All-Star Orchestra Reveals Season Five

The nine-time Emmy Award-winning All-Star Orchestra has announced its 2023 season this fall, during which the ensemble will celebrate its 10-year milestone. Comprising top musicians from across the country, the All-Star Orchestra plays under the leadership of Music Director Gerard Schwarz, who also serves as Music Director of the Eastern Music Festival, Mozart Orchestra of New York, Palm Beach Symphony, and Frost Symphony Orchestra. The All-Star Orchestra comprises players from several of the greatest orchestras in the United States, including leading ensembles in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Florida, Houston, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Nashville, New Jersey, New York (the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto and Washington D.C.

The All-Star Orchestra presents a front-row seat to the world's greatest music, performing popular and exciting symphonic scores and new works by today's leading American composers, while sharing insights on the music. Through interviews and commentary, Schwarz, the All-Star musicians, and special guests provide background and share the living tradition of each score, enabling a deeper appreciation of the music and allowing each listener's personal journey to begin. Highlights of the new season include performances of Respighi's Pines of Rome, Debussy's La Mer, and Umoja, by contemporary American composer Valerie Coleman.

"For the past ten years, it has always been a delight for me to work with the All-Star Orchestra musicians - the best of the best across the country - digging into the wonders of magnificent repertoire. This fifth season is no exception," Maestro Schwarz said. "We started this project with the utmost passion and respect for this magnificent music, trying to shed some light on why we think it matters, while presenting it as enjoyable and accessible to broad audiences who might otherwise never realize they can enjoy this music. This year we're thrilled to add Valerie Coleman and Adolphus Hailstork to our programs - unique American voices in today's orchestral music who deserve widespread attention."

The new season consists of four hourlong episodes that will be nationally broadcast on American Public Television starting in early October 2023. The All-Star Orchestra series is distributed in partnership with WNET and Oregon Public Broadcasting. For updates on broadcast dates, please visit allstarorchestra.org.

The season opens with "Celebrating Unity Around the World." In this episode, the universal language of music brings together rodeos of Argentinian cowboys in Four Dances from Estancia, by Alberto Ginastera; the mythical worlds of Greek and German legends in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture and Venusberg Music; and the African celebration of Umoja ("An Anthem of Unity") by Valerie Coleman.

In the episode "The Pines of Rome, and the Restless Sea," Ottorino Respighi's great orchestral showpiece The Pines of Rome unites nature with the history of Rome, "the Eternal City," in thrilling tone pictures. Claude Debussy's impressionist masterpiece La Mer ("The Sea") portrays the ever-changing sea in its many moods and colors.

"Vienna Dreams and Barcelona Visions," the third episode, consists of an unforgettable love story set in a Vienna of long ago - Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose), arranged as a symphonic suite by Schwarz. To round out the episode, the spiritual beauty of Barcelona's towering cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, is evoked by Sagrada, a musical meditation by the contemporary American composer Adolphus Hailstork.

The season-finale episode, "Free but Happy," highlights Brahms' Symphony No. 3. Johannes Brahms expressed his own enigmatic motto, "free but happy," in musical symbols that are woven throughout this beautiful, deeply personal symphony - one of the greatest works of German Romanticism. The program opens with Hector Berlioz' witty Shakespearean overture to Beatrice and Benedict.

For more information, visit allstarorchestra.org.

About All-Star Orchestra

The All-Star Orchestra gives you a front row seat to the world's greatest music and the map to an unforgettable musical journey. It began with a commitment to classical music education and contemporary American composers. The series features classical masterpieces and new works from leading contemporary American composers, aiming to expose a broad audience to classical music while keeping the listening experience informative and accessible. In addition to performances of classical and contemporary works, the programs also feature musical excerpts, images, interviews and educational commentary by Maestro Schwarz, the All-Star Orchestra musicians, and special guests.

In 2021, the All-Star Orchestra received its eighth and ninth Emmy awards at the 64th Annual New York Emmy Awards Ceremony of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. "From Italy and Hungary with Love," a program featuring Mendelssohn's beloved "Italian" Symphony No. 4, and Kodaly's orchestral showpiece, Dances of Galanta, was awarded in the category Special Event - Edited, with Gerard Schwarz as Music Director, Habib Azar as Director, Alexander Lipay as Audio Producer, Dmitriy Lipay as Recording Engineer, and Andrew Mayatskiy as Video Editor. Co-Producers are Gerard Schwarz and Paul Schwendener. "From Italy and Hungary with Love" also received an Emmy in the category Audio Post-production, with Dmitriy Lipay and Alexander Lipay as Audio Editing and Mastering Engineers.

The series has been broadcast nationwide on public television since September 2013, and previously won Emmy awards in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019.

The All-Star Orchestra's Music Education Academy - in partnership with the Khan Academy - was founded in 2014 to bring great classical music to millions of students. Online features and lessons present unique content, including award-winning HD video, and enable self-learning via the Khan Academy - the world's leading free education website.

The All-Star Orchestra is made possible by generous contributions from the Estate of David Endicott Gannett, the Charles and Lisa Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, Agnes Gund, Alan Benaroya, Jerald E. Farley, Bernice and Sanford Grossman, Dr. Kennan H. Hollingsworth, Betty Lou Treiger, Marlys and Ralph Palumbo, Rebecca Benaroya, Susan Hutchison, Joan S. Watjen, Peter and Felicia Gottsegen, Susan and Elihu Rose, the Milken Family Foundation, Benita and Charles Staadecker, Vivian Serota, and Judi Flom, among others.

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