Friday, March 16 at 8:30 pm; and Wednesday, March 21 at 11:30 pm

STATEWIDE – Peanuts® Gallery is a half-hour documentary that tells the story of the special friendship between cartoonist Charles M. Schulz and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and how this relationship ultimately resulted in Zwilich’s composition, Peanuts® Gallery for Piano and Orchestra. The program features a performance of this piece by the Florida State University Symphony Orchestra, interviews with Zwilich and Jean Schulz (the cartoonist’s wife), plus clips of Peanuts® and rarely seen footage of Charles Schulz himself. This is the first time that this independently produced program will be shown on NJN in the State of the Arts time slots. Eric Schultz, a producer for the State of the Arts series, served as producer/director for Peanuts® Gallery, which airs on Friday, March 16 at 8:30 pm, with a rebroadcast on Wednesday, March 21 at 11:30 pm.

How Zwilich got to know the Peanuts® gang
Imagine her surprise in 1990 when Ellen Taaffe Zwilich saw her name mentioned in a Peanuts cartoon. The comic strip made reference to Zwilich as a composer who “just happens to be a woman.” And Zwilich is not just any female composer, but also the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in music and earlier, had become the first woman to earn a Doctorate in composition from Juilliard. In 1995, she was appointed to the first Composers Chair in the history of Carnegie Hall, and it was during that period that she conceived of writing a piece of music based on the Peanuts® characters. It would be appropriate for “young people of all ages” and would unite the talents of Schulz with hers.

As Zwilich planned this work, she became good friends with Charles and Jean Schulz. In interviews with Zwilich and archival footage of Charles Schulz, viewers can sense the deep admiration they had for one another and the awe they felt for each other’s talents. What seemed like second nature to Schulz — putting drawings on paper — was not to Zwilich — who put notes on paper. Interviews with Mrs. Schulz fill in the gaps and bring the viewer up to date since the beloved Charles Schulz — known as “Sparky” to those closest to him — died in 2000.

Peanuts® Gallery for Piano and Orchestra premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1997 and has since been played by such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. The piece is made up of six movements: “Schroeder’s Beethoven Fantasy,” “Lullaby for Linus,” “Snoopy Does the Samba,” “Charlie Brown’s Lament,” “Lucy Freaks Out,” and “Peppermint Patty and Marcie Lead the Parade.” According to Zwilich, she “tried to capture something in the nature of each character in short musical sketches.” And viewers will see and hear that she succeeded.

How Eric Schultz was brought onboard
Eric Schultz first came to know Ellen Zwilich when he worked as the producer for Cultural Affairs at Michigan State University Public TV. He produced a documentary about Zwilich and the story behind her composition, Symphony No.4, which was inspired by the renowned gardens at Michigan State University. The resulting program, The Gardens: Birth of a Symphony, was distributed by PBS in 2000 and aired on NJN in 2002. When Zwilich was interested in telling the story behind Peanuts® Gallery for Piano and Orchestra, she contacted Eric Schultz, who had moved to NJN, to produce the project. He served as producer/director for the program, which has aired on PBS stations nationally.

NJN is available on all New Jersey cable systems, satellite systems, and Time Warner Cable channel 750 in NYC.
The half-hour program is also available via video streaming at njn.net after the original broadcast.
Additionally, the program is repeated on NJN’s JerseyVision available on Comcast Digital Cable in New Jersey.
(Check http://www.njn.net/digital/schedule.html for detailed listings.)
NJN – Uniquely New Jersey
# # #