Marin Alsop

Born in New York, Marin Alsop first saw Bernstein when she was nine and knew she wanted to be a conductor. She struggled against enormous prejudices and institutional obstacles to become one of the world's most renowned classical musicians.

Set amongst the unlikely backdrop of cowboy boots, and rodeos, thirty of the world' most promising musicians travel to Fort Worth, Texas to compete in the renowned Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Known for his mournful Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber was never quite fashionable. This film is a probing exploration of his music and melancholia. Performance, oral history, musicology and biography combine to explore the life and music of one of America's greatest composers. Features Thomas Hampson, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop and many more of the world's leading experts on Barber's music.

Leonard Bernstein is reaffirmed as a towering figure in this portrait that highlights his artistic struggle as both composer and conductor, his tension between success and failure, and the politics of his time and his own humanitarianism.