The Thomashefskys brings to life the words and music of the American Yiddish theater. The storys lead characters-Bessie and Boris Thomashefky-also happen to be the grandparents of San Francisco Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas. Bessie and Boris emigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe in the 1880s, and while still in their teens, they began to play major roles in the development of New York Citys Yiddish theater. For Jewish immigrants who settled on the lower East Side of Manhattan, the Yiddish theater was central to their lives, and provided a stage for the new ideas that were shaping the transition to an American way of life. In The Thomashefkys, Tilson Thomas serves as guide through the lives and repertoire of his grandparents. His grandfather died before he was born, but his grandmother lived until he was 17. His close relationship with her is a source of much of the performance material. Performed at the New World Symphonys spectacular new Frank Gehry-designed home in Miami, Tilson Thomas shares the stage with a 30-piece orchestra and ensemble cast to bring the repertoire and words of Bessie and Boris to life. With time, aspects of klezmer and cantorial sounds became more integrated and more American, as Jewish composers became immersed in their new surroundings, greatly influencing composers like Irving Berlin and George Gershwin.

In September, the San Francisco Symphony and Tilson Thomas launched its milestone Centennial with a celebratory gala concert dubbed “Fanfare for a New Century” at Davies Symphony Hall.

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The two-hour broadcast is hosted by best-selling Bay Area author Amy Tan and features Tilson Thomas conducting the Orchestra and two of the leading artists of our time: legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor and the dynamic pianist Lang Lang performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major.

The concert opens with Aaron Copland’s vivid portrayal of American prairie life, the Billy the Kid Ballet Suite and concludes with Britten’s orchestral showpiece The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra of which the San Francisco Chronicle said: “…as Thomas led his colleagues, section by section and soloist by soloist… the listener could only marvel at the level of individual excellence and communal artistry on display.”

Capping off the concert is an encore of Bay Area composer John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine featuring animated images of San Francisco projected throughout Davies Symphony Hall.

Woven into the concert footage, San Francisco Symphony at 100 includes historical documentary features narrated by Tan highlighting the Orchestra’s early beginnings, its rich history of touring and its commitment to young people and innovations in media.

On April 1st, San Francisco Symphony at 100 will also be released on DVD and Blu-ray with additional bonus historical features (though will not feature Lang Lang’s concert performance.)

San Francisco Symphony at 100 is a production of San Francisco Symphony and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.

Major funding for the telecast is provided by Nan Tucker McEvoy and the National Endowment for the Arts.  Great Performances is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, Vivian Milstein, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Starr Foundation, the Filomen M. Di’Agostino Foundation, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, public television viewers, and PBS.

San Francisco Symphony at 100 is directed by Gary Halvorson. Executive Producer: John Kieser. Producer: Michael Bronson. The History Vignettes are produced by Janette Gitler. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

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Recorded in April 2011 at the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach, The Thomashefskys is written and hosted by Tilson Thomas and stars Broadway performers Judy Blazer as Bessie Thomashefsky and Shuler Hensley as Boris Thomashefsky.  It also features Ronit Widmann-Levy and Eugene Brancoveanu and the New World Symphony.

Founding members of the Yiddish Theater in America, the Thomashefskys owned theaters, published their own magazine, wrote columns in the popular Yiddish newspapers, sponsored and encouraged generations of young artists, brought uncountable numbers of Yiddish artists to America, tirelessly raised funds for progressive social causes and, though it all, were adventurous trend setters.

This story, reclaimed by The Thomashefky Project, presents a musical sound that few have heard, assimilating Eastern European klezmer and cantorial modes with American tunes and rhythms. Over time, as the Jewish American music theater writers became absorbed in their new surroundings, they greatly influenced the American Songbook.

The Thomashefskys is a very personal project for Tilson Thomas, celebrating the lives and theatrical and musical legacies of his grandparents.  Born out of his desire to preserve the music of the Yiddish theater, The Thomashefsky Project, founded in 1998, expanded from an archival role to this stage production hosted and conducted by Tilson Thomas and directed for the stage by Broadway veteran Patricia Birch.

