— WebWireID107129 —

Washington, D.C. -- Whitney Houston. Bob Marley. Edith Piaf. Placido Domingo. Busta Rhymes. Joni Mitchell. Whether influencing a genre or providing the soundtrack that defined a generation, each of these artists has established a firm place in music history. NPR is asking audiences to help decide which voices rise to the top for "50 Great Voices" -- a year-long exploration of iconic, distinct and memorable vocalists in recorded history, set to launch on-air and online in January 2010.

Voting is now open at the "50 Great Voices" site (npr.org/greatvoices): a striking interactive lets visitors listen to more than 100 nominated artists, and select their five favorites. Polling begins today and will remain open through November 16.

With "50 Great Voices," NPR is hoping to discover and rediscover awe-inspiring vocalists from around the world and across time. Last month, listeners and visitors to NPR.org were asked to nominate artists; NPR and a panel of experts whittled down the nearly 8,000 submissions to about 100 singers -- a mix of familiar names (we see you, Elvis Presley and Biggie Smalls) and surprising discoveries (like singer Alim Qasimov from Azerbaijan).

Audience votes will influence the final 50 artists to be profiled in the series -- which will spotlight the lives and legacies of these voices through radio pieces on all of NPR's programs, and online at NPR Music. The music discovery web site will offer additional content for all of the featured artists, including archival material, live performances, interviews and news.

— WebWireID107010 —

"Freelance Theater is about tackling challenges common to freelance writers, but in a new way," said Yolander Prinzel, one of Freelance Theater's co-founders and the blogger behind Freelance Writerville (FreelanceWriterville.com). "It's designed to take a humorous approach to serious topics while giving freelancers practical ideas they can incorporate into their own businesses. The first episode, for example, deals with a current hot button issue among freelance writers -- working too hard for too little money and struggling to get out of that cycle. "

Prinzel partnered with freelance business writer and the blogger behind All Freelance Writing (AllFreelanceWriting.com), Jennifer Mattern, in developing Freelance Theater. The two freelancers share a no-nonsense approach to helping other writers navigate the business aspects of freelance writing -- a theme carried through to the Freelance Theater shows.

The first episode in the MadLance series is "The Dead Don't Write," an approximately ten minute audio play tackling the issue of "vampire clients" in honor of Halloween. Visitors to FreelanceTheater.com can listen to a streaming audio version of the episode directly from the site or they have option to download an mp3 version to listen to on their computer or their favorite portable device.

About Freelance Theater

Freelance Theater began development in July 2009 and was launched in October 2009 by Jennifer Mattern (a freelance business writer and professional blogger) and Yolander Prinzel, ACS (a freelance financial writer and FINRA series 7, 66, and 2-15 licensed financial representative). With a bit of silliness, sarcasm, and an occasional slap on the wrist, the shows' writers / hosts will present fictional stories designed to wake writers up to industry issues with possible solutions and advice to help them thrive in their own freelance writing careers.

###

— WebWireID106765 —

This will result in the closure of one BBC Red Button interactive video stream and the BBC News Multiscreen stream.

The News Multiscreen will still be available on Sky and Virgin Media and its video content can be seen via BBC Online.

The BBC remains committed to delivering the very best video content to Freeview viewers via its remaining interactive stream.

While Multiplex B will be fully reserved for HD services in the parts of the UK that have been through digital switchover, the BBC will, through a competitive tender, offer to the market the two vacant streams available in other parts of the UK in the interim period to 2012.

The two streams will be available in approximately 80% of the country from the end of 2009, and coverage will reduce to zero when switchover is complete in 2012.

The BBC has launched its competitive bid process which will provide third parties the opportunity to launch new services for audiences in the UK.

Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer for the BBC, said: "The BBC has identified an opportunity to release temporary spare spectrum capacity to any interested companies that wish to launch new services for audiences in the UK.

"Not only does this mean that we are ensuring that spectrum is used as efficiently as possible but it will also deliver better value for money for licence fee payers."

