Nashville, Tenn. (January 30, 2008) One Symphony Place: A World Premiere Live from Music City  received a prestigious Emmy® Award at the 22nd Annual Midsouth Emmy Awards on January 26, 2008 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville.  The award was presented in the category of “Live Special Event” for the opening gala broadcast of Schermerhorn Symphony Center—the Nashville Symphony’s new concert hall—which took place on September 9, 2006.

One Symphony Place was telecast live on PBS stations statewide and distributed nationally later that year by Nashville Public Television (WNPT).  Produced by Sunrise Entertainment and the Nashville Symphony in both High Definition and Digital television, One Symphony Place was also the first live musical performance filmed in HDSR in North America. 

“I believe Kenneth Schermerhorn would have been enormously proud of everyone involved in One Symphony Place,” said Robert Swope, President of Sunrise Entertainment and Producer/Director of the program.  “It was his vision to see this remarkable concert hall become the complete success that it is, and I am eternally grateful to the Nashville Symphony, Alan Valentine and their Board of Directors for the trust they placed in us at Sunrise to create this Emmy-winning project.”

 “We are honored to receive an Emmy Award for the broadcast of such a momentous performance in the history of our organization—the opening of our critically acclaimed concert hall, Schermerhorn Symphony Center,” said Alan D. Valentine, president and CEO of the Nashville Symphony.  “I want to give a special thanks to Sunrise Entertainment for capturing the magic of that evening so beautifully and to WNPT for giving all of Tennessee the opportunity to view this magnificent performance.”

Music Advisor Leonard Slatkin led the Nashville Symphony in this opening gala concert, which featured a world premiere of Triple Concerto for Banjo, Double Bass and Tabla composed and performed by Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain; Shostakovich’s Festive Overture; Samuel Barber’s Essay No. 2, Op. 17; and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection.” 

The Nashville Symphony has been honored with six Grammy nominations and is currently one of the most successful recording orchestras in the country.  Particularly renowned for its American Classics recordings on the Naxos label, the Nashville Symphony has a growing international reputation for innovative programming and recordings.

Sunrise Entertainment, celebrating 15 years as a High Definition production company in 2008, prides itself on being one of the first companies in the world to produce and distribute HD programming and continues to push the envelope in mixing state of the art technologies with superbly creative production.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, awarding the Emmy to One Symphony Place for Best Event Program/Live, gave statuettes to Alan Valentine as Executive Producer, Robert Swope as Producer/Executive Producer,  Susan Routh Bowman as Senior Producer, and Christopher Toyne as Supervising Producer.  At the helm of Sunrise, Robert Swope has been honored with 3 Grammy nominations, 18 Stellar nominations and was also Emmy nominated for Best Director and Best Audio for One Symphony Place.