For Immediate Release:
September 28, 2007
The New York Philharmonic announces fourth season of national radio broadcast series The New York Philharmonic This Week
Two-Hour Concert Broadcasts To Be Produced and Syndicated Nationally
By Chicago’s WFMT Radio Network
Beginning the Week of October 1, 2007
The New York Philharmonic and the WFMT Radio Network in Chicago will launch the
fourth season of the concert broadcast series, The New York Philharmonic This Week,
beginning the week of October 1, 2007. The two-hour, weekly radio program will be
broadcast and syndicated nationally over 52 weeks by the WFMT Radio Network.
Thirty-nine weeks of broadcasts represent virtually the Orchestra’s entire 2007–08 season
and include interviews with Philharmonic musicians, guest artists, and conductors. The
additional 13 weeks of broadcasts, which will air during the summer months, will draw
on the Philharmonic’s extensive library of commercial recordings.
This broadcast series is syndicated nationally to more than 250 stations by the WFMT
Radio Network. WFMT’s Kerry Frumkin is the host; WFMT’s Mark Travis is the
broadcast producer; New York Philharmonic Audio Director Lawrence Rock is the
engineer and music producer. The concerts are available on the Philharmonic’s Website,
nyphil.org, for two weeks following the broadcast. The program is heard locally in the
New York metropolitan area on 96.3 FM WQXR on Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. [Check local
listings.]
Attached is a program schedule for the entire subscription season.
The New York Philharmonic’s first live national radio broadcast took place on October 5,
1930, over the CBS radio network. On that Sunday, Erich Kleiber was on the podium
leading the Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Since that historic broadcast, the Philharmonic
has enjoyed an almost continuous presence on national radio. Advancing its role as a
media pioneer, the Philharmonic, since 2002, has shared its radio broadcasts with a
worldwide audience through its Website, nyphil.org.
The New York Philharmonic This Week is generously underwritten by The Kaplen
Foundation, Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the National Endowment for the
Arts, and the Philharmonic’s corporate partner, MetLife Foundation.
Credit Suisse is the Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic.
The WFMT Radio Network, the international syndication division of award-winning
Chicago classical music station 98.7 FM WFMT (streaming live at wfmt.com/streaming),
produces and distributes these broadcasts nationwide. In addition to the New York
Philharmonic broadcasts, WFMT syndicates concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic,
Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center, as well as ongoing series and documentary specials such as Exploring
Music with Bill McGlaughlin and Leonard Bernstein: An American Life. The WFMT
Radio Network also offers exclusive programming from Germany’s Deutsche Welle
Radio, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and dozens of classical, folk, jazz, news
series, and specials to radio outlets around the world.
Host Kerry Frumkin, along with Mark Travis and Lawrence Rock, is responsible for the
format of The New York Philharmonic This Week. Previously, he produced the nationally
syndicated New York Philharmonic Live! For five years. A Peabody Award-winning
producer, he is the afternoon drive-time host of WFMT, Chicago. He hosts and produces
the station’s weekly series of live studio performances, Live from WFMT, featuring
soloists and ensembles from the Chicago area and across the nation, and is also the host
and producer of summer broadcasts from the Ravinia Festival. For several years he
hosted Rising Stars at Ravinia, which featured performances by up-and-coming artists.
Mr. Frumkin hosted and produced the station’s first live broadcasts from Colorado’s
Aspen Music Festival, and is the recipient of the Armstrong, Ohio State, San Francisco
State Media, and International Radio Festival awards.
Mark Travis is a producer for 98.7 FM WFMT, Chicago, and the WFMT Radio
Network. He produced the inaugural season of the The New York Philharmonic This
Week in 2004–05, and during the 2003–04 season was the producer for the monthly New
York Philharmonic Live! Radio broadcasts, syndicated by the WFMT Radio Network.
Since joining WFMT in 1999, he has written and produced specialty programs for local
and national broadcast, including the highly successful Berlin Philharmonic broadcasts,
and has produced a number of commercial recordings for labels such as RCA/BMG,
Naxos, Sony, and Bis. Mr. Travis, an accomplished singer and classical guitarist, has also
written and produced a syndicated radio series of broadcasts by L’Orchestre de la Suisse
Romande, among numerous other projects.
Lawrence Rock has been Audio Director of the New York Philharmonic since 1997,
overseeing all audio activities, including recording, broadcasting, and live sound. He
received a 2005 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Album as co-producer,
with composer John Adams, for Mr. Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls, which
also won two other Grammy Awards. The work, commissioned by the New York
Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers, was recorded live during its World
Premiere in September 2002 and released on CD on August 31, 2004, on Nonesuch
Records. For the Orchestra’s own recording label, New York Philharmonic Special
Editions(tm), Mr. Rock produced the Grammy-nominated Sweeney Todd: Live at the New
York Philharmonic, and the 10-CD set, Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic. He
has produced live broadcasts and commercial recordings for some of the most prestigious
performance organizations in the United States, and received a Grammy Award in 1997
for his work on a recording with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
WFMT Media Contact:
Holly H. Gilson
98.7WFMT and the WFMT Radio Network
(773) 509-5424
WFMT Contact:
David Polk
98.7WFMT and the WFMT Radio Network
(773) 279-2011