— WebWireID106614 —

Dallas, TX, October 23, 2009—Telecommunications Properties Inc. has been contracted by the Louisville Arena Authority to oversee design, installation, and management of a state-of-the-art in-building wireless system for the new sports arena complex now in development.

The authority board contacted TPI when the technical issue of cellular transmission quality emerged as a problem requiring special expertise. Construction materials interfere with signals creating cut-outs and distortions of sound. For arena patrons, mobile phone interference is an annoyance, but in cases of emergency, 'first-responder' communications is a vital public safety matter.

A sub-set of emerging solutions—called 'distributed antenna systems' (DAS)—is in constant development by telecommunications providers. But the management of such a project requires more than conventional vendor contracting. Texas-based TPI has performed countless DAS installations over the years as value-added outsource, and demonstrated an on-staff capability that won the LAA contract.

'For the duration of the Louisville project, we'll be acting as a virtual extension of the Arena Authority,' said Jimmy Chiles, president of TPI. 'We are honored and excited to accept the in-building wireless responsibility from the folks in Kentucky,' Chiles added.

TPI will help sort out and select sub-contractors, and oversee quality assurances among all related technology providers. TPI has installed and manages infrastructural telecommunications for properties in Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Houston. The new Dallas Cowboy Stadium is a TPI client.

CONTACT:
Jeff Alexander, Wireless Systems Manager; 214-231-3346
www.tpicom.net

— WebWireID106306 —

Marlowe got his start in kids' music as the leading songwriter for The Learning Company (Reader Rabbit, Dora the Explorer, Where in the World is Carmen Santiago?). He'd released three award-winning CDs on his own Brainy Tunes label before he had a revelation. 'I was playing a charity concert last October and tried out a song I'd just written for Halloween called 'Haunting School'. The kids insisted I play it three times in succession. Then I pulled out a song called 'Ghost Story', which I'd written for my first punk band twenty years earlier. They went nuts!'

Marlowe soon went to work on The Chills, an imaginary ensemble of monsters he describes as 'an undead version of The Village People.' The new CD got a boost when it drew praise from horror icon Lemony Snicket himself: "If you want to frighten yourself and everyone nearby into fits of desperate, anguished laughter, listen to this music. Of course, I do not understand why you would want to do such a thing.' Readers can hear The Chills and decide for themselves at www.brainytunes.com.

— WebWireID106145 —

The BBC is the lead partner of a major regeneration programme to build Europe's biggest media centre at Salford Quays, relocating 2,500 jobs there from 2011 and helping act as a catalyst for thousands more in the wider private sector, from TV production to computer games design.

As the anchor tenant of the project the BBC aims to play a central part in helping local and regional development agencies create up to 15,000 jobs and a potential £1bn additional net value to the North's economy over the next few years; and workspace for hundreds of media and related businesses. (Source: North West Development Agency).

Led by BBC North Director, Peter Salmon, the move is a major component of the BBC's "Out-of-London" strategy to better serve and represent audiences and do even more to spread the BBC's investment directly into the UK creative economy, currently running at over one billion pounds each year.

Building C – the biggest and first of three BBC office buildings – will be home to BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sport and local and regional news and is being handed over ahead of schedule.

Work will now start on fitting-out Building C to create the network radio station and broadcasting facilities for the digital age, bringing together everything the BBC does on-air and online to support the best possible coverage of live news and live sport.

The handover marks a period of increasing momentum, as the project comes to life:

* Peter Salmon and his team have started a major new drive to find the flagship BBC programmes and content of the future, that will help put Salford on the map. Alongside in-house operations, he and his deputy, Richard Deverell, will particularly encourage and support independent producers to come forward with new ideas for how the BBC can best serve our audiences right across the UK.
* BBC staff relocation levels are much higher than the average for a major move – helping to reduce overall redundancy costs – but still providing several hundred new roles at the BBC site in the North of England.
* 2,800 people are now directly employed in MediaCityUK's construction, the largest project outside the Olympic Park in London, of which more than 50% are from Greater Manchester and 75% are from the Northwest.
* The BBC will be making significant long-term savings, which mean the impact of initial relocation is cost-neutral over 20 years, by sharing studios with other media organisations, by working from more efficient buildings, reducing staff costs (eg London weighting payments) and by harnessing the on-site high-speed broadband and HD technology rather than carrying out expensive upgrades to existing buildings.
* Pioneering new partnerships with local schools, colleges and universities to provide career training in the creative industries and raise the aspirations of young people now emerging into the workplace. There are more than 50 learning organisations currently linked to the new BBC North development, and staff are helping mentor and nurture new talent.

