New World Symphony Announces 2016-17 WALLCAST Concert Series

Led by Co-Founder and Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT), the New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (NWS), launches the fifth season of its WALLCAST™ concert series, presented by Citi, on October 15. The series features 11 concerts projected on the 7,000 square-foot eastern façade of the New World Center for audiences in adjacent SoundScape Park, which is equipped with over 160 Meyer Sound speakers for an immersive sound experience.

This season, the WALLCAST™ experience is enhanced by the installation of a dozen 4K Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) cameras in partnership with Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, completing the first phase in an end-to-end 4K upgrade of NWS' video infrastructure. The series launch also commences the first full season of NWS' Sensory Friendly Environment (SFE), which offers children and adults with Sensory Processing and Autism Spectrum Disorders the opportunity for a full concert experience in conjunction with each WALLCAST™ concert in a space that caters to their special needs. Through these new initiatives, NWS reinforces its commitment to community engagement and audience diversity.

Each WALLCAST™ concert is free to the public and does not require a ticket.

For the WALLCAST™ season opener, MTT leads performances of Brahms's Variations on a Theme of Haydn, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 14 in E-flat major, K. 449, Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, and Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, with pianist Emanuel Ax featured as the evening's guest soloist. The 2016-17 WALLCAST™ series also features MTT conducting works by Beethoven, Britten, Delius, Mahler, and Mendelssohn, among other composers; guest soloists James Ehnes (violin), Ingrid Fliter (piano), Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Lydia Teuscher (soprano), and Alisa Weilerstein (cello); and guest conductors James Conlon, Bernard Labadie, Juanjo Mena, Peter Oundjian, and Dean Whiteside, who lead the NWS in a range of repertoire from the Baroque to the Modern. Special themed performances include the annual "Sounds of the Season" holiday concert, a Concerto Showcase featuring NWS Fellows as soloists, and the MTT-led Side-by-Side concert, in which young instrumentalists (grades 7-12) perform alongside NWS Fellows. Please see below for the complete series schedule.

Recently the subject of a yearlong, independent study conducted by WolfBrown (click here), the WALLCAST™ concert series is a key component in NWS' broad effort to reach new listeners. As revealed in the study, WALLCAST™ concert attendees are both younger and more ethnically diverse than those who attend traditional concerts, with 34% self-identifying as people of color, compared to 12% of traditional concert attendees.

New World Symphony Transitions to 4K Ultra High Definition

Known for its efforts to integrate cutting-edge technology with music performance and education, NWS has partnered with Hitachi Kokusai Electric America to transition the live production of its world-renowned outdoor WALLCAST™ concert experiences and other artistic productions to native 4K UHD resolution in a two-phased approach. 4K UHD offers sharper images, more realistic color, and higher frame rates than usually observed even in today's feature films. In transitioning to 4K, NWS not only takes a leading role in bringing this new technology to the world of classical music, but will also become one of the first cultural institutions in any field to fully adopt the format across all of its major programming.

As part of Phase I in the 4K upgrade, NWS has installed 12 Hitachi SK-UHD4000 cameras, new robotics, and lenses in the concert hall of the New World Center, replacing the HD cameras used since the opening of the Frank Gehry-designed building in 2011. The cameras, which excel in low-light environments, will have an immediate impact on programs inside and outside the concert hall, allowing for more theatrical lighting indoors while boosting the quality of the image shown on the outdoor wall for WALLCAST™ concerts. The multi-format capabilities of the Hitachi cameras will allow the NWS production team to operate the cameras in 1080p HD mode until Phase II of the upgrade in summer 2017, when the remaining infrastructure will be upgraded to enable a complete end-to-end 4K experience.

"Through its WALLCAST™ concert series, New World Symphony is sharing its unparalleled vision of live performance, musical education and state-of-the-art video and audio presentation to enthralled audiences of all ages," said Hiroaki Ohashi, Hitachi Kokusai Electric America President. "Hitachi Kokusai is honored and excited to partner with New World Symphony in bringing the next generation of cutting-edge video quality to these audiences, while ensuring that its production team has the flexibility to transition from HD to native 4K production as able."

While NWS' WALLCAST™ concerts will be one of the first programs to benefit from the upgrade, numerous activities throughout the organization will also be enhanced, including its educational concerts and webcasts; recorded master classes; groundbreaking experimental music videos; image magnification at select concerts; business development events; third-party rentals of the center involving recording or webcasts; and NWS' own archival concert recordings.

On the artistic impact of this upgrade with Hitachi, MTT said, "I am excited by the clean and beautiful images produced by Hitachi's new 4K cameras, even in the low-light situations that are so often a part of our experimental artistic work here at the New World Symphony. I am grateful for their partnership."

Sensory Friendly Environment Initiative

NWS will offer a Sensory Friendly Environment (SFE) in conjunction with each of the 11 WALLCAST™ concerts in the 2016-17 season, extending the inclusive and community-oriented WALLCAST™ atmosphere to people of all ages with Sensory Processing and Autism Spectrum Disorders (SPD/ASD). With 1 in 68 American children now identified as being on the autism spectrum according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-a ten-fold increase in prevalence in 40 years-there is a growing need for cultural programming that engages these members of the community.

"We've taken an integrative approach to programming," said Howard Herring, NWS President and CEO. "The Sensory Friendly Environment will allow people living with SPD and ASD to enjoy a wide range of music throughout the season-the same music we offer to the entire Miami community-in an environment that's comfortable and suits their needs."

SFEs utilize the New World Center's SunTrust Pavilion, a room with a large screen that provides NWS' signature visuals of the WALLCAST™ concerts along with reduced volume levels and noise-redacting headphones, reduced lighting, air-filled chairs, and beds and soft bungee chairs. A separate quiet room is available upon request. Volunteers from Jackson Memorial Hospital's Community Outreach will be on hand for many of the performances to provide arts, crafts, and other resources for children.

The initiative, sponsored in part by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs' "All Kids Included" program (AKI), was piloted last year in NWS' final four WALLCAST™ concerts of the season. AKI has developed a pre-concert guide, Going to the Show, which was created for children with SPD and ASD in mind, but can also be used as an effective tool to teach any child theater etiquette and help prepare them for what to expect when attending to a live performance.

Access to the New World Symphony's Sensory Friendly Environments is free, but RSVP is requested. To RSVP for the Sensory Friendly Environment, please visitNWS.edu/access in advance of the concert.

All programs, artists, dates, and times subject to change.

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