Keeping Score

It's strange that for a composer who wrote brilliant and legendary music, who was the conductor for the New York Philharmonic, and who was just overall one of the biggest musicians of last century, that one of his greatest legacies should be a television series he aired for children.  Everyone's heard (if not seen) of Leonard Bernstein's "young people's concerts" - aired 53 times in forty countries across the world - in which he would talk about different musical topics to children.  The bad news is that we don't have Leonard Bernstein anymore.  The good news is that we have the San Francisco's Symphony Orchestra which is now airing a new television series called "Keeping Score".  My understanding is that "keeping score" is not just geared for children, and it will focus on learning about specific composers (Mahler, I believe, is the first).  The series will be aired on PBS starting on June 30th.  "Keeping score" isn't just a television program however.  The Orchestra is doing an entire outreach program in which it will get children and the masses to learn more about classical music.  In an article I read by the Washington Post it said that one quarter of the audience at any given night at the Orchestra is the first time they're experiencing a classical music concert.  Cry or laugh, but it's just the facts.  I think this is a really great endeavor and it will hopefully make our youth a little more cultured and music-oriented.  We really need to educate our children (and even adults) about the importance of music, as our culture drifts further and further away from it.  Lady Gaga is real competition believe it or not.  This definitely will not be the last time I will be talking about the importance of musical outreach, so don't relax so quickly.  Here is a short video about their show about Mahler: