Chautauqua Academy

Johnny Cash

Lecture Featuring Composer/Producer Edward Barnes

TICKET PRICE:

$50 Registration (Zoom Link) – Only ONE required per household.

Edward Barnes is back by popular demand! Gather your friends and family for an evening of entertainment and learning—all from the comfort of home! Expect fun and engaging content. You won’t be disappointed!

DESCRIPTION:

Johnny Cash was an American singer, songwriter, and cultural icon whose deep, resonant voice and emotionally unflinching songs made him one of the most influential figures of 20th-century music. In this online lecture, composer/producer Edward Barnes traces the arc of Cash’s remarkable life—from his hardscrabble beginnings in rural Arkansas to his breakthrough as a rockabilly pioneer at Sun Records in Memphis, and his evolution into a towering presence in Nashville, Hollywood, and beyond. The program explores Cash’s battles with addiction, the transformative personal and creative partnership he shared with singer-songwriter June Carter, and his astonishing late-career resurgence through raw, haunting cover recordings of songs by Tom Petty, U2, and Nine Inch Nails. This is the story of an artist whose voice embodied the American experience—gritty, haunted, faithful, and enduring.

about edward barnes:

Edward Barnes is an award-winning composer, lyricist, and producer. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he is the winner of Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships, and the Stephen Sondheim Award for “the creation of innovative musical theater”. His opera, musical theater and theater scores have been produced by L.A. Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lincoln Center Theater Company, Minnesota Opera, Mark Taper Forum, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Virginia Opera, Opera Company of the Philippines, Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis, Welsh National Opera and many more. A founding director of the L.A. based opera-fusion troupe The Metro Ensemble, Edward’s producing credits include Tracy Letts’ play, Superior Donuts, on Broadway, Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera The Grapes of Wrath (starring Jane Fonda, Nathan Gunn and Christine Ebersole) at Carnegie Hall, Gordon’s A Coffin In Egypt (starring Frederica von Stade) for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, and live cast recordings of Kurt Weill’s Knickerbocker Holiday (Ghostlight/Sh-k-boom Records) and The Road of Promise (Naxos Records). He additionally served as Associate Producer for shows at Teatro Paseo La Plaza in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

A leading non-profit administrator, Edward has served as Executive Director of Gotham Chamber Opera, Producing Director of MasterVoices, and Managing Director of American Lyric Theater. From 2015-2023 he was the COO of the US Division of African Parks, a global nonprofit which protects and manages 22 national parks in 12 different African nations. A popular public speaker and teacher, he has been presented by the Chautauqua Institution, RoundTable Cultural Seminars, McKee Academic Seminars, and many universities around the US and in Canada. He is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School.