Special Programs: Upcoming Community and Cultural Programs

Airs Monday, April 16 at 8:00 p.m.  Bullying isn’t a new story, but lately, it is all over the news. And while young people are often the targets and the actors in bullying, we rarely get to hear their perspectives in the media. Bullied: Teen Stories is changing that. This hour-long special produced in collaboration with WNPR includes stories from teens with first-hand insight on bullying. From being called "Osama" in a Boston classroom, to looking at whether bullying prevention programs really work in Anchorage, youth producers from around the globe help show us what we don’t we understand – but need to – about bullying. Join teen hosts Council Brandon and Peython Echelson-Russell for an hour of thought-provoking stories, interviews and teen perspectives on bullying.

Airs Monday, April 16 at 9:00 p.m. Jazz with a modern vibe on one side with some far reaching orchestrations on the other. John Boutte performs a Leonard Cohen song. Nicholas Payton stretches his sound into yet another direction. Leroy Jones performs a song heralding the spirit of Carnival in New Orleans. The Delfeayo Marsalis Uptown Orchestra takes on the compositions of Armstrong as well as Ellington. And finally, the Mingus Big Band turns a song originally only on piano into a giant work.

Airs Saturday, April 14 at 12:00 noon. The 2011-12 Metropolitan Opera Radio Broadcast season continues with a live broadcast of Verdi’s La Traviata. Natalie Dessay sings her first Met performances of the iconic leading role, Violetta Valéry. Matthew Polenzani co-stars as her love, Alfredo, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky is his disapproving father, Giorgio Germont. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi leads the performance in the second of his four consecutive radio broadcasts this season. The opera will be seen in Willy Decker’s striking production, which premiered to critical acclaim at the Met in 2010. La Traviata will be heard live over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network at 12 p.m. CT on Saturday, April 14.  The performance will also be transmitted worldwide as part of The Met: Live in HD series, which is now seen in more than 1,700 movie theaters in 54 countries.

Bill Beckett talks with Alexandyr Kent, Executive Director of the Robinson Film Center about their BACKLOT Gala at Millennium Studios and their Summer Film Camps for kids ages 9 to 18. Learn more about the camps here.

Airs Thursday, April 12 at 8:00 p.m.   The music of George Gershwin played on piano by Sebastian Knauer as written on the page, and by jazz pianist Marcus Roberts improvisationally. Performed at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts during Savannah Music Festival. While it is often said that George Gershwin was ahead of his time, the fact remains that he created music in his time, and at his time. On this episode, hear a range of piano music performed at a concert during the Savannah Music Festival called "Gershwin Songbook." The program included both popular songs and concertos, some of it played as written on the sheet music by classical pianist Sebastian Knauer, and other works improvised on the spot by jazz pianist Marcus Roberts.