SF Symphony Keeping Score
MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS AND THE SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY PREMIERE SECOND SEASON OF KEEPING SCORE PBS TELEVISION SERIES IN OCTOBER
Three-Part Series Begins Airing October 15, 22, and 29 at 10 P.M.
(Check local listings)
The Keeping Score Project Also Features Expanded Interactive Companion Web Site, National Radio Series, Home Video on DVD and Blu-Ray, and K-12 Education Program
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (July 31, 2009) – The San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas premiere the second season of the Keeping Score television series on PBS Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 10 p.m. (check local listings). Keeping Score is the San Francisco Symphony’s national project to make classical music more accessible and meaningful to people of all ages and musical backgrounds, and a key component of its almost century-long history of music education.
More than five million viewers tuned into the first season of Keeping Score on PBS in November 2006 with episodes on Ludwig van Beethoven, Igor Stravinsky, and Aaron Copland. Keeping Score Season 2 features three new programs that explore the music and stories behind Hector Berlioz’s symphonic love letter Symphonie fantastique; Charles Ives’s sonic portrait of New England in his Holidays Symphony; and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, a work that may have saved his life. The Berlioz episode will air nationally on PBS Thursday, October 15 at 10 p.m., with the Ives episode following on Thursday, October 22 at 10 p.m., and the Shostakovich episode airing Thursday, October 29, also at 10 p.m. (check local listings.) These three new documentary programs and live concert programs are offered in high definition and surround-sound and are designed to engage and entertain, regardless of the viewer’s musical background. The programs work in tandem with an interactive website, www.keepingscore.org, a national radio series, and a national model education program for K-12 teachers that helps them integrate classical music into core subjects.
“The second season of Keeping Score takes the series to another level,” said Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony. “The cinematic qualities and visual storytelling in these programs give us even more meaningful connections to the music of Hector Berlioz, Charles Ives, and Dmitri Shostakovich, three of my favorite composers. Coupled with the interactive companion web site, these new shows will give people a truly unique way to experience and enjoy the music.”
“Keeping Score continues to be one of the great success stories for this Orchestra,” said John D. Goldman, President of the San Francisco Symphony. “Millions of people all over the globe are touched by the captivating documentaries, the unprecedented production qualities of the live performance programs, the unique interactivity the web site provides, and arts integration in K-12 classrooms that begins to instill a lifelong love of music, which is the key to its long-term success. Keeping Score touches all of these levels and all in the most meaningful ways I can imagine.”