Peter Salmon said: "This is the first, exciting step in rewiring the BBC in the North of England, helping us better spread the British public's investment in the licence fee right across the UK, with the aim of making even better programmes and content that reflects their lives.

"Just as important, when our media industries are facing such tough times, this project can act as a catalyst for the renaissance of the creative economies across the North and create valuable new jobs in these tough times.

"Though there is still much work to do before we can broadcast and launch operations here in 2011, today we see that ambition taking physical shape, and the planning to deliver great new programmes that MediaCityUK will inspore."

Bryan Gray, Chairman of the developer Peel Media, said: "Together with our partners, we are building a new city at Salford Quays, bringing a renaissance to Manchester's historic waterfront. Today's building handover to the BBC is the first of many important milestones for MediaCityUK. We all look forward to delivering our shared ambitions of creative excellence, innovation and tangible benefits for the North of England and the wider UK media sectors."

Visiting Salford, BBC Trust Chairman, Sir Michael Lyons, said: "One of the Trust's key aims for the BBC is that it serves all audiences regardless of location and background. And that ambition extends beyond what's on our screens and radios. It means the BBC contributing to the cultural life and economic prosperity of communities across the length and breadth of the UK.

"The Salford project is an excellent example of the BBC doing just that. Today is a significant landmark in a project that will help regenerate an entire area and I hope, in time, act as a springboard for wider creative innovation in the North of England."

As part of the official handover a short fanfare was performed by four members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra's brass players, joined by members of their Salford Family Orchestra, plus young musicians from Salford's Music Service.

The fanfare was specially composed by Peter Willmott, a double bass player for the Philharmonic Orchestra, who helped create the successful family orchestra, set up in partnership with the BBC Proms, which enabled over 70 amateur music lovers from Salford travel to London to perform on stage at the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year.
Notes to Editors

1. The BBC takes delivery of two more buildings – to house BBC Children's, BBC Learning, Religion, Radio, hundreds of technologists and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in the spring of 2010, creating the Corporation's second biggest base after London.

2. The three new buildings leased by the BBC at MediaCityUK all meet the BREEM "excellent" rating for sustainability.

3. The MediaCityUK consortium developing the site comprises Peel Holdings Ltd, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company and Salford City Council.

4. Examples of partnerships with schools, colleges and universities:

* The University of Salford's MA Film class 2009 were asked to create films giving their unique take on life in the North. This challenge is now being extended to work with students from all over the North.
* The BBC has worked with students across three partners – Newcastle University, Teesside University and East Coast Media in Grimsby on a challenge set via YouTube, to come up with ideas to make the BBC's coverage of The Great North Run more interactive, and pitch them to a BBC panel. The top six were chosen for a three-week work placement with the BBC teams covering the event. Two went to BBC Sport in London, two to Look North in Newcastle and two to BBC Radio Newcastle. Within three days the students had three pieces on Look North; the Assistant Editor there says they surpassed all expectations. The News Editor at Radio Newcastle was so impressed she's offered her pair shifts with the Sports team – with the view to giving them casual contracts.
* In March 2009 BBC News School Report worked with five Salford Schools, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC21CC and Radio Manchester, to broadcast three hours of live radio on Radio Manchester's DAB channel. In September 2009 BBC Learning's My Story, Video Nation, the BBC Bus, BBC Radio Sheffield and Rotherham College worked with media students from Rotherham to produce stories which were broadcast on BBC Radio Sheffield.

