Robertson, Muti Lead Off NY Philharmonic 'THIS WEEK' in March 2010

In March 2010, The New York Philharmonic This Week - the two-hour, national, weekly radio program of concerts by the New York Philharmonic, hosted by Emmy and Golden Globe Award-Winner Alec Baldwin - features five programs led by guest conductors.

In the first broadcast, David Robertson conducts a program that begins and ends with ballet music - George Benjamin's Dance Figures (Nine choreographic scenes for orchestra), and Ginastera's Dances from Estancia. In between, he conducts Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand, with pianist Nicolas Hodges in his Philharmonic debut. Mr. Robertson returns for a second week to conduct Ravel's Mother Goose Suite, Barber's Violin Concerto, with Gil Shaham as soloist, and Bartók's The Wooden Prince (complete). For the third broadcast, Riccardo Muti leads the Orchestra in Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1, with András Schiff as soloist, and Hindemith's Symphony in E-flat. The following week, Mr. Muti conducts Beethoven's Violin Concerto, featuring Vadim Repin, and Franck's Symphony in D minor. The March broadcasts conclude with Christoph Eschenbach leading the U.S. premiere of Matthias Pintscher's towards Osiris, Berg's Violin Concerto, with Pinchas Zukerman as soloist, and Schoenberg's arrangement of Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 1.

The New York Philharmonic This Week airs locally in the New York metropolitan area on 105.9 FM WQXR Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. [Check local listings]. The show also airs on XM Satellite Radio's XM Classics Channel XM 110 Wednesdays at 9:00 pm ET. Concerts are available on the Philharmonic's Website, nyphil.org, for two weeks following the broadcast. The broadcasts are produced and syndicated to 295 outlets nationwide by the WFMT Radio Network. Alec Baldwin is the host of the program, WFMT's Mark Travis is the broadcast producer, and New York Philharmonic Audio Director Lawrence Rock is the engineer and music producer. Attached is the program schedule for March 2010.

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 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.

The New York Philharmonic This Week is generously underwritten by The Kaplen Foundation, the Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philharmonic's corporate partner, MetLife Foundation.

Chicago classical music station 98.7 FM WFMT (streaming live at wfmt.com/streaming), produces and distributes these broadcasts nationwide. In addition to the New York Philharmonic broadcasts, the WFMT Radio Network syndicates concerts by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, 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 American opera companies such as the 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.

Screen and stage actor Alec Baldwin has hosted The New York Philharmonic This Week since the beginning of this season. He received the 2009 and 2008 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. The multi-award-winning actor 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.

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 new iTunes Pass called Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, produced and distributed by the New York Philharmonic. His 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, in his 10th year with the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago, is an editor and producer for Alan Gilbert: The Inaugural Season, the Philharmonic's new subscription download series with iTunes. Mr. Travis has produced the Philharmonic radio broadcasts since 2003–04, with the monthly New York Philharmonic Live!, and he has been a producer of The New York Philharmonic This Week since its first season, in 2004–05. He has also written and directed broadcasts by the Berlin Philharmonic, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Bavarian Staatsoper, and is currently the managing producer of the Bucksbaum Family Opening Night Lyric Opera of Chicago series. Mr. Travis has an extensive discography as a music-producer that ranges from recordings by the New York Philharmonic on DG, to recordings by William Warfield, Jenny Lin, Jeffrey Siegel, and the Chicago Chorale, for labels such as Naxos, Sony, DG, Random House, and Koch. Mr. Travis, an accomplished singer and classical guitarist, is also one of the producers and hosts of the award-winning New York Philharmonic Podcast, which previews upcoming programs through musical selections as well as interviews with guest artists, Orchestra musicians, and experts.