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WBUR Partners With Boston Symphony Orchestra on "Circle Round" Podcast

WBUR, Boston's NPR news station, announced today that Circle Round will host a special summer pop-up series in partnership with the Grammy-winning Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) through its Education and Community Engagement Department. Hosted by Rebecca Sheir, Circle Round is a popular children’s storytelling podcast which adapts folktales from around the world into action-packed radio plays, complete with original music and notable voices from the stage and screen.

To kick off the partnership, Circle Round and the BSO will present the BSO Concert for Very Young People: Circle Round Edition on May 18 at 11:00 a.m. at the Jamaica Plain Branch of the Boston Public Library.

On June 30, Circle Round will present three live performances at the new Linde Center for Music & Learning at Tanglewood featuring BSO musicians performing original scores and a new version of the Circle Round theme song by Eric Shimelonis. Actors, including Jane Kaczmarek (CHIPS, Malcolm in the Middle), Thomas Sadoski (The Newsroom, Life in Pieces), Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under, My Fair Lady on Broadway) and Campbell Scott (Amazing Spider-Man 2, House of Cards) will perform new stories including "Kangaroo and Joey Too" from Australia, "Practice Makes Progress" from the Antilles and "The Magic Bowl" from the West Indies and Ghana. WBUR will record these live performances and release them as episodes for the special summer "pop-up" season to be released July 9, 16 and 23.

In anticipation of the summer pop-up series, WBUR will release several new episodes of Circle Round that offer children and their grown-ups the opportunity to connect over timeless folktales. A story involving an Irish fellow and a conniving leprechaun, and a Seneca tale about a mythical stone will guide listeners through important issues like persistence, honesty, gratitude and generosity. Circle Round will also release a special, one-time-only, spotlight episode, “Babayan and the Magic Star” by Kiku Adatto, narrated by cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Following the jam-packed summer, Circle Round launches Season 3 on September 10, 2019. Listen to Circle Round on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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