MediaCityUK Fact Sheet

Creative Renaissance of the North

By opening a major new production centre in Salford, the BBC is planting its feet in the North. Five major departments will be based there, including Sport, 5 Live, Children's programmes, Learning, Future Media & Technology, as well as output that was already Manchester-based: Entertainment, Comedy, Religion, Drama and Current Affairs, Radio as well as Television.

Eventually, the project's arteries will feed into all corners of the North, invigorating the creative industries in the whole region.

The BBC currently invests £1.1bn of the licence fee directly into the creative economy. By 2016 we aim to ensure at least 50% of network programme spend will be outside the M25. In the Nations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) the figure will go up from 6% in 2007 to 17%. The English regions will account for 33%.

A recent report by regeneration expert Andrew Curry found the "creative buzz" approach to regeneration in Salford is a potential model for other towns and cities to follow. It says that the Salford project could help match the success of Manchester City Centre in the Nineties, where the vibrant music and club scene became a focal point for a revival in the new music industry reinforcing the resilience of the local economy and community.

Jobs and Construction

The BBC is locating 2,500 jobs from London and Manchester to MediaCityUK. As a whole, MediaCityUK is expected to create more than 15,000 jobs; deliver £1 billion in additional net value to the Northwest's economy over 5 years (£220m GVA pa), once complete; and provide workspace for several hundred creative and related businesses.

The site construction is directly employing a workforce of 2,800 people of which 52% from Greater Manchester and 75% are from the Northwest. The construction of phase 1 is projected to support 13,000 jobs. It is the UK's largest construction project outside of the Olympic Park (and the third biggest in Europe), and is already making a significant impact on the local and regional economy providing jobs, skills and wider community benefits.

Skills and Training

The MediaCityUK project is offering ongoing training to those working on site and has already updated the specific trade skills for 1,500 people. Over 80 apprentices are working on the project.

To raise awareness of career opportunities in construction, over 1,500 students from Greater Manchester have been involved in the project including site visits. Salford University is establishing a major presence at MediaCityUK by developing a School of Music, Media and Performance to be opened in 2012.

The university's new centre will focus on employer-led and postgraduate learning and research collaboration and host up to 1,000 staff and students.

Eighty-four primary schools in Salford are being engaged to raise aspirations and interest of pupils in careers in the creative and digital sector and includes four projects:

* The Higher Future 4 U aspiration programme will be offered to all Y5 pupils
* Me And My Movie film-making initiative to all Y6 pupils in all 82 Salford primary schools.
* Radiowaves internet radio stations are on offer to all 18 secondary schools
* Supporter to Reporter a more specialised intensive sports journalism course available to 30 pupils per year.

The Oasis Academy MediaCityUK School accommodating 900 secondary students and 250 sixth form students, will move to a brand new complex at MediaCityUK in September 2011.

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Two years ago the BBC Philharmonic announced a major new partnership with Salford City Council worth £20 million over eight years, in the run-up to the opening of the BBC's new site at MediaCityUK.

Since then the BBC Philharmonic team has worked with around 2,000 people of all ages in Salford, developing skills, raising career aspirations and making great music. They have performed in many venues all over Salford ranging from the iconic Salford Lads Club, to St Philips Church and Islington Mill. Smaller concerts have taken place in shopping malls, nursing homes, canteens and nurseries.

The Orchestra's partnership with Salford hit a high this summer, when Salford City Council hosted this year's BBC Proms In The Park, staging a magnificent concert from Buile Hill Park which was attended by over 8,000 people, and which was part of BBC TV's Last Night Of The Proms coverage on BBC One and BBC Two.

The next big project sees the Orchestra celebrate the International Year of Astronomy by commissioning Salford composer Alan Williams to explore the scientific theory of creation, or "the big bang". The new work, Wonder – A Scientific Oratorio will be premiered by the full forces of the BBC Philharmonic at Salford University, alongside the BBC Singers and Salford Choral Society, conducted by Tecwyn Evans next month.

— WebWireID105793 —

Washington, D.C. – NPR Music is currently presenting full advance streams of three new albums ahead of their release dates: The Swell Season's Strict Joy, Miguel Zenon's Esta Plena and One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur by Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar. All three will be available for free, on-demand listening at www.npr.org/music as part of the site's "Exclusive First Listen" series. The entire series -- which includes full albums in all genres -- is available at www.npr.org/firstlisten.

