This is a course about broadening the contexts that inform our musical listening experiences. It is intended for students from all majors - the wider variety, the better. Taking full advantage of the range of musical performances available and the rich musical history and cultures of London, we will spend the first 14 days attending concerts in the evenings and spend the afternoons visiting sites that help provide the context for the music we hear. Daily morning class time will be devoted to discussions not only of music, but of art, literature, and historical and current events as they relate to the cultural climate of the musical works. Every few days the group will gather for an informal discussion over afternoon tea. For the remaining seven days of the course, we will travel north to Scotland, focusing on less formal musical venues ranging from Cathedrals to pubs and folk clubs in Cambridge, Nottingham, and York - as a contrast to the concert experiences in London and as a way of exploring different audiences, functions, and styles of British music making. The course will culminate in attending events at Celtic Connections, a highly-renowned folk festival in Glasgow. Through reading, writing, and discussion, we will explore the ways in which our knowledge and differing perspectives affect the experience of listening to musical performances. and how our own individual musical identities interact with the many musical cultures we encounter through concert music, musical theater, folk traditions, church music, and other modes of live music making.