Classical WETA 90.9 FM to Broadcast Sold-Out NSO Season Opening Ball Concert on Tuesday, September 27 at 11:00 a.m.

Washington, D.C. — Classical WETA 90.9 FM will broadcast the sold-out National Symphony Orchestra Season Opening Ball Concert on Tuesday, September 27 at 11:00 a.m. Taped two days earlier at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by WETA engineers, the concert marks two birthdays: the Kennedy Center’s 40th and the NSO’s 80th. On the heels of the broadcast, Classical WETA will premiere the fourth season of NSO Showcase — Classical WETA’s ongoing series featuring the NSO in performance at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall — on Wednesday, October 5 at 9 p.m.

"This broadcast is only the latest in a long-standing collaboration between the National Symphony Orchestra and Classical WETA," commented Dan DeVany, vice president and general manager of WETA. "We are pleased to bring this exciting concert to our loyal mid-day listeners and look forward to launching the new season of NSO Showcase a few days later.” 

Led by Music Director Christoph Eschenbach, the NSO Season Opening Ball Concert features violinist Joshua Bell, who joins the NSO to perform Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and baritone Thomas Hampson, who will sing selections from Aaron Copland’s Old American Songs. Works by Dvořák and Ravel round out the program. Classical WETA’s Nicole Lacroix hosts the special broadcast.

Also hosted by Nicole Lacroix, NSO Showcase is a special radio series airing on the first Wednesday of each month at 9 p.m. from October through June. The series kicks off Wednesday, October 5, with a program featuring Thomas Dausgaard conducting Sibelius’ En Saga, Tone Poem for Orchestra, Op. 9 and Carl Neilsen’s Symphony No. 4, Op. 29, "The Inextinguishable."  Composer/conductor John Adams leads the NSO in Stravinsky’s Feux d’artifice, and the program closes with Stravinsky’s groundbreaking Le Sacre du Printemps led by Iván Fischer.

NSO Showcase is made possible by WETA’s Friends of Classical Music, including Patricia Sagon.

The Kennedy Center, as the nation’s center for the performing arts, recognizes and presents all of the performing arts, including opera, jazz, musical theater, drama, ballet and dance, as well as symphony and smaller musical ensembles performing every imaginable kind of music. 

Classical WETA 90.9 FM is the exclusive classical music radio station in the nation’s capital. Classical WETA is consistently one of the most-listened-to stations in the market. VivaLaVoce — The Station That Sings — is Classical WETA’s all-vocal classical music channel, available by live stream at www.vivalavoce.org and via the HD2 signal of Classical WETA 90.9 FM. Classical WETA and WETA Television are public broadcasting stations serving the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia with high-quality programming. As the leading PBS station in the nation’s capital, WETA Television broadcasts on four channels: WETA TV 26, WETA HD, WETA Kids and WETA Create. WETA Television productions and co-productions include PBS NewsHour, Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal, and Ken Burns’s upcoming film Prohibition. Embracing the educational mission of public broadcasting, WETA creates leading public service websites such as www.ReadingRockets.org, www.LDOnline.org, www.AdLit.org, www.ColorinColorado.org, and www.Brainline.org. WETA’s headquarters is located in Arlington, Virginia. Sharon Percy Rockefeller is president and CEO. For more information on WETA and its services, visit www.weta.org.

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