It features music reconstructed from the original Yiddish theater repertoire interwoven with projected images and stories from Bessie and Boris’s lively memoirs.  “My grandparents became mega-stars and found themselves smack in the public eye,” says Tilson Thomas. “They were subject to adulation and relentless scrutiny. Legions of crazed fans were obsessed with every detail of their work and their lives.”

The stage version of The Thomashefskys has been performed to sold-out houses in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Miami, and at Tanglewood in Massachusetts.  The San Francisco Chronicle said, “Thomas and his collaborators do what Yiddish artists always meant to do.  They make you forget your troubles for an evening, plunge into another world and feel your own more fully in the end.”

Following the national broadcast, The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater will be released on April 24 on DVD by New Video (www.newvideo.com). The New World Symphony was founded in 1987 by Michael Tilson Thomas and Ted Arison, and has launched the careers of over 800 musicians.

The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater is a production of The Thomashefsky Film Project LLC and THIRTEEN for WNET.

The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater is directed for television by Gary Halvorson. Producers: Joshua Robison, Michael Bronson, and Michael Kantor. For Great Performances, John Walker is producer; Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

Major funding for the telecast is provided by Arison Arts Foundation, Marcia and John Goldman, Carole and Jeffrey Hays and Lydia and Douglas Shorenstein, Stephen and Sandra Muss, the Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation, the Koret Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Lisa and John Pritzker Fund.

Great Performances is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Starr Foundation, the Filomen M. Di’Agostino Foundation, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, The DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, public television viewers and PBS.

Joe Sinnott-Thirteen/WNET New York

Michael Tilson Thomas

MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS made his conducting debut with the San Francisco Symphony in 1974 and was appointed its Music Director in September 1995. A Los Angeles native, he studied piano with John Crown and composition and conducting with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California and has worked with Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Copland on premieres of their compositions. In 1969, at the age of 24, he won the Koussevitzky Prize and was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ten days later he came to international recognition, replacing Music Director William Steinberg in mid-concert at Lincoln Center. Until 2000, he was co-Artistic Director of the Pacific Music Festival, which he and Leonard Bernstein inaugurated in Sapporo, Japan, in 1990, and he continues to serve as Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, which he founded in 1987. On television, he has been featured with the San Francisco Symphony on GREAT PERFORMANCES, in a series with the London Symphony Orchestra for the BBC, and in PBS documentaries with the New World Symphony, among others. In June 2004, he and the San Francisco Symphony launched Keeping Score: MTT on Music on PBS. Carnegie Hall presented Michael Tilson Thomas in its Perspectives series for two consecutive seasons in 2003-04 and 2004-05.

Dawn Upshaw

DAWN UPSHAW – whose first performance in Carnegie Hall was as a chorus member under Bernstein’s baton in Mahler’s Second Symphony when she was in graduate school – has achieved worldwide renown as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging from the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. At Carnegie Hall this season, she will co-lead a workshop for young singers and composers with Osvaldo Golijov, perform with Ensemble ACJW in Zankel Hall, and reprise her role as Margarita Xirgu in a concert performance of Golijov’s opera Ainadamar with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She has championed numerous new works created for her, including The Great Gatsby by John Harbison, L’amour de loin by Kaija Saariaho, John Adams’s nativity oratorio El Niño, and Golijov’s Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre. A four-time Grammy Award winner, she has recorded several of Bernstein’s music theater songs for Nonesuch Records, as well as “What a Movie!” on her American opera aria collection “The World So Wide”. The Artistic Partner of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, she is a member of the faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center and is Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music. In 2007 she received a MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as a “genius grant.”

Christine Ebersole

CHRISTINE EBERSOLE won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Obie Award, special citation from the New York Drama Critics Circle, and the Drama League’s 2006 Distinguished Performance of the Year Award for her dual performance in Grey Gardens. Her other Broadway credits include Steel Magnolias, Dinner at Eight (Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations), 42nd Street (Tony and Outer Critics Circle awards), The Best Man, Getting Away With Murder, Harrigan ‘n’ Hart, Camelot (with Richard Burton), Oklahoma!, On the Twentieth Century, I Love My Wife, and Angel Street. Off Broadway credits include Talking Heads (Obie and Outer Critics Circle awards) and four productions for New York City Center’s Encores! Her many film and television appearances include Tootsie, Amadeus, Saturday Night Live, and Will & Grace.

