New York Philharmonic Announces Details for August Radio Broadcast

The August 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 conductor Andrey Boreyko as he launches the Philharmonic's 2012 residency at Colorado's Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival with an opening night concert featuring Falla's "Ritual Fire Dance" from El Amor Brujo, Saint-Saëns's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Benjamin Grosvenor as soloist, and Brahms's Symphony No. 1. In the second broadcast, Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, takes over in Vail, leading the Orchestra in Nielsen's Symphony No. 3, Sinfonia espansiva, with soprano Jennifer Zetlan and baritone Joshua Hopkins as soloists, as well as Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman as soloist.

In the third week, the broadcast will exclusively feature works by The Marie-Josée Kravis Composer-in-Residence Magnus Lindberg. Conducted by Alan Gilbert, the program comprises EXPO, Souvenir (in memoriam Gérard Grisey), Gran Duo, Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Kraft. Week four features Dvo?ák's Carnival Overture, Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Glenn Dicterow as soloist, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4; all conducted by Alan Gilbert.

The final August broadcast highlights the best of the 2011-12 season of CONTACT! the new-music series, featuring the World Premiere of Alexandre Lunsqui's Fibers, Yarn, and Fabric and HK Gruber's Frankenstein!!, conducted by Alan Gilbert and featuring Mr. Gruber, chansonnier. Also included in the broadcast is the World Premiere of Elliott Carter's Two Controversies and a Conversation; the U.S. Premiere of Michael Jarrell's NACHLESE Vb: Liederzyklus, with soprano Charlotte Dobbs as soloist; and Boulez's ... explosante-fixe ...,with Mindy Kaufman, Alexandra Sopp and Robert Langevin as soloists; the program was conducted by David Robertson.

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 broadcast 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 iTunes pass: Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2010–11 Season. Since 1917 the Philharmonic has made nearly 2,000 recordings, with more than 500 currently available.

Alec Baldwin has hosted The New York Philharmonic This Week since the 2009–10 season. He received the 2008 and 2009 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his starring role in the television series 30 Rock. For the same role he also won the 2010 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Comedy and the 2010 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series. Mr. Baldwin made his Philharmonic debut narrating the New York Philharmonic's Inside the Music program on October 10, 2008, and narrated an additional Inside the Music program on January 23, 2009. As part of The Russian Stravinsky: A Philharmonic Festival, Mr. Baldwin narrated L'Histoire du Soldat on May 2, 2010. Mr. Baldwin has hosted the Opening Night Concert and New Year's Eve Live From Lincoln Center telecasts on PBS stations since 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: 2010–11 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 16-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 Matthew Bucksbaum Family Lyric Opera of Chicago Broadcasts as well as broadcasts by the Berlin Philharmonic, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Bavarian State Opera, 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 for a variety of organizations, and is an editor and producer for the free, award-winning On the Music: The New York Philharmonic Podcast, available at nyphil.org/podcast or from iTunes. 

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, Los Angeles 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.