Celebrity Series of Boston
Gary Dunning, President and Executive Director
Presents
Ira Glass
Reinventing Radio
Sunday, March 9, 2014 3pm — Symphony Hall
(Boston) Celebrity Series of Boston will present the comical and informative talent of Ira Glass on Sunday, March 9, 2014, at 3:00pm at Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA.
Tickets for Ira Glass-Reinventing Radio start at $30, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Symphony Hall Box Office, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA.
This is the third time Ira Glass has appeared with the Celebrity Series of Boston. His last performance was in 2011.
Ira Glass is the host and creator of the public radio program This American Life. The show premiered on Chicago’s public radio station WBEZ in 1995 and is now heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by over 1.7 million listeners. The podcast of the program is one of the most popular podcasts in America. The show also airs each week on the CBC in Canada and on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio network.
In his show Reinventing Radio, Glass talks about This American Life and how it’s put together: what makes a compelling story, where they find the amazing stories for the show, how he and his staff are trying to push broadcast journalism to do things it doesn’t usually do. As part of this, Glass mixes stories from the show, live onstage, combining his narration with pre-taped quotes and music, recreating the sound of the show as the audience watches.
Glass began his career as an intern at National Public Radio’s network headquarters in Washington, DC in 1978, when he was 19 years old. Over the years, he worked on nearly every NPR network news program and held virtually every production job in NPR’s Washington headquarters. He has been a tape cutter, newscast writer, desk assistant, editor, and producer. He has filled in as host of Talk of the Nation and Weekend All Things Considered.
Under Glass’s editorial direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including several Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards.
A television adaptation of This American Life ran on the Showtime network for two seasons, in 2007 and 2008, winning three Emmy awards, including Outstanding Nonfiction Series. The show has put out its own comic book, three greatest hits compilations, DVDs of live shows and other events, a “radio decoder” toy, temporary tattoos and a paint-by-numbers set. Half a dozen stories are in development to become feature films. In 2012 he produced and co-wrote, with Mike Birbiglia, a movie called Sleepwalk with Me. In 2013 Ira Glass received the Medal for Spoken Language from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
Program includes a 60-minute talk followed by 30-minute audience Q&A.
About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 75-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world’s greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.
The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers–from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more–to Boston’s major concert halls for 75 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience–on stages, in schools, at home– everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.
The Celebrity Series of Boston, Inc. receives generous support from Amy and Joshua Boger; Eleanor and Frank Pao; Donna and Mike Egan; Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation; The Little Family Foundation; Tufts Health Plan; Foley & Lardner LLP; The John S. and Cynthia Reed Foundation; First Republic Bank; The Peabody Foundation; Charlesbank Capital Partners; PTC, The D.L. Saunders Real Estate Corp; Massachusetts Cultural Council; New England Foundation for the Arts.
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