Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, Nicola Benedetti, Chris Botti, David Foster, Andrea Griminelli, Ana Maria Martinez, Bryn Terfel, Pretty Yende and The Westminster Symphonic Choir

NEW YORK, Sept. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The world's most beloved tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform a free concert on Central Park's Great Lawn, Thursday, September 15th with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by its Music Director Alan Gilbert. Joining Andrea on stage this memorable night will be Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, Chris Botti and David Foster. Sopranos Ana Maria Martinez and Pretty Yende, violinist Nicola Benedetti, bass baritone Bryn Terfel and flutist Andrea Griminelli will also be part of this spectacular evening, along with the Westminster Symphonic Choir, Joe Miller, director.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110329/NY72933 )

This once-in-a-lifetime musical event will be recorded in high definition by THIRTEEN for WNET for national PBS broadcast on GREAT PERFORMANCES in late fall 2011.  ANDREA BOCELLI LIVE IN CENTRAL PARK will also be released on CD and DVD by Sugar/Decca this November.

Bocelli is widely regarded as the most popular Italian tenor in the world with more than 70 million albums sold. He will present a varied repertoire including his best known and loved songs that have become fan favorites. 

Barilla is the main sponsor of the concert event.

About Andrea Bocelli

Tuscan tenor Andrea Bocelli is widely regarded as the most popular Italian and classical singer in the world and has sold 70 million albums worldwide. His voice combines the power of the heroic tone with a youthful tenor's grace strengthened by an unusually polished timbre.  

In 1994 Andrea Bocelli "exploded" onto the world stage with the hit song "Time to Say Goodbye," topping charts all across the world, including Germany where it became the biggest-selling single in history. The song alone has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide.

In 1999, his nomination for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards marked the first time a classical artist had been nominated in the category, since 1961. "The Prayer," his duet with Celine Dion for the animated film, "The Quest for Camelot," won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

With the release of his classical album, "Sacred Arias," Bocelli captured a listing in the Guinness Book of World Records, as he simultaneously held the top three positions on the U.S. classical albums charts. Five of his albums have since reached the Top 10 on the Billboard 200, and record-setting seven, have topped the classical albums charts in the United States.

In 2006, Bocelli was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, and on March 2, 2010, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has been a guest at New York City's historic Carnegie Hall, and this past February, made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House. He is widely regarded as the most popular Italian and classical singer in the world.  

A completely new hardcover translation of Bocelli's memoir, Andrea Bocelli: The Music of Silence, (ISBN 9781574671971) including new material covering the last 11 years of Bocelli's life, will be published by Amadeus Press in September.

About The New York Philharmonic

Founded in 1842, the New York Philharmonic is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States and one of the oldest in the world. On May 5, 2010, it performed its 15,000 concert. Music Director Alan Gilbert, The Yoko Nagae Ceschina Chair, began his tenure in September 2009, succeeding a distinguished line of 20th-century musical giants that goes back to Gustav Mahler and Arturo Toscanini. Renowned around the globe, the Philharmonic has appeared in 430 cities in 63 countries including the historic visit to Pyongyang, DPRK in February 2008. The orchestra has made nearly 2,000 recordings since 1917, with more than 500 currently available. Credit Suisse is the Exclusive Global Sponsor of the New York Philharmonic. For more information, please visit nyphil.org.

About Sugar Music

Sugar Music is the number-one independent music publisher and record producer in Italy and one of the most important in Europe. Run by Filippo Sugar, currently President of Italy's Federation of Music Publishers FEM, it is a family business following the steps of founder Ladislao Sugar since 1932. Over the years the Sugar company has built up an impressive catalogue of modern classical works by distinguished composers such as Ennio Morricone, Luigi DallaPiccola, Luciano Berio, Goffredo Petrassi, Ivan Fedele among others, while continuing to invest in the creation of popular music with over ninety thousands copyrighted songs that often reach international fame like Time to say Goodbye, Gloria, More. Through the recent acquisition of the CAM catalogue, home to Grammy and Academy Awards winners Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani, Nino Rota, Luis Bacalov, Sugar is now a leading brand in movie soundtracks and film music internationally.

