NPR Music to air Newport Folk Festival performances

NPR Music, together with six partner radio stations, is exclusively live webcasting and broadcasting dozens of performances from George Wein’s Newport Folk Festival and CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival, offering four days of music by some of the country’s most acclaimed artists. NPR Music and WFUV New York, FolkAlley.com (WKSU) Kent, Ohio, and mvyradio in Martha’s Vineyard and Newport are covering many acts from the Folk Festival on July 31 and August 1 – which offers performances by favorites The Avett Brothers, Andrew Bird, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Justin Townes Earle and more.

At the Jazz Festival on August 7 and 8, NPR Music with WBGO Newark, WGBH Boston and WICN New England are broadcasting and webcasting line-ups from three stages, with potential sets from Jamie Cullum, Chick Corea Freedom Band, Ahmad Jamal and Wynton Marsalis.

For the third straight year, festival concerts will be accessible through free, live audio webcasts at NPR Music, and live station broadcasts. NPR Music's folk and jazz festival coverage will be available at npr.org/newportfolk and npr.org/newportjazz, where there will be artist interviews, photo streams, a live chat during the festival and news from the All Songs Considered blog and A Blog Supreme. NPR Music will archive all content and provide podcasts of many performances; audiences can also relive both festivals from the past two years, with on-demand listening and free downloads of dozens of folk and jazz sets. Listen to all of NPR Music’s festival coverage live on the NPR Music App for iPhone and iPod Touch (available for free download now in the App Store).

NPR Music, together with WFUV, Folk Alley and mvyradio, will webcast and broadcast two days of performances from the Folk Festival on July 31 and August 1 from 11:30AM to 7:30PM (ET). Many performances from the festival will be available to stream on demand at NPR Music and the station websites, and download through NPR Music's "Live in Concert" podcast.

Performers during these two days include John Prine, Yim Yames of My Morning Jacket, Blitzen Trapper, The Low Anthem and Nneka. Leading up to the festival, NPR Music, WFUV and Folk Alley present a Newport Folk Festival 2010 Mix to stream at npr.org/newportfolk, featuring artists who will be performing this year.

The next weekend, August 7 and 8 from 11:30AM to 7:30PM (ET), NPR Music teams with WBGO, WBGH and WICN to live webcast and broadcast three stages from the Jazz Festival. Audiences will hear selections from Saturday’s and Sunday’s bills, which include Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Chris Botti and Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra.
Hosting NPR Music's coverage of the Folk Festival are Bob Boilen, host and creator of the popular show All Songs Considered and its "Live in Concert" series, and WFUV host and music director Rita Houston. Josh Jackson, WBGO special projects producer and host of The Checkout and “Live at the Village Vanguard,” will anchor all Jazz Festival coverage.

NPR Music celebrates great music in every genre and is an industry leader in music discovery. The free, multimedia website at www.npr.org/music offers more than 300 new features monthly and an extensive archive, in collaboration with NPR's newsmagazines, 12 public radio member stations and the passionate NPR community. NPR Music creates and distributes inventive music coverage across multiple platforms – from web, to radio, to podcast, to mobile, to social media, to live events – with first listens to new albums, live performances, concerts at the Tiny Desk, interviews, reviews and blogs. Many of the site’s features are also available to mobile audiences with the NPR Music App for the iPhone and iPod Touch.