Thomas Hampson

American baritone THOMAS HAMPSON enjoys a wide-ranging career as a singer of lieder, operas, oratorios, and works for voice and orchestra. His first performance in Carnegie Hall’s main auditorium was singing Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer” and Rückert-Lieder in a 1990 concert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein – one of a trio of programs that were to be Bernstein’s last at the Hall. His encounter with Bernstein had a strong impact on his life and career and led the way to his becoming one of today’s leading interpreters of the music of Mahler. He recently recorded Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, released in September as part of the orchestra’s Mahler recording project on its SFS Media Label. As an active proponent of the study of American song, he collaborates on song projects with academic and cultural partners through his foundation, Hampsong.org, to promote the art of song in intercultural understanding. His “Song of America” tour, first presented with the Library of Congress in 2006-06, will be expanded during the 2009-10 season. In 2007 he was named Special Advisor to the Library of Congress for Education and the Legacy of the Performing Arts.

Yo-Yo Ma

The many-faceted career of cellist YO-YO MA is testament to both his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences and his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. Whether performing a new concerto, revisiting a familiar work from the cello repertoire, coming together with colleagues for chamber music, or exploring musical forms outside of the Western classical tradition, he strives to find connections that stimulate the imagination. One of his goals is the exploration of music as a means of communication, and as a vehicle for the migrations of ideas across a range of cultures throughout the world. Expanding upon this interest, he established the Silk Road Project to promote the study of the cultural, artistic, and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road trade route that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

San Francisco Symphony

The SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY is considered to be a leading presence among American orchestras and maintains an active touring program, with award winning recordings and innovative broadcast and education projects. The orchestra appears regularly in Europe, Asia, and cities in the US, including annual performances at Carnegie Hall. Its commitment to music education has resulted in the groundbreaking television, radio, and multimedia project Keeping Score; a nationally syndicated radio series on avant-garde American composers entitled American Mavericks; an award-winning children’s website, sfskids.com; and Adventures in Music, a nationally acclaimed in-school music education program for San Francisco schools.

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Airing in high definition and 5.1 surround sound, the evening, recorded September 24, marked the opening salvo of the four-month Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds, a New York City-wide salute to the composer, conductor and educator presented by Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic celebrating the 90th anniversary of his birth and 50th anniversary of his appointment as New York Philharmonic Music Director.

“Jazzy energy and the Jets,” hailed The New York Times, while The Newark Star-Ledger called the program “a dizzying sampler of the composer’s wit and poetry.”

Featuring selections ranging from the 1944 ballet Fancy Free through West Side Story (1957) to his final opera A Quiet Place (1983), the telecast offers a virtual sound portrait of Leonard Bernstein’s life. “His music is intensely biographical,” says Tilson Thomas, a close friend and colleague of Bernstein, who first met the maestro in 1968 and, in 1971, succeeded him as conductor of the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts on national TV. “The pieces do reflect his early, middle and late years,” Tilson Thomas says, “optimistic, reflective and then the concern that somehow all the disparate themes will come out in the end, that there will be some kind of resolution and peace.”

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, certainly Bernstein’s most famous work, opens the program, followed by selections from A Quiet Place, with Hampson and Upshaw as an estranged father and daughter. On the lighter side, Ebersole scores with the randy “I Can Cook Too” from On the Town, then joins Upshaw, Hampson and Ma for “Ya Got Me” from the same show.

Other highlights: Meditation No. 1 from Mass (Ma), “What a Movie!” from Trouble in Tahiti (Upshaw), “To What You Said” from Songfest (Hampson and Ma), and “Gee, Officer Krupke” from West Side Story (students of The Juilliard School). The orchestra itself gets another chance to shine with the slinky, hip-swaying Danzon from Fancy Free.

Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969 and Laureate Conductor from 1969 to 1990, Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) brought his own particular New World sensibility to classical music. Equally at home in a Broadway theater or concert hall, the beloved ‘Lenny’ – who performed at Carnegie Hall more than 400 times during his career – had an enthusiasm for an understanding of music far beyond his classical realm, extending into jazz, world music, American song, and 1960s pop and rock.