Together as The Swell Season, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova have produced another album full of understated drama with Strict Joy, available at NPR Music from October 13 to 27. The duo is best known for the award-winning soundtrack to Once, the hit indie movie in which they also co-starred. Strict Joy draws on musical and lyrical themes that will be pleasantly familiar to fans of the first album. Hansard's vocals are again showcased on haunting tracks that contrast gentle melodies with frank lyrics about relationships and hurt. The delicate piano by Irglova makes the painful emotion they conjure seem beautiful on an album that's both personal and universal. Hear the entire album here:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113630469

Alto saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenon's new album, Esta Plena, is available from October 13 to 20 at NPR Music. The highly acclaimed Zenon is a past winner of a Guggenheim grant, a founding member of the SFJazz Collective and a 2008 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation's "Genius Grant." Zenon has also toured and taught music in West Africa as a Kennedy Center Ambassador. On Esta Plena, he leads a quartet in spirited jazz infused with the playful sounds of his native Puerto Rico. The full album can be heard here:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113735696

Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Son Volt's Jay Farrar joined forces to create One Fast Move Or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur. The two met while recording songs for a documentary about Kerouac's life, and were inspired to continue their collaboration with a full album. Gibbard's well-known indie-pop style mixes with Farrar's flair for nontraditional country sounds on this collection of original songs based on Kerouac's 1962 novel, Big Sur. One Fast Move Or I'm Gone is being released this fall to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Kerouac's death, and will be available at NPR Music from October 14 to 20. Hear their collaboration here:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113748932

Complete track listings and album information are available at NPR Music, where there are also extensive archives of concerts, interviews and reviews with artists of all genres. NPR Music introduced its "Exclusive First Listen" series last year with Bob Dylan's 2-CD set Tell Tale Signs. The series is now one of the site's most popular features, and has offered pre-release streams of albums from artists such as Wilco, Bjork, Bill Frisell and the Dead Weather. Other albums currently available in the series include The Flaming Lips' Embryonic, Rosanne Cash's The List, and Nellie McKay's Normal as Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day.

The "Exclusive First Listen" series is one feature of NPR Music, a free, multimedia music discovery Web site at www.npr.org/music. The site offers content from NPR and 12 NPR Member public radio stations, including live performances, studio sessions, first listens to new albums, interviews, reviews and blogs. The site's continuously expanding sections are dedicated to rock/pop/folk, classical, jazz/blues, world and urban music. NPR Music culls from NPR's and the stations' extensive music archives to present thousands of features; more than 250 new features are added to the site every month.

— WebWireID105763 —

When the combined forces of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, take over Birmingham's Symphony Hall on 14 and 15 October 2009, their performances of Hector Berlioz's spectacular Requiem (Grande messe des morts Op.5), will be uniquely documented. In a first for EMI Classics, through the LiveHereNow initiative and in partnership with the CBSO, Mariinsky Theatre and Town Hall & Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the event with be recorded and a strictly limited edition of CDs burned per night, available to those who purchase at the event itself.. The CDs - to be prepared in the foyers of Symphony Hall - will be hot off the presses within minutes of the end of the concert, and ready for audience members to experience once again what promises to be the musical event of a lifetime.

Stephen Johns, Head of Artists & Repertoire EMI Classics said, "Through history, recordings have endeavoured to capture the essence of the live experience and make it available for listeners to appreciate again and again. EMI Classics, who have been making recordings for over 112 years, are pleased to announce their first live recording to be available to the audience on CD immediately following the recorded performance. For such an innovative project, the recording is of a suitable scale - Berlioz's monumental Requiem (Grande messe des morts Op.5), written for large chorus, orchestra and four additional brass groups, the latter, in this case, spread around Birmingham's justifiably famous auditorium. The unique nature of this project is heightened by the one-off combination of performers - the joint orchestras and choirs of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, conducted by one of the great musicians of our time, Valery Gergiev."

