Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek LIVE!,
Swings on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances,
Friday, October 24 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS
Brand new special presentation of PBS Arts Fall Festival features the
collaboration between the two generation-spanning musical artists celebrating jazz music
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek LIVE!
-- featuring an evening of classic jazz standards in both vocal duets and solo performances -- will air
on THIRTEEN’s Great Performances,
Friday, October 24 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. (Check local listings
.)
Taped
at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall on July 28, each
song was handpicked by the artists, and features classic selections from
the Great American Songbook. At press time, the song roster is
scheduled
to include “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),”
“Sophisticated Lady,” “Lush Life,” “Anything Goes,” and the title track
from their forthcoming album, “Cheek To Cheek.”
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek LIVE!
was filmed in front of a live
audience of invited guests, many of whom were students involved in arts
programs in NYC public schools.
The new special will air as part of the PBS Arts Fall Festival 2014.
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek LIVE! is supported by LG Electronics USA, the official sponsor.
With set and lighting design by Robert Wilson,
the stars are joined by a 39-piece orchestra conducted by Jorge
Calandrelli, soloists Chris Botti on trumpet and David Mann on tenor
sax, and
jazz
musicians associated with both artists including members of Bennett’s
quartet, Mike Renzi, Gray Sargent, Harold Jones and Marshall Wood, and
Lady Gaga’s quintet, including Brian Newman, Paul Francis, Steven
Kortyka, Michael Scott
Ritchie, and Alex Smith.
Award-winning director Robert
Wilson’s signature works include King of Spain, Deafman Glance, The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin, and A Letter for Queen Victoria. With Philip Glass, he created
Einstein on the Beach. Following Einstein, Wilson worked with major European theaters and opera houses, creating
Death, Destruction & Detroit and Death, Destruction & Detroit II; and the groundbreaking musical works The Black Rider and Alice. His work in the operatic repertoire includes major productions of Parsifal,
The Magic Flute, Madame Butterfly, and Lohengrin. Extensive retrospectives have been presented in Paris, Boston, Amsterdam, London, New York, Bilbao, and Seattle.
“Cheek
To Cheek,” the collaborative jazz album from Lady Gaga and Tony
Bennett, will be released on Streamline/Columbia/Interscope Records on
Tuesday, September 23. The debut song from the album, Cole Porter’s
“Anything Goes”
was recently released on iTunes and hit #1 on Billboard’s Digital Jazz
Charts.
Tony
Bennett and Lady Gaga first met backstage in 2011 after the two
performed at the Robin Hood Foundation gala in New York City and Bennett
asked Lady Gaga to sing a duet with him on his
Duets II album that he was
beginning to record. “The Lady is A Tramp” was the result of that
endeavor and conversations began about collaborating on a
jazz project.
Recently,
Bennett and Gaga surprised the student body at Frank Sinatra School of
the Arts, a New York City public arts high school founded by Tony
Bennett, when they spoke and performed for the school on the last day
of classes in June. Lady Gaga surprised the Montreal Jazz Festival
audience by joining Bennett on stage when he was performing at the famed
jazz festival in July.
Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek LIVE!
is produced by THIRTEEN
Productions LLC for WNET. With set design and lighting by Robert
Wilson. Directed by David Horn. Mitch Owgang is producer; Phil Hack is
line producer. For
Great Performances, Bill O’Donnell is series producer and David Horn is executive producer.
Great Performances
is funded by the Anne Ray Charitable Trust, the Irene Diamond Fund, the
Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, The LuEsther T. Mertz
Charitable Trust, Rosalind
P. Walter, The Agnes Varis Trust, The Starr Foundation, the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation,
and PBS.
Visit Great Performances Online at
www.pbs.org/gperf for additional information about this and other programs.
About WNET
As New York’s flagship public media provider and the parent company of THIRTEEN
and
WLIW21 and operator of
NJTV, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5 million viewers each week. WNET produces and
presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature,
Great Performances,
American Masters,
PBS NewsHour Weekend,
Charlie Rose and a range of documentaries, children’s programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online.
Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as
Get the Math,
Oh Noah! and
Cyberchase and provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights
the tri-state’s unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS
,
Reel 13,
NJTV News with
Mary Alice Williams and MetroFocus, the multi-platform news magazine focusing
on the New York region. WNET is also a leader in connecting with viewers on emerging platforms, including the
THIRTEEN Explore iPad App where users can stream PBS content for free.
PBS Fall Arts Festival
The
2014 PBS Arts Fall Festival is an 11-week series hosted by Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress and accomplished singer Kristin Chenoweth. This year’s Festival includes:
Live From Lincoln Center
’s 40th anniversary season featuring “‘Sweeney
Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’
In Concert With the New York Philharmonic” starring Bryn Terfel and
Emma Thompson, and “The Nance” starring Nathan Lane; “Austin
City Limits Celebrates 40 Years”; “The Gershwins’® Porgy And Besssm From San Francisco Opera; Great
Performances “Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek LIVE!”
and “Cats”; “Michael Feinstein at The Rainbow Room,” celebrating the
reopening of the historic
restaurant and nightclub; “Hitmakers,” an up-close look at the music
industry’s resilience in the digital age; “Kristin Chenoweth: Coming
Home,” featuring the star performing in her hometown of Broken Arrow,
Oklahoma; and “A Tribute To Bruce Springsteen (w.t.)”, with
music’s biggest names performing Springsteen’s biggest hits. The PBS
Arts Festivals
underscores PBS’ commitment to America’s best performing arts and gives millions of viewers a front-row seat and a backstage pass to great cultural programs. For more, please visit
pressroom.pbs.org.