NY Philharmonic Kicks Off Dec 2013 Worldwide Radio Broadcasts

The December broadcasts of The New York Philharmonic This Week - the weekly radio series of concerts and recordings by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Alec Baldwin - begin with Bernard Labadie returning to the Philharmonic to conduct Mozart's Requiem; J.S. Bach's Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!; and Handel's "Let the Bright Seraphim" from Samson. The program's soloists will include soprano Miah Persson, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Frederic Antoun, bass AnDrew Foster-Williams, and Associate Principal Trumpet Matthew Muckey, joined by the New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt. The following week Music Director Alan Gilbert conducts the New York Premiere of The Marie- Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse's Oboe Concerto featuring Principal Oboe Liang Wang, and Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra and Don Juan, both featuring Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow in the concertmaster solos.

In the third week of broadcasts, Alan Gilbert will lead the New York Philharmonic in a celebration of the centennial of English composer, conductor, and pianist Benjamin Britten. The program will include Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, featuring tenor Paul Appleby and Philharmonic Principal Horn Philip Myers; and Britten's Spring Symphony, with soprano Kate Royal, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, tenor Paul Appleby, New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus directed by Dianne Berkun- Menaker. In the final broadcast in December, Gary Thor Wedow conducts Handel's Messiah, recorded with the Orchestra in 2012. This celebrated oratorio features soprano Layla Claire, countertenor Tim Mead, tenor Kenneth Tarver, bass Alastair Miles, and New York Choral Artists directed by Joseph Flummerfelt.

The New York Philharmonic This Week airs locally in the New York metropolitan area on WQXR 105.9 FM, Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. [Check local listings.] Concerts are available on the Philharmonic's Website, nyphil.org, for two weeks following the broadcast. The broadcasts are syndicated to more than 300 outlets nationally and 122 outlets internationally by the WFMT Radio Network. Alec Baldwin is the host of the program, New York Philharmonic Audio Producer Mark Travis is the broadcast producer, and Audio Director Lawrence Rock is the music producer.

The New York Philharmonic's first Live National radio broadcast took place on October 5, 1930, over the CBS radio network. On that Sunday Erich Kleiber was on the podium leading the Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Since that historic broadcast, the Philharmonic has enjoyed an almost continuous presence on national radio. Advancing its role as a media pioneer, the Philharmonic, since 2002, has shared its radio broadcasts with a worldwide audience through its Website, nyphil.org. In 2004 the New York Philharmonic was the first major American orchestra to offer downloadable concerts, recorded live. Following on this innovation, in 2009 the Orchestra announced the first-ever subscription download series: Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, available exclusively on iTunes, produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic, and comprising more than 50 works performed during the 2009-10 season. Last season the Orchestra released another digital recording series: Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2012-13 Season. Since 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, with more than 500 currently available.

Alec Baldwin is the Radio Host of the New York Philharmonic. The actor most recently appeared on Broadway in the 2013 production of Lyle Kessler's Orphans, following appearances including Equus (Guild Hall, 2010 production); Entertaining Mr. Sloane (the Roundabout Theatre Company, 2006 production); Loot (Broadway, 1986); Serious Money (Broadway, 1988); Prelude to a Kiss (Circle Repertory Company, in 1990 (Obie Award); A Streetcar Named Desire (Broadway, 1992); Macbeth (New York Shakespeare Festival, 1998); and The Twentieth Century (Roundabout Theatre Company, 2004), earning him Theatre World and Obie Awards as well as a Tony nomination.

Mr. Baldwin has appeared in more than 40 films, including Beetlejuice, Working Girl, Miami Blues, The Hunt for Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice, The Juror, The Edge, Ghosts of Mississippi, State and Main, The Cat in the Hat, The Cooler (National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Oscar nomination), The Aviator, The Departed, and It's Complicated. For seven years he starred as Jack Donaghy opposite Tina Fey on NBC's 30 Rock; for his portrayal he received seven Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globes, the Television Critics Award, two Emmy Awards as Best Actor in a Comedy Series, and the 2009 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. In 2011 Mr. Baldwin received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His company, El Dorado Pictures, has produced projects including Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial for TNT (Emmy Award nomination); The Confession for Showtime (Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay); and David Mamet's film State and Main. A dedicated supporter of public policy and arts causes, Alec Baldwin serves on the boards of the New York Philharmonic, People For The American Way, The Hamptons International Film Festival, and Guild Hall. He has partnered with Capital One to create an advertising campaign that, through the Alec Baldwin Foundation, provides funding for arts groups across the country, particularly in the New York area, and raises awareness for support of the arts. His book, A Promise to Ourselves, was published by St. Martin's Press in paperback in 2009.

