Boston, Mass. - (Jan. 23, 2025) - Public media powerhouse GBH and the world renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra today announced a special evening with filmmaker Ken Burns to preview his new film, THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION , on April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Symphony Hall in Boston.
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a new six-part, 12-hour documentary series directed by Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, explores the country’s founding struggle and its eight-year War for Independence. The film examines how thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired centuries of democratic movements around the globe.
The much-anticipated series, which has been in production for eight years, will premiere on GBH in Boston and PBS stations throughout the country on November 16, 2025.
The April event will feature musical performances, selections from the documentary, and a behind-the-scenes conversation with the filmmakers and three historians featured in the film, Vincent Brown, Philip Deloria and Maya Jasanoff. The selection of music, curated by Grammy Award-winning violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman, will be performed by Gandelsman and Grammy Award-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens along with other instrumentalists, drawing on the soundtrack for THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION and the historical backdrop of key moments and themes depicted in the series.
For both GBH and the BSO, this evening with Ken Burns, occurring just days before the anniversary of the “shot heard round the world” and the start of the War for Independence, is part of a series of events and programming that the two organizations will be rolling out starting this spring to commemorate and explore the 250th anniversary of the founding of America.
Tickets are now on sale on the BSO website .
About GBH
GBH is the leading multiplatform creator for public media in America. As the largest producer of content for PBS and partner to NPR and PRX, GBH delivers compelling experiences, stories and information to audiences wherever they are. GBH produces digital and broadcast programming that engages, illuminates and inspires, through drama and science, history, arts, culture and journalism. It is the creator of such signature programs as MASTERPIECE, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, FRONTLINE, NOVA, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, ARTHUR and MOLLY OF DENALI and a catalog of streaming series, podcasts and on-demand video. GBH’s television channels include GBH 2, GBH 44, GBH Kids and national services WORLD and Create. With studios and a newsroom headquartered in Boston, GBH reaches across New England with GBH 89.7, Boston’s Local NPR; CRB Classical 99.5; and CAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station. Dedicated to making media accessible to and inclusive of our diverse culture, GBH is a pioneer in delivering media to those who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired. GBH creates curriculum-based digital content for educators nationwide with PBS LearningMedia and has been recognized with hundreds of the nation’s premier broadcast, digital and journalism awards. Find more information at gbh.org.
About the BSO
Led by Music Director Andris Nelsons since 2014, the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave its inaugural concert in 1881, launched the Boston Pops in 1885, and opened Symphony Hall—widely acclaimed as one of the greatest concert halls in the world—in 1900. Today, the BSO and the Boston Pops reach millions of listeners through not only concert performances in Boston and at Tanglewood—the orchestra’s summer home in Lenox and Stockbridge, Mass.—but also via educational and community programs, radio, television, recordings, and tours.
Click here
for further information.
Media Contact:
GBH
Nicole Boudreau
nicole_boudreau@wgbh.org