Aside from music publishing, Sugar's renowned and extremely effective talent scouting abilities, that were the founding pillars of Andrea Bocelli's world-wide success since 1993, have continued to flourish under deputy chairman Caterina Caselli Sugar.

Several times a winner of Italy's Sanremo Festival with its songs and artists, Sugar's always-on approach to popular music as a venture that must appeal to international taste has managed to consistently promote the Italian tradition of popular and operatic melodies together with some of the most elegant fruits of contemporary popular music as represented by the growing European standing of artists such as Elisa, Negramaro, Malika Ayane, Raphael Gualazzi. For more information, please visit: www.sugarmusic.com.

About New York City Parks & Recreation

Parks & Recreation is the steward of about 29,000 acres of land – 14 percent of New York City – including more than 5,000 individual properties ranging from Coney Island Beach and Central Park to community gardens and Greenstreets. The department operates more than 800 athletic fields and nearly 1,000 playgrounds, 550 tennis courts, 66 public pools, 48 recreational facilities, 17 nature centers, 13 golf courses, and 14 miles of beaches. It also cares for 1,200 monuments and 23 historic house museums. Parks & Recreation looks after 600,000 street trees, and two million more in parks. The department is New York City's principal provider of recreational and athletic facilities and programs. New York City Parks & Recreation is home to free concerts, world-class sports events, and cultural festivals.

For more information, please visit: www.nyc.gov/parks

About Central Park Conservancy

The mission of the Central Park Conservancy is to restore, manage and enhance Central Park in partnership with the public, for the enjoyment of present and future generations. The Conservancy provides 85 percent of Central Park's $41.5 million expense budget.

For more information on the Conservancy, please visit www.centralparknyc.org  

About the Barilla Group

Barilla, originally established in 1877 as a bread and pasta shop in Parma, Italy, ranks as one of today's top Italian food groups. Barilla leads in the global pasta business, the continental Europe pasta sauce business, the bakery products business in Italy, and the crispbread business in Scandinavia. Barilla owns 47 production and milling facilities (14 in Italy and 33 outside Italy) and exports to more than 150 countries. Every year, over 2,500,000 tons of food products under the brands of Barilla, Mulino, Bianco, Voiello, Pavesi, Alixir, Academia Barilla, Wasa, Harry's (France and Russia), Lieken Urkorn and Golden Toast (Germany), Misko (Greece), Filiz (Turkey), Yemina and Vesta (Mexico), are featured on dining tables all over the world.

Barilla has become one of the world's most esteemed food companies and is recognized worldwide as a symbol of Italian know-how by respecting its longstanding traditional principles and values, considering employees a fundamental asset and developing leading-edge production systems.

For more information, please visit www.barillaus.com.

About WNET New York Public Media

WNET is America's flagship public media outlet, bringing quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5 million viewers each week. The parent company of public television stations THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, WNET produces such acclaimed PBS series as Great Performances, American Masters, Nature, Need to Know, Charlie Rose, Tavis Smiley and a range of documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online. Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as Get the Math, Noah Comprende and Cyberchase and provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state's unique culture and diverse communities through SundayArts, Reel 13, NJ Today and the new online newsmagazine MetroFocus.

About Decca/Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 territories. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry's leading global music publishing operation.

Universal Music Group's record labels include A&M/Octone, Decca, Def Jam Recordings, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Geffen Records, Interscope Records, Island Records, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Motown Records, Polydor Records, Show Dog-Universal Music, Universal Music Latino, Universal Republic and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalog is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its new media and technologies division; Bravado, its merchandising company; and Twenty-First Artists, its full service management division.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.

SOURCE Decca Label Group