ALL-STAR ORCHESTRA Wins 2013 ASCAP Deems Taylor Television Broadcast Award

Music Director Gerard Schwarz's All-Star Orchestra, the made-for-television classical music concert series featuring leading musicians from top orchestras across the country, has been awarded the 2013 Deems Taylor Television Broadcast Award for outstanding broadcast and new media coverage of music. The award will be presented on November 14, 2013 to Mr. Schwarz, Video Producer John Forsen and Executive Director Paul Schwendener. All-Star Orchestra airs in the New York metro area on THIRTEEN and in Philadelphia on WHYY Sundays at 12:30 p.m., and nationwide on public television (check local listings). The series finale, "Mahler: Love, Sorrow & Transcendence," airsOctober 27.

After a successful July preview in Seattle, All-Star Orchestra is currently being broadcast in major markets across the United States including Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, Nashville, and San Francisco.

All-Star Orchestra, similar to Major League Baseball's All-Star team, is composed of the finest orchestral "athletes" from leading orchestras across the country. Featuring exceptional performances of symphonic masterpieces and contemporary works, the All-Star Orchestra programs seek to expose broad audiences to classical music through a format that is both informative and accessible. Naxos of America, the #1 independent classical music distributor in the U.S. and Canada, will release this unique series on DVD in October.

All-Star Orchestra episodes feature classical masterpieces as well as new works from leading contemporary American composers. Pairing works like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony with Philip Glass'Harmonium Mountain, the series aims to expose classical music to an even broader audience while keeping the listening experience informative and accessible.

Each of the All-Star Orchestra's eight one-hour programs, recorded over four days in August 2012, was taped at New York's historic Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center where conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, and Arturo Toscanini made their classical music recordings. 19 high definition cameras were allowed to roam freely during the All-Star Orchestra'srecordings creating an unprecedented "up close and personal" experience.

The remaining three episodes include:

"The Living Art Form" featuring Richard Danielpour's "A Hero's Journey" (from Piano Concerto #4), Soloist:Xiayin Wang; Samuel Jones' Concerto for Violoncello, Soloist: Julian Schwarz; and Joseph Schwantner's The Poet's Hour - Soliloquy for Violin, Soloist: Yevgeny Kutik. Three young artists from around the world are featured in new concerto works by American composers, making this one of the most adventurous of the All-Star Orchestraprograms. The composers and soloists share their insights on the creative process of bringing new works to life, the soloist's role, and the composer's juxtaposition of soloist with orchestra.
"Music's Emotional Impact" featuring Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and David Stock's Blast!This program features one of Tchaikovsky's most electrifying works in a performance captured by cameras surrounding and within the orchestra. Interviews with musical experts, such as music critic Bernard Jacobsen, draw viewers into Tchaikovsky's dramatic personal life, his brief marriage, and his intense correspondence with his patroness Nadezhda von Meck whom he never met, and to whom he dedicated his fourth symphony. The dramatic brass fanfares that for Tchaikovsky symbolized Fate find a modern echo in David Stock's new work: Blast!
"Mahler: Love Sorrow and Transcendence" featuring Gustav Mahler's Rueckert Lieder (Songs from Latter Days), Soloist: Nancy Maultsby, and "Totenfeier" ("Funerary Rites" - 1stMvt. from Symphony No. 2); Augusta Read Thomas' Of Paradise and Light; and Bernard Rands' Adieu. Mahler's turbulent loves are expressed through his music. His settings of poems by Friedrich Rueckert explore themes of love, nature, and otherworldliness. Mahler was haunted throughout his life by the premonition of his own death. The first movement of his second symphony draws stark contrasts between the composer's premonition of doom, and his vision of life. Modern parallels can be found in Adieu by Bernard Rands and Of Paradise and Light by his wife, composer Augusta Read Thomas. This episode features interviews in which both composers comment on the unique dynamics of creative/personal partnerships, with additional commentary by Mahler expert Gilbert Kaplan.

All-Star Orchestra series is a co-production of the All-Star Orchestra (John Forsen, executive producer; Paul Schwendener, executive director) and WNET (Stephen Segaller, executive-in-charge; Julie Anderson, executive producer)

All-Star Orchestra is provided by Charles and Lisa Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, The Gladys Rubinstein Trust, The Garrigan Lyman Group, Van Ness Feldman LLP, David Gannett, Bruce and Jeanne McNae, and others.

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