As the world expands through the rise of new media, MTT and the San Francisco Symphony continue to connect with music lovers in innovative ways. New SFS Media recordings garner wide acclaim, and it is now time to bring music to the masses. Radio. Television. Internet. It’s all there in Keeping Score, MTT and the San Francisco Symphony’s game-changing entrant in this new digital world.
The Complete Package: Keeping Score
It is one of the most ambitious efforts ever undertaken by an American orchestra: a ten-year project of original content about the world’s great composers told through public television, public radio, and the internet. Season one of Keeping Score premieres on PBS in November 2006 and is must-see TV. Each episode unveils a story told by MTT, tracing how a composer (Copland, Stravinsky, and Beethoven in season one) came to write music now part of the basic repertory, complete with full-length San Francisco Symphony performances of the featured compositions. Filmed in HD and on location—in places like Vienna, Paris, Moscow—these programs are visual feasts. A significant addition to MTT and the Symphony’s music education legacy, Keeping Score’s impact is measurable.
The San Francisco Symphony is lifting the baton on a . . . project that it hopes will take it from Davies Symphony Hall to millions of American homes. Keeping Score, in the works for close to five years, consists of three TV documentaries hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas, two televised concerts, 13 radio programs, an interactive web site and an accompanying curriculum that will be introduced in school districts around the country. That is just the first installment of a three-part series that will play out over the next five years.
‘This is a big deal,’ said Brent Assink, Executive Director of San Francisco Symphony. ‘It is the single largest program any American orchestra has undertaken to reach the broadest possible audience for classical music. . . . With Keeping Score, we are going to be the leading orchestra as it relates to repeated exposure on television, radio and over the Internet. It all builds on itself.’
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Any great documentary has a strong personal story line,’ says David Kennard, producer on Keeping Score. ‘It’s about more than the music. It’s about personality.’ Kennard was referring to the composer’s personality. But it’s clear that Thomas’ fount of knowledge, talent and charisma provide an equally essential cornerstone to the project. Whereas a maestro can be an accomplished composer, conductor or teacher, Thomas is all three.”
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MUSICIAN APPOINTMENTS
Raushan Akhmedyarova (violin)
Dan Carlson (violin)
CONDUCTING STAFF
James Gaffigan (Associate Conductor)
PREMIERES
Kevin Volans: Atlantic Crossing
(World premiere, San Francisco Symphony commission)
Robin Holloway: Fourth Concerto for Orchestra
(World premiere, San Francisco Symphony commission)
Recordings
2006–07 Tours
2006 European Tour
The September 2006 European Tour was a blockbuster. Violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Hélène Grimaud made appearances and MTT and the Symphony gave two performances of Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 8, with solo vocalists Erin Wall, Elza van den Heever, Laura Claycomb, Michelle DeYoung, Elena Manistina, Anthony Dean Griffey, James Johnson, Raymond Aceto, and the Bamberg Symphony Chorus, Prague Philharmonic Chorus, and Basel Children’s Chorus
Luxembourg, Salle de Concerts Grande-Duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte
Lucerne, Kultur und Kongresszentrum
2007 New York and European Tour
Baritone Thomas Hampson headlined MTT and the Symphony’s May 2007 Tour.
New York, NY, Carnegie Hall
Vienna, Konzerthaus
Prague, Smetana Hall
