HBO Family Documentary to Debut WYNTON MARSALIS: A YOUNG ARTS MASTER CLASS, 9/9

The HBO Family documentary Wynton Marsalis: A YoungArts Masterclass kicks off the third season of the two-time Emmy-nominated series, following three promising musicians as they work with the jazz icon. Selected by the National YoungArts Foundation - which offers talented high-school students from around the country the chance to be mentored by some of the world's greatest artists - the young virtuosos prepare to perform alongside Marsalis during a performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the series' season debut, MONDAY, SEPT. 9 (7:30-8:00 p.m. ET/PT), on HBO.

Other HBO playdates: Sept. 11 (2:00 p.m.), 14 (11:00 a.m.), 17 (6:15 a.m.), 20 (10:30 a.m.) and 29 (8:30 a.m.). HBO Family playdates: Sept. 15 (10:45 p.m.), 18 (11:30 p.m.), 23 (8:30 p.m.), 24 (3:55 a.m.) and 27 (6:30 p.m.), and Oct. 6 (5:25 a.m.), 19 (6:25 p.m.) and 20 (5:20 a.m.)

In the all-new YOUNGARTS MASTERCLASS episode the aspiring musicians - saxophonist Patrick Bartley, pianist Tony Madruga, and bass player Russell Hall - meet at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York to practice under the tutelage of jazz master Wynton Marsalis. The mentees pay close attention as he provides invaluable critique on musicianship and offers insights into the realm of improvisation. "Jazz is the only music in the world where four people sit up on a bandstand and they have to give shape and logic and form to music as they're making it," Marsalis explains. "What musicians do and artists do is they give form to chaos."

Though best known for his virtuosity on the trumpet, Marsalis effortlessly gives feedback on the students' own instruments - even taking to the piano without missing a beat. Over dinner, he recounts his own career path and advises them on life in the professional jazz world. Encouraging the threesome to become one another's support system, he tells them that if they really want to be professionals, they should have many kinds of experiences to learn from, saying, "Play with different people. Play all kinds of gigs... Broadway shows, the circus, cocktail parties!"

Before their performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis gives each student a word to consider while playing in order to help perfect their craft. Patrick's is "relaxation," to harness his excited energy, Russell's is "concentration," to listen carefully to the instruments around him, and Tony's is "freedom," to venture outside his comfort zone.

Reflecting on the importance of passing the torch, Marsalis remarks "I want them to take away from it that 'you're a part of this,' and we need you to come out here and be a part of it and make it be glorious, make it be great...and they're going to do that. Watch..."

In 2011, YOUNGARTS MASTERCLASS received an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Children's Nonfiction, Reality or Reality-Competition Program. The series recently received another Emmy nomination, in the category of Outstanding Children's Program.

Wynton Marsalis: A YoungArts Masterclass is a production of Simon & Goodman Picture Company; produced and directed by Oscar and Emmy winners Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon.

For more on the show, visit facebook.com/HBODocs and twitter.com @HBODocs #MasterClass.

ABOUT THE YOUNGARTS MASTERCLASS SERIES
Currently nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Season Two, and previously nominated for Season One, Wynton Marsalis' episode will launch the series' third season. The YoungArts MasterClass roster includes opera luminaries Renée Fleming and Plácido Domingo, actresses Patti LuPone, Kathleen Turner and Liv Ullmann, architect Frank Gehry, choreographer Bill T. Jones, playwrights Edward Albee and John Guare, photographer Bruce Weber, painter James Rosenquist, singer Bobby McFerrin and artist/filmmakerJulian Schnabel. Additional upcoming specials of YoungArts MasterClass will feature such legendary artists as actress/writer Anna Deavere Smith (November), singer Josh Groban (December) and actor Alan Alda (January), with other to follow. The series was created by Executive Producer Lin Arison, and filmmakers Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon.

ABOUT Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis is the Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader and educator. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and has recorded more than 70 jazz and classical recordings, which have won him nine GRAMMY awards. Wynton became the first jazz artist to be awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in music, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields, which was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras, tap dance to ballet, Wynton has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world's finest musicians and composers. He helped lead the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center's new home - Frederick P. Rose Hall - the first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz, which opened in October 2004.

ABOUT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER
The mission of Jazz at Lincoln Center is to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for Jazz through performance, education and advocacy. With the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and guest artists spanning genres and generations, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thousands of performance, education, and broadcast events each season in its home in New York City (Frederick P. Rose Hall, "The House of Swing") and around the world, for people of all ages. Jazz at Lincoln Center is led by Chairman Robert J. Appel, Managing and Artistic Director Wynton Marsalis, and Executive Director Greg Scholl.

