Local Young Performing Artists Heading from Stage to Screen

Maryland Public Television (MPT) and Young Artists of America at Strathmore (YAA) are excited to announce their upcoming collaboration. MPT will produce and air a one-hour television special based on YAA’s world premiere of The Circle of Life: The Songs of Tim Rice in Concert, which will be presented March 12th, 2017 at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, Maryland. With the special participation by Sir Tim Rice himself, Director Hugh Wooldridge (Chess in Concert, Royal Albert Hall; An Evening with Alan Jay Lerner, Lincoln Center; The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber) has created the production specifically for YAA’s commission.

An homage to Rice, the legendary lyricist of some of the greatest musicals of all time, the production will feature over 300 of the Greater Washington, DC region’s top young performing artists, including nearly 150 artists from the YAA Orchestra, Vocal Ensemble and YAAjunior, 150 students from Walt Whitman High School Combined Choruses (Bethesda, MD), as well as featured dancers, performing selections from Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Chess, Aida, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.

The stage production will be performed at Strathmore’s 2,000-seat concert hall on March 12, 2017. The 60-minute, high-definition television program will engage the full talents of MPT’s Emmy® award winning production team. It will be broadcast between late spring and early fall of 2017 to the entire MPT viewing area, which reaches Maryland, Washington, DC, and portions of Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

“We are excited to have the talented Young Artists of America performers to our studios to record a program special for MPT's main channel featuring some of the most beautiful and moving music ever written for the stage,” said MPT Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Steven Schupak. “Together with YAA's exceptional creative team, we'll adapt the stage production for television and include some behind the scenes action with the students.”

Young Artists of America at Strathmore is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization offering musical training to gifted and committed high school instrumentalists and vocalists throughout the year. Through mentorship and individualized instruction from world-renowned musicians, students train collaboratively to perform fully orchestrated, classical and musical theater concerts in state-of-the-art venues such as the Music Center at Strathmore. www.yaa.org Launched in 1969 and headquartered in Owings Mills, MD, Maryland Public Television is a nonprofit, state-licensed public television network and member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). MPT’s six transmitters cover Maryland plus portions of contiguous states and the District of Columbia. Frequent winner of regional Emmy® awards, MPT creates local, regional, and national television shows. Beyond broadcast, MPT’s commitment to professional educators, parents, caregivers, and learners of all ages is manifest in its year-round instructional events and super-website Thinkport which garners in excess of 14 million visits annually. www.mpt.org