Berlioz composed the Requiem to commemorate the fallen heroes of the French Revolution of 1830. In addition to being a 'Grande messe des morts,' the work can be heard as a celebration of the glory of the French nation. Through his Requiem, Berlioz, who was not a religious man, wished to create a communal experience akin to the Day of Judgement in which each listener would be "shaken to the depths of his soul." The composer achieved this through his magnificent score and his use of massive choral and orchestral forces, including four brass bands and extra percussion intended to fill the immense open spaces of the Cathedral of Saint-Louis des Invalides. In a footnote to the manuscript, Berlioz wrote that "The number [of performers] indicated is only relative. If space permits, the chorus may be doubled or tripled and the orchestra be proportionally increased." Four hundred performers took part in the premiere of Berlioz's Requiem in December 1837. The joint orchestral and choral forces in Birmingham next week will total around 380.

Valery Gergiev's inspired leadership as Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre since 1988 has taken Mariinsky ensembles to 45 countries, presenting the best of Russian opera and ballets as well as the complete Shostakovich and Prokofiev symphonies and Wagner's Ring cycle, and has brought universal acclaim to this legendary institution. Presently Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev is also founder and Artistic Director of the Stars of the White Nights Festival and New Horizons Festival in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Easter Festival, the Gergiev Rotterdam Festival, the Mikkeli International Festival, and the Red Sea Festival in Eilat, Israel. In 1998, Valery Gergiev succeeded Sir Georg Solti as conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace.

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a world-renowned orchestra at the heart of the UK that has been celebrating music and musical talent for nearly 100 years. The arrival of Andris Nelsons as its Music Director in 2008 has seen the orchestra go from strength to strength with record ticket sales and huge acclaim both in the UK and internationally. CBSO's Ignite programme inspires individuals to sing, play, compose and experience music and includes five talented and renowned choruses, a youth orchestra as well as an education and outreach program that reaches over 50,000 people regionally each year. The CBSO is a charity which is core funded by the Arts Council of England and Birmingham City Council. The CBSO was one of the first UK orchestras to invite Valery Gergiev to perform with them; he made his debut with the orchestra in 1989, conducting several concerts over subsequent seasons in Birmingham's Town Hall, and visiting Symphony Hall before its public opening.

The Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra enjoys a long and distinguished history as one of the oldest musical institutions in Russia. Founded in the 18th century during the reign of Peter the Great and housed in St. Petersburg's famed Mariinsky Theatre since 1860, the Orchestra entered its "golden age" in the second half of the 19th century under the musical direction of Eduard Napravnik, who single-handedly ruled the Theatre for more than half a century (from 1863-1916). The Mariinsky Theatre was also the birthplace of numerous operas and ballets regarded as masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries, having presented world premieres of works by Glinka, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian. Renamed the "Kirov" during the Soviet era, the Orchestra continued to maintain its high artistic standards under the leadership of Yevgeny Mravinsky and Yuri Temirkanov. Now in the post-Glasnost era the Theatre has reclaimed the Mariinsky name and under the leadership of Valery Gergiev has forged important relationships with the world's greatest opera houses and concert halls as it has entered its second "golden age". Apart from extensive touring with the Opera and Ballet Companies, the Orchestra has performed throughout the world to international acclaim, and has been acknowledged in the London press as one of the ten best orchestras in the world.

The performances in Birmingham, which will also feature Prokofiev's Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, form the centrepiece of the Mariinsky Opera's October 2009 UK tour, managed by the Mariinsky Theatre Trust. The tour will also include three concerts in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, the opening concert of the 2009 Belfast International Festival and the opening concert of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall's International Classical Concert series. The Mariinsky Theatre Trust is a UK charity established in 1993 with Valery Gergiev. As well as supporting Mariinsky projects in Russia, the Trust plays an active role in facilitating performances of the Mariinsky's most innovative projects and repertoire in the UK.