ABOUT THE YOUNG ARTISTS
The three students appearing in the program are 2012 YoungArts Alumni in Jazz and were selected by Wynton Marsalis to participate in this master class.

Saxophonist Patrick Bartley is a graduate of the Dillard High School of the Arts in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and currently attends New York City's Manhattan School of Music. He began performing on the clarinet at age 9, and switched to saxophone at age 12. Among the various accolades he has received are Outstanding Soloist Awards (2009-2011) and the Outstanding Doubler Award for 2010 from Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival in New York City. Patrick is also a two-year member of the Grammy Jazz Ensemble (2010-2011). Patrick is a member of the musical collective "XD 7," a band formed by Manhattan School of Music students. Wynton Marsalis has called Patrick "the best saxophonist in the country under thirty."

Pianist Antonio Madruga is a graduate of the New World School for the Arts in Miami and currently attends the Manhattan School of Music. Of Cuban-American heritage, "Tony" began playing at age 6, and by eight was already winning competitions. At ten, he appeared in the HBO special Music in Me. In 2007 he was a special guest of Paquito D'Riviera at the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival in Washington D.C. for The Voice of America Tribute. He was a semi-finalist in the 2011 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Piano Competition and was awarded the prestigious Ella Fitzgerald Award for outstanding soloist at the 2011 Essentially EllingtonCompetition and Festival at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Recently, Tony, was invited to perform at the White House by First Lady Michele Obama.

Bassist Russell Hall attends The Juilliard School, where he was awarded a full scholarship. He is a native of Kingston, Jamaica. He started playing the double bass in the Jazz Ensemble at the Dillard School of the Arts in South Florida. The ensemble won first place in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival in 2011 and 2012. For three consecutive years (2010-2012) Russell was awarded Most Outstanding Bassist at the competition. Additional accolades include selection as a part of the Jazz Band of America in 2012, and Grammy Jazz Ensemble Finalist. In August of 2011, he was recognized by Wynton Marsalis in Jet Magazine as a "Jazz Star of the Future."

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Wynton Marsalis: A YoungArts MasterClass is the latest collaboration from documentary filmmakers Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, whose Simon & Goodman Picture Company has received numerous nominations and awards, most recently an Oscar for Strangers No More, which was broadcast on HBO. Over the last three decades, their films have garnered numerous other awards including four previous Academy Award nominations, many Emmys and the duPont-Columbia Award for Independent Programming. Simon & Goodman films have aired nationally on HBO, PBS, MTV, and National Geographic, and screened at festivals worldwide.

Simon & Goodman's documentaries include the Oscar nominated portraits of Jane Goodall (Chimps So Like Us) and Isaac Bashevis Singer (Isaac in America), and Buckminster Fuller (Thinking Out Load), which received an Emmy nomination and the prestigious duPont-Columbia Award for Independent Programming. Their celebrated series Kindergarten has played on HBO Family every morning for the past 12 years. Both Simon and Goodman have served as judges/panelists for the National Endowment for the Humanities Media Program, the Emmys, duPont-Columbia Awards and many film festivals. Ms. Goodman currently serves on the Documentary Executive Committee for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars).

ABOUT THE NATIONAL YOUNGARTS FOUNDATION
The National YoungArts Foundation, (formerly known as the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts) was established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison to identify and support the next generation of artists, and to contribute to the cultural vitality of the nation by investing in the artistic development of talented young artists in the visual, literary, performing and design arts. YoungArts provides emerging artists with life-changing experiences with renowned mentors, access to significant scholarships, national recognition, and other opportunities throughout their careers to help ensure that the nation's most outstanding emerging artists are encouraged to pursue careers in the arts.

At the request of The Commission on Presidential Scholars, which is appointed by the President of the United States, YoungArts is the exclusive path to the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts. The YoungArts program has honored more than 17,000 young artists with more than $6 million in monetary awards and facilitated in excess of $150 million in college scholarship opportunities. Alumni Go On to become leading professionals in their fields and include actresses, Viola Davis, Kerry Washington and Vanessa Williams; actor, musician and filmmaker, Adrian Grenier; four-time Tony Award nominee Raúl Esparza; Chief Executive Officer of American Ballet Theatre Rachel Moore; recording artists Nicki Minaj and Chris Young; musicians Terence Blanchard, Eric Owens, and Jennifer Koh; choreographer Desmond Richardson; visual artist Hernan Bas; and internationally acclaimed multimedia artist Doug Aitken.

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