretty easily be enticed to pivot away from my current fully-remote part-time job for an out-of-state employer (I am semi-retired) to helping develop more inclusive lifelong learning opportunities here in Tucson in an in-person or hybrid role, paid or unpaid.
This might be a "big city" thing, but I've noticed that all the classical music arts organizations here in Tucson seem to be disinterested in discussing anything (or promoting anything) unless you come to them with a bundle of money, which I don't have. Who is my primary audience for these courses? Classical 90.5 AZPM listeners, and audience members that attend concerts by the Tucson Symphony, Southern Arizona Symphony, Tucson Repertory Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Tucson, and Arizona Friends of Chamber Music (to name the most important ones). How to get my courses announced to any of these audiences? Probably not without a sponsoring organization and a bundle of money. So here we are.
Women Composers
I have two ongoing projects featuring the music of women composers. Every other month, I feature a female composer on the groups.io group, "Classical Music Little-Known Favorites":
I also have a comprehensive list of symphonies by women here:
Future
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943): Winter 2027
Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999): Summer 2027
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907): Winter 2028
Richard Strauss (1864-1949): Summer 2028
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957): Winter 2029
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Summer 2029
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Winter 2030
Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Summer 2030
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908): Winter 2031
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): Summer 2031
Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978): Winter 2032
Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936): Summer 2032
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Winter 2033
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924): Summer 2033
Alexander Borodin (1833-1887): Winter 2034
Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Summer 2034
Josef Suk (1874-1935): Winter 2035
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Summer 2035
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Winter 2036
Samuel Barber (1910-1981): Summer 2036
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847): Winter 2037
Frederick Delius (1862-1934): Summer 2037
Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987): Winter 2038
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849): Summer 2038
If you are interested in attending or hosting any of these courses, or for more information, please contact the instructor here.