Classical Music June 16 national telecast launches major national music initiative (NAPSA)—Twenty-five percent of Americans listen to or attend classical music concerts every day. Despite this astonishing number, consolidation of broadcast outlets, shifts in media priorities, and funding cutbacks for school arts and music programs have greatly reduced access to classical music for audiencestoday. The Grammyaward winning San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas are bridging the gap with Keeping Score: MTT on Music—a major initiative aimed at makingclassical music more accessible to a wider range of Americans through a presence ontelevision,radio, the Internet and eventually through a nationwide education program. The project launches nationally Wednesday, June 16 at 9:30 p.m. (ET) on GREAT PERFORMANCES on PBS (checklistings) with a documentary and a performance focusing on Tehaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. Through unscripted musician interviews, the documentary takes viewers inside the lives of the musicians as they prepare for their role in the per- formance and gives them special backstage glimpse at how a concert takes shape. The companion Web site, www.keepingscore.org, also accessible via pbs.org, will launch two weeksprior to the nationaltelecast.
