The brave men and women who fight in our country’s military, both inside and outside of the United States, often leave something behind – a family. This kind of lifestyle can be difficult to adjust to, but also provides opportunities that non-military families don’t usually have. In this segment, we meet some kids just like you who have one or more parents in the service, and have learned to adapt to the military lifestyle.

For many, the 1960s mark the true end of modern America. Whereas the modernists remained serious about the transcendent nature of art, the artists of the 1960s wanted an art that was relevant. They wanted an art that not only spoke about justice, but also helped create it. This program explores the innovations made in American poetry in the 1960s by Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, and Adrienne Rich.

Gospel is a genre of religious music, which is very much focused on a strong vocal delivery. These amazing harmonies and lyrics, which are celebratory.It’s music of unparalleled spirituality. It’s the music of hope; it’s the music of light, and it’s the music of better times ahead. It’s a combination of African Spirituals from Africans who were brought over to be slaves, and Christianity, but the non-conformist side of Christianity; Methodism,...

One of the latest and most exciting trends in Colombian music is the fusion of traditional rhythms and melodies with electronic beats and modern influences. The Music Voyager team explores this cutting-edge Bogotá scene starting with an electrifying live performance in the streets with La Mojarra Eléctrica. Then, meet British DJ and producer Richard Blaire, whose Sidestepper project pioneered the electrotropical trend. Systema Solar gives a taste...

Jazz was perhaps the first great American art form of the 20th Century. In this informative and enthralling program, award-winning actor Morgan Freeman tells the story of the first few decades of jazz, beginning at the mouth of the Mississippi in the city widely acknowledged as its birthplace, New Orleans. We follow jazz’s journey from its origins as a mixture of African, Classical European and blues ingredients; through the great Dixieland days...

In this program, Rattle presents an eclectic selection of works by living composers to illustrate the rich variety of new musical trends he believes pave the way to the future. The music of Berio and Henze illustrates how the past has become just one ingredient in today's world of instant access to sounds, pictures, and ideas from every continent and every era. Strange and compelling works by Gubaidulina and Kurtag echo with Eastern European and central...

Dixieland, swing, bebop, modal, free, avant-garde, these were some of the terms critics used during the 1960s to categorize the diverse manifestations of jazz music. As for the artists themselves, many were desperate for work and headed for Europe, including bebop saxophone master Dexter Gordon. At home, jazz sought relevance. During the Civil Rights struggle it became a voice of protest, while avant-garde explorer John Coltrane reached for a higher...

With its real-life characters and earthly plot, The Marriage of Figaro is the first modern opera and an example of how Mozart took his inspiration from humanity and not God, as his predecessors had done. This program tracks the meteoric career of perhaps the greatest musical genius ever. Musicologist Andre Tubeuf and Mozart scholars Jean and Brigitte Massin discuss the interplay of composition and personal fortune in the artist's brief life. A varied...

This program details the history of this dynamic medium from its modest beginnings. In 1949, cable meant television for locations that had very poor reception or were inaccessible to broadcast signals. By the mid-1970s, cable service began to expand rapidly due to the easing of government restrictions and the use of satellite transmissions. Fiber optics, new cable-ready TVs, and an explosion of programming by an ever-growing number of networks helped...

This program, devoted to the 16th century, provides an introduction to the history, art, and architecture of Venice and the history of music in the city; covers Willaert and Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli at the Basilica of St. Mark; and demonstrates the extraordinary acoustics and explains their influence on the music written for performance here. Live performances in San Stefano of Gabrieli's Gloria and Schutz madrigals in a palace on the Grand Canal....