With its world-famous acoustics and unique design, Symphony Hall, Birmingham is one of the few concert halls in the UK capable of presenting a project the size of Berlioz's Requiem. The performances on 14 and 15 October will be two of the biggest concerts ever presented on its stage. Symphony Hall, which is promoting and funding this unique pair of concerts, has a long-standing relationship with Maestro Gergiev and his Mariinsky company dating back to 1991 when the Kirov (as it was then known) became the first opera company to perform in the newly-opened concert hall.

The concerts on 14 and 15 October 2009 represent an Anglo-Russian cultural venture on an unprecedented scale. Over a period of four days of rehearsals and performances, British and Russian musicians will work closely together with conductor Valery Gergiev to form one huge international ensemble. Stephen Maddock, Chief Executive of the CBSO said: "We are thrilled to be taking part in what will be one of the greatest orchestral spectacles of its kind in the acoustics of one of the best concert halls in the world. Gergiev has an energy that captures the imagination of the audience: we will certainly be in for a treat." Andrew Jowett, Director of Town Hall & Symphony Hall said, "During Symphony Hall's long association with the Mariinsky company we have enjoyed some very memorable concerts. However, this new opportunity, which brings together Gergiev's great opera company with Birmingham's own celebrated symphony orchestra and chorus may yet surpass them!"

— WebWireID105671 —

"What's Working for You" is a recently launched online resource that provides radio and television stations with the opportunity to share successful revenue generating strategies or charitable fundraising initiatives with other broadcasters. According to Beasley Broadcast Group, Dunn and Beasley Broadcasting's Sales Manager Mark Haddon worked together to share positive stories about the opportunities available to the Augusta community through the creation and distribution of public service announcements (PSAs). These PSAs featured local politicians and were shared with the Augusta community. The promotion encouraged citizens to support their community by keeping dollars local and was sold to like-minded businesses.

— WebWireID105569 —

Every track featured in Sky Songs is available via unlimited online streaming and as mp3 files that can be downloaded and stored and used on any mp3 compatible device. The service, which launches on the 19th October 2009, will be available to any consumer in the UK with an active broadband connection.

The service launches with new releases and back catalogues from every major music label (EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner), plus a comprehensive range of independent labels and distributors.

Sky Songs offers users unlimited music streaming, plus download-to-own tracks and albums. Customers can also purchase additional music on a per-track or per-album basis.

Mike Darcey, Sky's Chief Operating Officer, comments: "Our music partners bring an outstanding catalogue and unrivalled expertise that complements Sky's strengths in content distribution. Sky Songs will reach out to consumers who want legitimate digital services offering choice, ease of use and great value. Offering legal access to digital music is a vital step in combating illegal downloading.

To celebrate the launch, all Sky broadband customers who access the site will receive a free downloadable album.

- Ends -

Notes for editors:
Sky Songs includes new release and back catalogue material from EMI, Sony Music Entertainment UK, Warner Music UK and Universal Music Group, plus a range of independent labels and distributors - including the Beggars Group (representing 4AD, Rough Trade, Matador and XL Recordings), PIAS Entertainment Group (representing over 100 leading independent labels), The Orchard, IODA and VidZone Digital Media. Sky Songs is licensed by PRS for Music in the UK.

About Sky
Sky operates the most comprehensive multichannel, multi-platform television service in the UK and Ireland. Over 9.4 million homes enjoy an unprecedented choice of movies, news, entertainment and sports channels. Sky continues to break new ground with its own portfolio of channels: Sky1 combines its commitment to UK production with the best of the US; Sky Arts continues to embrace new audiences as the UK's only dedicated arts channel brand; Sky Sports is still raising the bar in sports broadcasting; and Sky News remains a pioneer in multiplatform television news.

Over 5 million Sky homes now enjoy the control and flexibility of Sky+ and 1.3 million homes have already joined Sky+HD, which provides access to 34 dedicated HD channels. Sky is also the UK's fastest growing broadband and fixed-telephony provider.

PR Contact:
Victoria Etaghene
0207 705 3000
BSKYB
Grant Way
Isleworth
Middlesex
TW7 5QD
songs.sky.com

— WebWireID105555 —