Program Details

The Beatles:  Exploring the Fab Four Phenomenon

Instructor
Rod MacDonald for Robert Wyatt
FPL12134
Video Catch-up
Available

Course Description

Steinway Artist Robert Wyatt will tell the incredible story of the Beatles in this one-time lecture. The story begins in1956, when sixteen-year-old John Lennon formed a skiffle band called "The Quarrymen," eventually adding two even younger local guitarists, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. By 1960, they were known as the "The Beatles," a band quickly becoming one of the most popular in Europe. With the addition of drummer Ringo Starr in 1962, they released their first LP, Love Me Do, and Beatlemania began to take flight. During the next eight years, the Beatles recorded and released 214 different songs while becoming the most significant band in world history. Wyatt will guide you along a magical tour while listening to epic songs like Hey JudeYesterdayStrawberry Fields Forever, and A Day in the Life. The evening will abound with clips from their five films, while documentary recording sessions and live interviews permit you to witness the individual personalities of the "Fab Four."

About the Instructor

  • Steinway artist, Robert Wyatt has performed throughout the United States and internationally. Featured on NPR and PBS broadcasts, Wyatt has also performed at the Kennedy Center, The Phillips Collection, the Library of Congress, Steinway Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York, and Boston’s Jordan Hall and the Museum of Fine Arts. He has been a lecture/recitalist for the Smithsonian Institution for thirty years and as a Smithsonian Scholar, Wyatt has presented musical programs under the sponsorship of the Ford Foundation. His book, "The George Gershwin Reader," was published by Oxford University Press in 2004.