A popular presence on television – his Young People’s Concerts introduced an entire generation to classical music – he was a particular favorite of GREAT PERFORMANCES audiences. Beginning with the series’ first full season in 1973-74, when Mass became GP’s first music program, through 1988’s Bernstein at 70 from Tanglewood, he was never far from a series camera. More recently, his Candide in Concert was a highlight of the 2004-5 season.

Tilson Thomas, who also hosts Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein, assumed his post as the 11th Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) in 1995, consolidating a strong relationship with the orchestra that began some two decades earlier. In 1974, at age 29, he made his debut with the group leading Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. His tenure has been praised for innovative programming and for bringing the works of American composers to the fore, as well as attracting new audiences to Davies Symphony Hall. He last appeared on GREAT PERFORMANCES in 2004’s two-part examination and performance (with the SFS) of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, part of the orchestra’s groundbreaking PBS television series and multimedia project Keeping Score.

Now in its 97th season, the esteemed San Francisco Symphony includes among its music directors such distinguished conductors as Pierre Monteux, Seiji Ozawa, Edo de Waart, and Herbert Blomstedt.

Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2008: A Celebration of Leonard Bernstein inaugurates the hall’s 118th season and is a production of Carnegie Hall and Thirteen/WNET New York in association with San Francisco Symphony. Directed by Gary Halvorson, it is produced by John Walker and Mitch Owgang, with David Horn as Executive Producer.

GREAT PERFORMANCES is funded by the Irene Diamond Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, Vivian Milstein, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public television viewers, and PBS. Major funding for this telecast was provided by S. Donald Sussman, with additional special funding by The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund and the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust.

Joe Sinnott-Thirteen/WNET New York

• Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
• Scenes from A Quiet Place Prelude from Act I “You’re Late” “Morning. Good morning” Postlude from Act I
• “I Can Cook Too” from On the Town
• Meditation No. 1 from Mass
• “What a Movie!” from Trouble in Tahiti
• “To What You Said” from Songfest
• Danzon from Fancy Free
• “Gee, Officer Krupke” from West Side Story
• “Ya Got Me” from On the Town

San Francisco Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor Dawn Upshaw, soprano Christine Ebersole, vocalist Thomas Hampson, baritone Yo-Yo Ma, cello Ensemble selected from the Vocal Arts Department And Drama Division of The Juilliard School.

Producer: Daniel Ross, Colin Fitzpatrick
Graphic Art: Gabriel Torres
Technical Director: Brian Lee
Production Assistant: Diana Cofresí-Terrero
HTML Implementation: Brian Santalone

GREAT PERFORMANCES Web pages copyright
© 2008 Educational Broadcasting Corporation.

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Tamara E. Robinson, Vice President & Director, Programming.

Television Credits

CARNEGIE HALL OPENING NIGHT 2008

A CELEBRATION OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY

Music Director and Conductor MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS

Symphonic Dances from West Side Story

Dawn Upshaw Soprano

Thomas Hampson Baritone

Music from A Quiet Place

Prologue to Act I

You’re Late

Morning, Good Morning

Postlude to Act I

Christine Ebersole

Christine Ebersole vocalist

I Can Cook, Too from On The Town

Meditation No. 1 from Mass

Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma Cello

What a Movie from Trouble in Tahiti

Thomas Hampson

To What You Said… from Songfest

Jamie Bernstein

Danzón from Fancy Free

Gabriel Ebert Carlton Ford Paul LaRosa Kelly Markgraf Zach Villa Drama and Vocal Arts Students from the Juilliard School

Gee, Officer Krupke from West Side Story

Ya Got Me from On the Town

Director GARY HALVORSON

Producers MITCH OWGANG JOHN WALKER

Coordinating Producer CARA COSENTINO

Audio Producers TOM LAZARUS JACK VAD

Lighting Designer ALAN ADELMAN

Editors GARY BRADLEY LAURA YOUNG

Associate Producer JESSICA LACOMBE

Associate Director KEN DIEGO

Stage Manager TERRY BENSON

Production Manager KATHY ERICKSON

Engineer In Charge MARK SCHUBIN

Technical Director EMMETT LOUGHRAN

Audio Editor JON BERMAN

Score Reader MICHAEL HEASTON

Production Assistant KRISTEN SONNTAG

Video Operators MATTY RANDAZZO BILLY STEINBERG

Video Tape ALAN BUCHNER

Cameras MIGUEL ARMSTRONG ROB BALTON KEITH GREENWOOD MANNY GUTIERREZ CHARLIE HUNTLEY JOHN KOSMACZEWSKI JAY MILLARD LYN NOLAND ALAIN ONESTO DAVE SMITH RON WASHBURN MARK WHITMAN

