The webcast, hosted by Fred Child of NPR's Performance Today, begins at 7 pm U.S. Pacific time/10 pm U.S. Eastern time. For more information or to hear the webcast, go to www.npr.org, click on "Music" in the left column and then on the "Live Friday: Russian National Orchestra" banner on the right of the screen. (A link to the audio feed will appear at the top of the screen on the webcast page, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5568915, shortly before the webcast begins.)
The individual pieces on the program will be broadcast on future editions of Performance Today, which is NPR's flagship classical music show and the most listened-to classical radio program in the U.S. In addition, Gail Wein, the NPR producer of the webcast, told PlaybillArts that streaming audio of the complete concert will be archived on the network's website and available for listening on demand for one year.
The NPR/Festival del Sole webcast project has been made possible by support from Grove Street Winery and Peter Paul Wines.
Celebrating its first season this year, the Festival del Sole is the California cousin of the Tuscan Sun Festival (founded in 2003), which takes place every summer in the medieval Tuscan hill town of Cortona. Both festivals, which aim to combine first-rate music with explorations of visual art, cuisine, wine and wellness, are headed by founder Barrett Wissman, chairman of IMG Artists; the festivals' artistic director is cellist Nina Kotova.
The Festival del Sole continues through this weekend, ending July 23 with a gala featuring Denve and the Russian National Orchestra with Kotova playing Dvoršk's Cello Concerto and Christine Brewer singing Strauss's Four Last Songs. The 2006 Tuscan Sun Festival, featuring (among many others) Joshua Bell, Lang Lang, Pinchas Zukerman and the Zukerman Chamber Players, Marcelo êlvarez, Piotr Anderszewski, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Susan Graham, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Nikolaj Znaider, Sarah Chang and the Russian National Orchestra, runs from August 5-20 in Cortona, Italy. Information on both festivals can be found at www.festivaldelsole.com.
