Vienna, 1 June 2011 – Tomorrow night, Europe and much of the world will watch and listen to the Summer Night Concert at the Schönbrunn palace in Vienna. Tens of thousands of people will watch it live from the gardens of the palace. 33 European Broadcasting Union Members* will broadcast the concert either live or by deferred relay. The EBU also provides the satellite signal for television stations outside of the European region, enabling audiences in more than 60 countries worldwide to watch the concert.

The Summer Night Concert is produced by Austrian public broadcaster ORF, in cooperation with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2004 the event has been held in the magnificent baroque Schönbrunn gardens, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. The concert is free of admission and attracts a live audience of up to 100,000 people every year.

This year the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the open air concert to the theme Virtuoso Pictures, conducted by Valery Gergiev. The orchestra will play works from Franz Liszt, Niccolo Paganini and, in memory of the victims of the disaster in Japan, a work from the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius entitled Scene with Cranes. The crane is an old Japanese symbol for luck and long life.

The EBU signed a four-year distribution agreement with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for the TV and radio broadcast rights for a package of three classical concerts that include the New Year’s Day concert, the annual Schönbrunn Summer Night Concert, and a third special concert at different international venues each year. This year the special concert was held at the National Auditorium of Music in Madrid on 24 May at the kind of invitation of Spanish public broadcaster TVE.

Note to editors:
*The concert will be broadcast by 33 EBU Member broadcasters including:

Andorra (RTVA), Belgium (RTBF & VRT), Bosnia Herzegovina (BHRT), Bulgaria (BNT), Croatia (HRT), Cyprus (CYBC), Czech Republic (CT), Denmark (DR), Estonia (ERR), Finland (YLE), France (FR2), Germany (3Sat), Greece (ERT), Hungary (MTV), Iceland (RUV),  Kosovo (RTK), Latvia (LTV), Lithuania (LRT), Macedonia (MKRTV), Moldova (TRM), Montenegro (RTCG), Netherlands (NOS), Norway (NRK), Poland (TVP), Portugal (RTP), Romania (TVR), Russia (RTR), Serbia (RTS), Slovenia (RTVSLO), Spain (RTVE), Sweden (SVT), and UK (BBC).