Premieres Friday, March 25 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings)
Great Performances: The Conductor tells the story of the first female conductor of a major symphony, Marin Alsop. Documenting Alsop’s journey from playing the violin as an ambitious nine-year-old who longed to conduct, to attending Juilliard, to creating her own all-female string orchestra and swing band, to ultimately becoming music director of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Despite repeated rejection from the classical music establishment, Alsop persevered and blazed her own trail which gained her attention as a conductor and opened new opportunities for her that led to studying with legendary composer Leonard Bernstein. Featuring cinema verité scenes of Alsop conducting some of the world’s great orchestras, the new #PBSForTheArts documentary, Great Performances: The Conductor, premieres Friday, March 25 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/gperf and the PBS Video app in celebration of Women’s History month.
Set to a carefully curated soundtrack, Great Performances: The Conductor tells Alsop’s story through a combination of rehearsal and performance footage from Baltimore, Brazil, Switzerland, New York City and includes previously unseen archival footage with her mentor Bernstein. The film takes an up-close look at the conductor through intimate interviews with music experts including São Paulo Symphony Orchestra artistic director Arthur Nestrovski, Richmond City Orchestra music director Valentina Peleggi, wife Kristin Jurkscheit, members of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and more.
#PBSForTheArts is a multiplatform campaign that celebrates the arts in America. For more than 50 years, PBS has been the media destination for the arts, presenting dance, theater, opera, visual arts and concerts to Americans in every corner of the country. Previous Great Performances programs include Romeo & Juliet from the National Theatre, The Arts Interrupted, Coppelia, From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2022 and Reopening: The Broadway Revival, as well as the upcoming Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP the Magazine, premiering Friday, March 18 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The collection of #PBSForTheArts programs is available at pbs.org/arts and the PBS Video app, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. Curated conversation and digital shorts are also available on PBS social media platforms using #PBSForTheArts.
Throughout its nearly 50-year history 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.
A Nylon Films & Waystone production, Great Performances: The Conductor is directed by Bernadette Wegenstein and produced by Annette Porter. Elizabeth Grass Weese, Robert Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker are executive producers. For Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer.
Support for Great Performances: The Conductor was provided by Elizabeth Grass Weese, Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Shelter Foundation Inc., The Charlesmead Foundation, The Clinton Family Fund, Neil Ruther, Bruce Fleming, Paula Singer and Lynn Heller. Series funding for Great Performances is made possible by The Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Jody and John Arnhold, the Abra Prentice Foundation, The Starr Foundation, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, the Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, the Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, the Seton J. Melvin, the Estate of Worthington Mayo-Smith, the Jack Lawrence Charitable Remainder Trust Worchell Lawrence, and Ellen and James S. Marcus.
Websites: http://pbs.org/gperf, http://facebook.com/GreatPerformances, @GPerfPBS, http://youtube.com/greatperformancespbs, giphy.com/great–performances #GreatPerformancesPBS #PBSForTheArts
