Sesame Street Visits Lincoln Center This April; Accessible Through YouTube

In April, the iconic children's television series Sesame Street -broadcast in more than 150 countries and seen by over 120 million international viewers-will visit another icon, Lincoln Center, the world's largest performing arts center, on its popular "People in Your Neighborhood" segment. Inspired by the classic Sesame Street song "The People in Your Neighborhood," Murray Monster goes on location to interview real people about their jobs. The Lincoln Center segments will showcase the New York City Ballet, The Juilliard School, the New York Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera. Sesame Street airs regularly on PBS (check local listings), and the first Lincoln Center segment, "People in Your Neighborhood: Ballet Dancer," airs April 4th. Each segment will also be accessible on Sesame Street's Youtube Channel in advance of its air date.

"Lincoln Center is the premiere name in arts and arts education and coincidently a hop, skip, and a jump from our corporate offices," said Carol-Lynn Parente, Executive Producer of Sesame Street. "We are thrilled to introduce the world-renowned talent that is synonymous with Lincoln Center to our Sesame Street audience."

The first segment in the series is available on Youtube April 2 and airs on the program airing April 4. In it, Murray Monster and Ovejita join four New York City Ballet dancers in the studio to learn about ballerinas. Dancers Kristen Segin, Alina Dronova, Callie Bachman, and Sara Adams explain how dancers use their bodies to tell a story and illustrate terms like "barre" and "plié." Then, Murray and Ovejita put on tutus and dance an excerpt from Peter Martins' full-length staging of Swan Lake with the ballerinas
> Watch the first segment in the series

In the second segment, available on Youtube April 9 and on the episode airing April 11, viewers will meet New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert to find out just what a conductor really does. In this segment, Ovejita plays timpani while Gilbert conducts Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with student musicians from The Juilliard School. Gilbert, who began his tenure in 2009 as the first New York native to hold the position of Music Director, first heard the Mozart work on Sesame Street when he was a child.

The final segment, on Youtube April 23 and on the program airing April 25 features Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard. Ms. Leonard will show how opera singers tell stories through vocal music and give a demonstration of a funny vocal exercise. Murray gets to sing his own vocal line when he joins Isabel in Rosina's aria from Rossini's Barber of Seville, a role Ms. Leonard recently performed at the Met. She next appears on the Met stage in Poulenc's Dialogue of the Carmelites in May.

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