Scott Yoo Returns to Host Season 7, Premiering Friday, April 10 on PBS
Scott Yoo, violinist and conductor of the Mexico City Philharmonic, returns to host the seventh season of the critically acclaimed miniseries Now Hear This from Great Performances to explore the lives and works of Johannes Brahms and Scott Joplin, two celebrated composers whose lives did not go as planned; alongside the music scene of two major musical epicenters Istanbul and Iceland. Merging performance, travel, and cultural experiences, Season 7 of Great Performances: Now Hear This premieres Fridays, April 10-May 1 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS App.
Great Performances: Now Hear This – “Brahms: Free But Alone”
Premieres Friday, April 10 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Johannes Brahms was a quiet, private person, but he lived a full life, bearing a responsibility he didn’t want, loving a woman he couldn’t be with, and carrying a legacy he couldn’t live up to. Scott Yoo journeys across Germany with pianist Elisabeth Brauss and cellists Johannes Moser and Max Hornung to find a window into Brahms’ inner life, searching through his personal photo collection and visiting his summer hideaway, preserved as Brahms left it years ago. Yoo discovers how Brahms reached a turning point in his life to become one of the greatest composers ever known.
Great Performances: Now Hear This – “Everyone Loves Joplin”
Premieres Friday, April 17 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Scott Joplin was the king of ragtime, a new kind music for the turn of the 20th century. Rick Benjamin’s Paragon Ragtime Orchestra takes Scott Yoo back in time to experience the music, movies and style of that era. Pianist John Novacek paints a picture of the birth of ragtime and the Joplin revival that finally brought him international fame. Meanwhile, opera director Weyni Mengesgha restages Joplin’s magnum opus, “Treemonisha,” for the 21st century.
Great Performances: Now Hear This – “The Call of Istanbul”
Premieres Friday, April 24 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Istanbul sits at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, a melting pot of diverse peoples, languages and ideas. With star Turkish pianist Fazil Say, conductor Çem Mansur, and a host of Anatolian folk and Turkish jazz musicians, Scott Yoo and his wife Alice Dade explore the city and discover the art, food, traditions, and fusion of cultures that shape the music of today’s Istanbul, revealing a musical heritage that has influenced Western music.
Great Performances: Now Hear This – “The Iceland Sound”
Premieres Friday, May 1 at 9/8c on PBS, pbs.org/gperf and the PBS app
Fewer people live in Iceland than in Wichita, Kansas, yet it produces some of the best musicians in the world. To find out how, Scott Yoo crosses this sunlit, rainy, volcanic land of extremes to meet composers Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Daniel Bjarnason, popular musician JFDR, instrument makers, music historians, and one of Iceland’s most famous chefs. From visiting a clarinet choir, a troll stone, a volcano, and hearing the loudest symphony ever written, Scott discovers how Iceland’s unique landscape and culture combine to create this musical hotbed.
For more than 50 years on PBS, Great Performances has provided an unparalleled showcase of the best in all genres of the performing arts, serving as America’s most prestigious and enduring broadcaster of cultural programming. Showcasing a diverse range of artists from around the world, the series has earned 67 Emmy Awards and six Peabody Awards. The Great Performances website hosts exclusive videos, interviews, photos, full episodes and more. The series is produced by The WNET Group. Great Performances is available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on PBS.org and the PBS App.
Now Hear This was created by producer, writer and director Harry Lynch and is a production of Arcos Film + Music. Harry Lynch, Scott Yoo and Richard Lim are executive producers. Great Performances is produced by The WNET Group. For Great Performances, Bill Kabel is producer, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer.
Series funding for Great Performances is provided by The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, the Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold, the S. Irving and Anne Nevard Sherr Foundation, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, The Starr Foundation, Madeline and Stephen Anbinder, Leni and Peter May, and Ellen and James S. Marcus. Additional funding is provided by The V & L Marx Foundation in memory of Virginia and Leonard Marx.