Lawrence Rock has been Audio Director of the New York Philharmonic since 1997, overseeing all audio activities including recording, broadcasting, and live sound. He is the recording and mastering engineer as well as a producer for the recent iTunes Passes, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2012-13 Season, and Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, both produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic. His other recent projects have included producing New York Philharmonic and Lorin Maazel: The Complete Mahler Symphonies, Live; Deutsche Grammophon's New York Philharmonic DG Concerts downloads; and a Deutsche Grammophon recording of music by Richard Strauss, performed by the Philharmonic. In 2005 Mr. Rock received three Grammy Awards for John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls, for which he served as co-producer with the composer, and in 1997 he won a Grammy for engineering an album of works by Aaron Copland, performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. For the Philharmonic's own recording label, New York Philharmonic Special Editions, Mr. Rock co-produced the Grammy-nominated CD Sweeney Todd: Live at the New York Philharmonic and the 10-CD set Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic. He has also made recordings with the Chicago, Houston, and Milwaukee symphony orchestras.

Mark Travis, an award-winning 18-year music industry veteran, joined the New York Philharmonic as its full-time in-house producer in August 2011. For the previous 12 years he worked for Chicago's WFMT Radio Network. He has written and produced The New York Philharmonic This Week since its inaugural season in 2004-05. Other broadcast credits include the Lyric Opera of Chicago Broadcasts as well as broadcasts by the Berlin Philharmonic, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Bavarian Staatsoper, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Travis has an extensive discography as a music producer that ranges from recordings by the New York Philharmonic to those by William Warfield, Jenny Lin, Jeffrey Siegel, the Lyrebird Ensemble, and the Chicago Chorale. An accomplished singer and classical guitarist, he also hosts and produces several podcasts and educational pieces for a variety of organizations. He is a member of the Classical Committee of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. (NARAS) and serves on both the grand jury and advisory board of the New York Festivals International Broadcasting Competition. From 2010-2012, Mr. Travis proudly served as a music committee chair for the United States Artists Music Awards in Los Angeles. In 2013 he and his production team earned a Gold World Medal for Best Sound, A Bronze World Medal for Best Regularly Scheduled Music Program, and a Finalist Certificate for Best Classical Format from the New York Festivals International Radio Awards for their work on The New York Philharmonic This Week.

The WFMT Radio Network, the international syndication division of award-winning Chicago classical music station 98.7 WFMT (streaming live at wfmt.com/streaming), distributes these broadcasts worldwide. In addition to the New York Philharmonic broadcasts, the WFMT Radio Network syndicates concerts by the Chicago, San Francisco, and Milwaukee symphony orchestras, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, as well as ongoing series such as Jazz at Lincoln Center Radio and Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin. The WFMT Radio Network also offers a full season of performances by American opera companies such as Lyric Opera of Chicago, LA Opera On Air, San Francisco Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. In addition, exclusive programming from Germany's Deutsche Welle Radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and dozens of classical, folk, jazz, news series, and specials are offered to radio outlets around the world.

THE New York Philharmonic THIS WEEK

December 2013

Week of December 1 (from November 7-9, 2013)

Bernard Labadie, conductor Miah Persson, soprano
Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano Fre?de?ric Antoun, tenor

AnDrew Foster-Williams, bass Matthew Muckey, trumpet New York Choral Artists

Joseph Flummerfelt, director

J.S. BACH HANDEL MOZART

Cantata No. 51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen! "Let the Bright Seraphim" from Samson Requiem

Alan Gilbert, conductor Liang Wang, oboe

R. STRAUSS

Christopher Rouse R. STRAUSS

Also sprach Zarathustra

Glenn Dicterow, violin
Oboe Concerto (New York Premiere) Don Juan

Glenn Dicterow, violin

Week of December 15 (from November 21-23, 2013)

Alan Gilbert, conductor
Philip Myers, horn
Kate Royal*, soprano
Sasha Cooke†, mezzo-soprano Paul Appleby, tenor

New York Choral Artists
Joseph Flummerfelt, director

Brooklyn Youth Chorus
Dianne Berkun-Menaker, director

BRITTEN Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings BRITTEN Spring Symphony

Week of December 22 (from December 18-22, 2012)

Gary Thor Wedow, conductor* Layla Claire, soprano*
Tim Mead, countertenor* Kenneth Tarver, tenor

Alastair Miles, bass
New York Choral Artists,

Joseph Flummerfelt, director HANDEL Messiah

* denotes New York Philharmonic debut
† denotes New York Philharmonic subscription debut

All information subject to change.

Pictured: Alec Baldwin (left) with Music Director Alan Gilbert. Photo by Chris Lee.