WVIZ/PBS ideastream and The Cleveland Orchestra to Broadcast the Cleveland Orchestra and Youth Ensembles Showcase Concert

WVIZ/PBS ideastream and The Cleveland Orchestra announced today the broadcast of The Cleveland Orchestra and Youth Ensembles Showcase Concert on Friday, March 15 at 9:00 p.m. The Showcase Concert under the direction of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst combines The Cleveland Orchestra with its youth ensembles - the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (COYO), the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, and the Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus - in concert at Severance Hall for the first time in the Orchestra's history.

The performance will be taped live by WVIZ/PBS on March 7, during a special week of activities highlighting the importance of music education, young musicians, and the wide range of Cleveland Orchestra educational programs available to the community. Three-hundred students, ages 8-18, will perform on stage with Cleveland Orchestra musicians in works by Brahms, Dvoøák, and Tchaikovsky, concluding with Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" from The Messiah. Young musicians from El Sistema@Rainey, an intensive after-school music program for young string musicians, will begin the program, led by their founder, Isabel Trautwein, a violinist in The Cleveland Orchestra.

The broadcast is the latest in an ongoing collaboration between WVIZ/PBS and The Cleveland Orchestra. The two organizations have a long history of providing television programs to local, national, and international audiences. Most recently, a series of television programs featuring Franz Welser-Möst and the Orchestra performing works by Bruckner were produced by WVIZ/PBS for broadcast on public television stations nationwide. WVIZ/PBS and The Cleveland Orchestra have partnered on other television broadcasts, including: "The Cleveland Orchestra in Performance: Boulez Conducts Mahler;" "Cleveland Plays The Proms" from London's famed Proms concert series; and "The Cleveland Orchestra Opening Night Gala from Severance Hall." WVIZ/PBS also partners with the Orchestra to provide video to enhance the enjoyment of the annual Fourth of July concerts from Public Square in downtown Cleveland.

The week, March 4-10, 2013, will feature hundreds of young musicians from 40 communities across Ohio in performance. It includes the special Showcase Concert and a Middle School Education Concert conducted by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, Elementary School Education Concerts, a Family Concert, 23 programs presented by Cleveland Orchestra musicians in schools in greater Cleveland, and more.

On Friday, March 8 at 12:00 p.m. Franz Welser-Möst, joined by Cleveland Orchestra violinist and El Sistema@Rainey founder Isabel Trautwein, will be the featured speakers at the Friday Forum from The City Club of Cleveland. The City Club Forum will air on Friday, March 8 at 12:30 p.m. on 90.3 WCPN (rebroadcast on Saturday, March 9 at 3 p.m.); on Friday, March 8 at 10 p.m. on WCLV 104.9; and on Sunday, March 10 at 10 a.m. on WVIZ/PBS. The City Club Forum also airs nationally in 40 states, from Maine to Alaska.

The Cleveland Orchestra's week of youth performances and educational events takes place during Music In Our Schools Month (designated by the National Association for Music Education).