Camera Assistant BRIAN BOGERT

Audio RICK JACOBSOHN STEVE LAMPHERE SEAN McCLINTOCK JOHN MURPHY

Live Concert Sound Design NEVIN STEINBERG

Utilities ANTHONY DEFONZO KEITH CONOD MIKE CUNNINGHAM VINNIE DEMAIO PETER LINDBERG RUSSELL MUCCIGROSSO

Video Maintenance PAWEL BUTKIEWICZ DARRYL COLEMAN ED HAJBURA NAVA TABKUM

Remote Camera Technicians RON TRAVISANO RICHARD COMPEAU TED ERNE MARTIN MARIETTA

Audio Maintenance TOM CURRAN

Prompter MICHAEL TURSI

Gaffer MIKE CALLAHAN

Graphic Design B.T. WHITEHILL

Music Services JOHN ADAMS ROSIE FISHEL EMILY LEE

Production Aides DOUG BAKER JON WILEY

Interns VICTORIA CHOE SARAH STROSS

Makeup/Hair RALPH CASTELLI MARISA DiTERESA

Archival Photography CHRIS ALEXANDER THE LEONARD BERNSTEIN COLLECTION, MUSIC DIVISION, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CARNEGIE HALL ARCHIVES ROY STEVENS TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES

Special Thanks MARIE CARTER GINO FRANCESCONI TOM HEMPHILL JOSHUA ROBISON CRAIG URQUHART

Food Services Compliments of RESTAURANT ASSOCIATES, INC.

For Officer Krupke

Administration The Juilliard School JOSEPH W. POLISI JAMES HOUGHTON BRIAN ZEGER

Director/Choreographer JEANNE SLATER

Vocal and Acting Coach DEBORAH R. LAPIDUS

Vocal Coach/Rehearsal Pianist MARY-MITCHELL CAMPBELL

Rehearsal Stage Manager LAINE GOERNER

Costume Coordinator JULIE McCABE

The San Francisco Symphony

Music Director MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS

President JOHN D. GOLDMAN

Executive Director BRENT ASSINK

General Manager JOHN KIESER

Director of Artistic Planning GREGG GLEASNER

Production Manager JOYCE CRON WESSLING

Production Manager TIM CARLESS

Stage Manager VANCE DEVOST

Electronic Media Manager EDIE CHENG

Media Consultant MICHAEL BRONSON

For Carnegie Hall

Chairman SANFORD I. WEILL

Executive and Artistic Director CLIVE GILLINSON

Program Planning and Operations ANNA WEBER JEREMY GEFFEN KATHY SCHUMAN LEA SLUSHER PATRICK SHARPE JOE SCHMADERER KIMO GERALD JAMES BADRAK RACHEL DAVIS

Stage Crew KEN BELTRONE JOHN CARDINALE JAMES CSOLLANY JOHN GOODSON DENNIS O’CONNELL

Leadership support provided by Gala Chairmen Suzie and Bruce Kovner and Gala Co-Chairmen Mercedes and Sid Bass.

Opening Night Gala Sponsor: PricewaterhouseCoopers

Major funding for Bernstein: The Best of All Possible Worlds has been provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Alice Tully Foundation, American Express, Bob and Martha Lipp, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Nash Family Foundation, and Mr. and Mrs. A. Alfred Taubman. Additional funding provided by GWFF USA Inc., and Linda and Stuart Nelson.

For Great Performances

Series Producer BILL O’DONNELL

Executive Producer DAVID HORN

A Production of Carnegie Hall and Thirteen/WNET New York In association with San Francisco Symphony

© 2008 THE CARNEGIE HALL CORPORATION

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