WOWOW to Co-Produce Cameron Carpenter Concert Documentary

WOWOW, Japan's leading premium pay TV broadcaster, is teaming with Berlin based Boomtown Media GmbH&Co.KG and Sony Classical, to produce a feature documentary following the journey of the young genius and renowned musician, Cameron Carpenter, who has set a very ambitious goal for himself: reinventing the grandest of all musical instruments - the pipe organ.

Some critics refer to him as the 'bad boy of the organ,' while others hail him as the 'Vladimir Horowitz of his instrument' - Cameron Carpenter, at the age of 31, is one of the most dazzling phenomena of the international music scene and an incredible virtuoso.

Titled "Cameron Carpenter: The Rebirth of Majesty," the film will include concert performance footage and begin shooting later this month.

Boomtown Media's Thomas Grube ("Rhythm is It!," "Trip to Asia: The Quest for Harmony") is directing the documentary. Kayo Washio, who heads WOWOW's Los Angeles office, will serve as co-producer and oversee production on behalf of the company.

This latest film continues a strong run of music themed content for WOWOW. The company most recently picked up the popular HBO documentary "Beyoncé: Life is but a Dream" and also streamed the four-hour live global concert Sound of Change from London, at which Beyoncé performed.

Said Kayo Washio, "I admit I was not very familiar with pipe organ music when I first saw Cameron play on the internet, but my image of organ play was dramatically changed after watching him and I couldn't take my eyes off the show - or stop listening. It is absolutely captivating."

Washio added, "His attitude toward playing the organ is a match to our company's style of programming. We would like our subscribers to experience the highest quality entertainment and have unique experiences through our programs. Our company slogan is 'Always a new encounter' and I definitely encountered new entertainment experience through his playing."

Boomtown's international sales division, Boomtown Media International, will introduce the project to foreign buyers for The First Time at MIPCOM in Cannes. Arte (France) and ZDF (Germany) are associate producers and have secured broadcast rights in their respective territories (along with WOWOW for Japan).

For Cameron Carpenter, the "future of classical music" begins in Spring 2014, when the touring organ he's designed and worked toward for years is launched in the USA and Europe, and on record on Sony Classical.

The organ is often referred to as the King (or Queen) of instruments, but today the organ is in reality the Classical Music of instruments. Like much of the institution of classical music, the organ is slow to change; expensive; resistant to genres not its own, and an institution governed by traditions only now beginning to be questioned. Its hallways - are they cloisters? - are jealously guarded. But the changing cultural tides, organ-community insularity, and bias or apathy among mainstream audiences, is an unprecedented Cerberus of problems. It is an assault against which most organists are not equipped to fight.

Though it is not yet widely known, justice will eventually be done to the remarkable, circuitous story of how the youngest addition to the list of the world's great organs - the Touring Organ - came into existence as an innovative, adaptable, and boundary-crossing hybridization of all that is good in the pipe organ.

At its heart this is an example of what it takes to change classical music in the present, not merely in a vague future still safely in the distance beyond next season's ticket sales and touring schedule. What is required to make this change is exactly the same as to play a satisfying improvisation: vision, acceptance of risk, and organization.

Said Carpenter, "I have loved the pipe organ since I was four and have spent almost 28 years playing them - from the tiny instrument in my Pennsylvania hometown, already 100 years old when I first touched it in 1985, to the great organs at Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, Disney Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, the Mozarteum, and many more. This love has seen me through the complete organ works of JS Bach, Cesar Franck, Franz Liszt, and has proven a trusty and even revolutionary vehicle with which to reach music otherwise inaccessible to me."

About WOWOW: WOWOW is Japan's leading premium pay TV broadcaster with about 2.6 million subscribers and the first 24/7, 3 channel, full-HD broadcaster in Japan. With a focus on quality entertainment and exceptional customer service, WOWOW has seen seven years of continuous net growth in subscribers. As of July 2011, all of the company's subscribers are now on a digital subscription, which includes WOWOW's groundbreaking members on demand channel.

Listed in the First Section of the Tokyo Stock exchange, WOWOW's offering includes 3 premium Full-HD channels and a subscription streaming service:

WOWOW Prime covers a wide range of genres, including 7 popular overseas TV series per week along with our original series, movies, and documentaries. WOWOW Prime is also the official channel of both the Oscars and the Grammy Awards in Japan.

WOWOW Live brings exclusive live broadcasts of the world's greatest sports events along with live concerts and stage performances. Sports featured on WOWOW Live include the NBA, La Liga Española, LPGA, UFC, and more.

WOWOW Cinema carries output contracts with all major studios and a lineup of approximately 1400 movie titles from all over the world. WOWOW Cinema provides an experience to the world of cinema through a selective collection of movies.

WOWOW Members On Demand offers subscribers the ability to view our quality programming anywhere and anytime. The streaming service features live events and sports as well as popular series and movies.

About BOOMTOWNMEDIA GmbH&Co.KG: Since opening the company in 1999, producer Uwe Dierks and producer/director Thomas Grube have produced numerous quality documentary and music films for cinema and television. Art and culture have been an important focus of their productions and co-productions.

Boomtown Media's films have gleaned many awards, ranging from a nomination for the German Television Prize in 2000 for the documentary WARSAW EXPRESS and the Moving Pictures Award of Toronto in 2003 for the dance film ELEMENTS OF MINE, through the Bavarian Film Prize and two golden German Film Awards in 2005 for Thomas Grube's theatrical documentary RHYTHM IS IT!. In addition to many international accolades, RHYTHM IS IT! became one of the most successful documentaries in German cinemas ever. Thomas Grube's theatrical documentary TRIP TO ASIA - THE QUEST FOR HARMONY, which was released in 2008, received.the German Cinema Guild Award 2008 for Best Documentary and the Valladolid International Film Festival's "Tiempo de Historia" Award 2008.The company's theatrical documentary TO FIGHT FOR - THE YEAR OF DECISION by Gerardo Milsztein had its world premiere in the 60th Berlinale and received the German Cinematography Award. In May 2009, Boomtown Media was awarded the prestigious "Hermann Voss Prize" for triggering "important impulses with lasting impact for the musical landscape". In 2012 Grube's documentary LANG LANG - THE ART OF BEING A VIRTUOSO received the "Grand Prix Golden Prague". The theatrical documentary CINEMA JENIN by Markus Vetter had its world premiere in competition at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2011 (idfa), was theatrically released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland by Senator Film and received the German Cinematography award in 2012.

In 2004, Grube and Dierks launched the world sales company, Boomtown Media International, to handle the global distribution of their films' licenses.

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