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PBS Announces Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park, taping September 15

By April MacIntyre Aug 1, 2011, 5:29 GMT

03/02/2010 - Andrea Bocelli - Andrea Bocelli is Honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 2, 2010 - Hollywood Walk of Fame - Hollywood, CA, USA © KAT / PR Photos

Tody at the PBS Press Tour in the Beverly Hilton, it was announced that the free concert offered by internationally acclaimed tenor Andrea Bocelli will take place on Central Park's Great Lawn, Thursday, September 15, 2011, and will be recorded in high definition by THIRTEEN’s Great Performances.

Accompanied by the New York Philharmonic, under the direction of music director Alan Gilbert, the Westminster Symphonic Choir, conducted by Joe Miller, with special guest artists to be announced, the gala event is a special gift to New York City.

"Bringing artists of this magnitude to audiences is core to our mission at THIRTEEN," said Neal Shapiro, WNET CEO and president, of the Bocelli event. "This free concert in New York City's ultimate performance space is another way we canmake such historic events accessible to audiences who might otherwise find them out of reach."

Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park airs December 2 at 9 p.m. (check local listings) as part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival.

Bocelli will present a varied repertoire that includes his best-known and best-loved songs, which have become fan favorites. He is widely regarded as the most popular Italian tenor in the world, with more than 70 million albums sold.

In announcing the program’s selection as the final episode of the PBS Arts Fall Festival, PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger said, “We’re thrilled to have Andrea Bocelli as the finale of the first PBS Arts Fall Festival. The special is one of four distinguishedpresentations of Great Performances for the Fall Festival, which will highlight nine extraordinary cities and regions of our country where the arts have taken center stage."

All information for this special evening, including distribution of tickets that will be required for entry, will be available at www.bocellicentralpark.com.

From PBS

Since Great Performances introduced American television audiences to Bocelli with 1997's Romanza concert, the tenor has been featured in an outstanding series of Great Performances specials, including Sacred Arias, Amore, Vivere, My Christmas and American Dream, his spectacular "Statue of Liberty" concert from New Jersey's Liberty State Park.

Sugar Music, the Milan-based label headed by chairman and CEO Filippo Sugar, thatdiscovered Bocelli in 1994, was instrumental in bringing about the concert and has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Great Performances and THIRTEEN, producing nearly all of Bocelli’s specials.

The PBS Arts Fall Festival is a multi-platform event anchored by nine broadcasts that highlight artists andperformances from around the country, and online interactive exhibits that invite every American into the worlds of music, theater, dance, opera and cultural history. Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park joins three other Great Performances productions as part of the Festival: Miami City Ballet Dances Balanchine & Tharp, Il Postino from LA Opera and The Little Mermaid From San Francisco Ballet. A full list of Fall Festival programs is available at PBS Arts.

Andrea Bocelli has commented, "I cannot help but smile when thinking about the upcoming concert in Central Park. It was my father's dream, and my father was right, because myartistic path would have been entirely different without the strong and sincere embrace of this extraordinary city where everything is possible, even when it seems impossible. My father will not be there, but I can count on his blessing and his kind and gentle smile to give me courage. My mother, sitting in thefront row, will feel my father, too, and they will be together again just like when I was a little boy performing on the fireplace steps. Perhaps they hadsecretly dreamed that I might have the opportunity to perform in New York City, and maybe right here in Central Park."

Zarin Mehta, president and executive director of the New York Philharmonic, notes, "The New York Philharmonic and Andrea Bocelli have teamed up on more than one occasion in the past to joyful musical effect. This September will be our grandest collaboration todate. I can't think of a better way for summer in the city to culminate."

New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe declared:  "I join the Mayor and all New Yorkers in thanking Andrea Bocelli and all involved in making a beautiful autumn evening full of splendor and world-class musicpossible, in one of the most cherished outdoor places in New York City. From the Great Lawn in the heart of Manhattan to the Great Performances series on WNET, where millions more will be able to share this gift, it will be a very special occasion. A million thank yous. Grazie mille!"

Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park will also be released on CD and DVD by Sugar/Decca this November.

Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park is directed by David Horn. For Great Performances, Mitch Owgang is producer; Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

Barilla is the main sponsor of the concert event and the television broadcast. Major funding for the Great Performances telecast is provided by the Irene Diamond Fund, Vivian Milstein, the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, the Starr Foundation, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Joseph A. Wilson, public television viewers, and PBS.