Live From Quebec City: WFMT Radio Network to Webcast Massive Mahler Symphony Concert...

Live From Quebec City: WFMT Radio Network to Webcast Massive Mahler Symphony
Concert March 15
With Exclusive Rights, Leading Classical Broadcaster To Air and Stream French
Canadian Capital's 400th Birthday Kickoff Concert

CHICAGO, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The WFMT Radio Network has announced it
will produce and distribute the exclusive live radio broadcast and Web
simulcast of the historic March 15 concert of Gustav Mahler's massive Symphony
No. 8 from Quebec City.
The concert, to be staged with 1,000 performers in the cavernous Colisee
Pepsi sports arena, will launch the French Canadian capital's year-long 400th
anniversary celebration.
The two-hour concert presentation will be streamed live at 7:30 p.m.
Eastern time (00:30 Greenwich Mean Time March 16) at www.wfmt.com. Web
access is free.
The concert will also air live over 98.7/WFMT, Chicago, the network's
flagship station, and is being offered free, for live or later broadcast, to
any radio station that's interested, said Steve Robinson, WFMT's general
manager and executive producer for the Mahler broadcast.
Mahler's Eighth Symphony, written in 1906, is also known as the "Symphony
of a Thousand" because of the enormous number of orchestral musicians and
singers it requires. It's rarely performed with the full, large-scale forces
that will be assembled on one stage for the Quebec City concert.
Maestro Yoav Talmi will conduct the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the
Trois-Rivieres Symphony Orchestra, and other orchestras; a combined chorus
from more than a dozen vocal ensembles; and eight vocal soloists.
"It's going to be exciting to hear what this gargantuan Mahler symphony
sounds like on the radio and on the Web," Robinson said.
A WFMT team consisting of on-air hosts Lisa Flynn (and a co-host to be
named), producer Peter Whorf, and engineer Eric Arunas will be in Quebec City
for the special broadcast.
"To remain relevant, broadcasters need to offer unique, high-value
programs online and over the air," Robinson said. "At the same time, the WFMT
Radio Network's celebratory symphony broadcast from Quebec City recalls the
Golden Age of network radio, when live coverage of important cultural events
at home and overseas received high priority."
The cost of the broadcast is being underwritten by the Quebec Ministry of
Tourism, Canadian Tourism Commission, and Tourism Quebec.
SOURCE WFMT Radio Network

Nat Silverman of Nathan J. Silverman Co.|PR, +1-847-328-4292, fax,
+1-847-328-4317, natsilv@aol.com, for WFMT Radio Network