Chicago Symphony Returns to Airwaves in Multimedia Pact

CHICAGO - After more than five years, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will return to the national radio airwaves early next year as part of a comprehensive new media agreement that includes the launch of a new in-house recording label for compact discs and digital downloads, it was announced Thursday.

The agreement by the CSO Association, the Chicago Federation of Musicians and the WFMT Radio Network is made possible by a three-year, $3.4 million gift from the petroleum company BP. Local and national broadcasts of in-concert performances by the CSO will resume in March as part of a 52-week series called the BP Chicago Symphony Orchestra Radio Broadcasts, produced by WFMT-FM and syndicated by the WFMT network.

The series will comprise 39 weekly programs, with interviews and special features augmenting the taped performances. The remaining 13 weeks of broadcasts will be commercial recordings by the CSO, which WFMT has been airing since 2001 as CSO Retrospectives.

CSO Association President Deborah R. Card said Thursday that the orchestra and its joint media committee decided they would not enter into any new media agreement that wasn't "all-inclusive."

"We did a lot of research with other orchestras that are either doing (recordings) on their own or in partnership with record companies like DG and Universal," she said. "We decided we would have much greater control with a plan that allows us to manage the marketing, positioning, timing, all those things. Ultimately, I think the financial model works much better (for us)."

As another part of the agreement, early next year the CSO will join the San Francisco Symphony, the London Symphony and other orchestras that create their own live concert recordings and market them as commercial CDs and digital downloads.

The CSO will self-produce at least six new CD releases over the next three years under its own label, CSO Resound. All releases will be drawn from live recordings of CSO concerts. In addition, three to four digital-only releases will be issued each year. Partial funding comes from the Boeing Co.

The initial release will be Mahler's Symphony No. 3, taped in concerts in October at Orchestra Hall under the direction of principal conductor Bernard Haitink. The live Mahler performance will be released in early 2007 as both a commercial recording and an audio file downloadable through the orchestra's Web site www.cso.org; iTunes; www.amazon.com; and other distribution channels. The CD also will be sold at traditional retail outlets, including the Symphony Store. Future releases will be announced in mid-2007.

In addition to contractual guidelines for radio broadcasts of CSO concerts, the agreement allows for simultaneous streaming on the Internet and sets terms for broadcasts of chamber music concerts and for creating self-produced CDs and digital downloads. It also includes provisions to create recordings for educational use in the Chicago public schools.

The new series represents the first new nationally syndicated radio programs by the CSO to be heard since 2001. It will be syndicated to more than 160 markets nationwide, according to Steve Robinson, senior vice president for WFMT and its radio network. He said he expects the number of stations to increase through 2007 as word reaches classical music outlets throughout the U.S.

Card said the CSO's renewed presence on radio and recordings, along with its expanded presence on the Internet, should significantly broaden the orchestra's local, national and international outreach.

"We feel the radio broadcasts can have a positive impact on our CDs and other recordings, drawing people to our Web site and, of course, bringing more people to our live concerts," she said. "We really want to extend the sound of the CSO and to engage more people as active participants" in what the orchestra does, she added.

The CSO is the second major classical organization in Chicago to reach a new electronic media agreement in recent months. In October, the Lyric Opera and its unions resumed local and national radio broadcasts on WFMT and via national syndication.

Also, downloads of the CSO's upcoming Beyond the Score series presentation of Bartok's "The Miraculous Mandarin," with conductor emeritus Pierre Boulez and host Gerard McBurney, will be made available free of charge on the orchestra's Web site beginning in January. The Bartok program will be given Sunday afternoon at Orchestra Hall and repeated Dec. 9 in New York's Carnegie Hall.

Part of the BP gift will support two European tours by the CSO, including one in fall 2007 to be conducted by Riccardo Muti. The petroleum company has contributed to the CSO's annual fund for more than 15 years and has supported CSO education and community initiatives since 2002. From 1976 until 2001, BP, once known as Standard Oil Co. of Indiana (later Amoco), underwrote the orchestra's local and national radio broadcasts.

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