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September 2011
German-American Steuben Parade Announces Hosts for TV Broadcast
NEW YORK - WLIW´s Laura Savini and Theresa Statz-Smith to host two hour live event from Fifth Avenue, NYC
The German-American Steuben Parade is proud to announce that Laura Savini and Theresa Statz-Smith will be the hosts of its first Live-Broadcast on Public Television. The program will air on Saturday, September 17, at 12 Noon on WNET (Channel 13, New York). Ms. Savini and Ms. Statz-Smith, two celebrated TV personalities, will be hosting live from a stage on Fifth Avenue overlooking the 54th staging of this colorful and proud display of German-American tradition, culture and history.
Both, Ms. Savini and Ms. Statz-Smith, have been on-air on WNET and WLIW for many years and are well known to the public. They have hosted many PBS telecasts and pledge drives together, while also producing and hosting programs individually.
Laura Savini, who is currently the president of Untamed Hair Productions & Consulting, is proud of her own German roots. She has traveled to Germany as a host of the PBS specials "Visions of Germany: Along the Rhine", and "Visions of Germany: Bavaria". Ms. Savini was involved in the production, marketing and hosting of "The German-Americans" documentary for WLIW New York and PBS nationally. These projects enticed her to drive through parts of Germany with her mother in search of what was once Herenheider, the small town her grandmother hailed from. This adventure is one of the most precious memories of this mother and daughter team. The next trip is already planned: to the Black Forest in search of her grandfather's heritage. In July of 2012 Laura will be hosting a German cruise on the Danube with Burt Wolf for WLIW. For more information, visit www.laurasavinicruise.com.
Laura Savini is married to Jimmy Webb, the Grammy-winning composer and chairman of the National Songwriters' Hall of Fame.
Theresa Statz-Smith is thrilled to be a part of the Steuben Parade. Having grown up in the Wisconsin farmland surrounded by many different German families, Ms. Statz-Smith is an alumni of the Arthur Burns Fellowship Program, which promotes German-American relations, and a winner of the Rias Berlin Kommission TV-Award for a documentary she produced in 1995. She has two brothers, who live in Germany near Frankfurt with their families. She visits Germany regularly and regrets that her German language skills are "no longer very good, but I am fairly talented at pronunciation!"
Steuben Parade General Chairman Lars Halter is excited about working with both, Theresa Statz-Smith and Laura Savini. "With their personal German background and their genuine interest and passion for German and German-American history and culture, I can't think of anyone better suited to host the first TV broadcast of our Parade," says Halter.
The two hour program will be co-hosted by Jens Korte, a correspondent for German news stations n-tv and Deutsche Welle. Mr. Korte has been reporting from the New York Stock Exchange for over ten years and is one of the best known TV personalities in his homeland. He will conduct street interviews to complement the broadcast and add another colorful perspective on the crowd cheering for the Steuben Parade, one of the largest German-American events in the country.
The broadcast will also feature live interviews with Grand Marshals and other VIPs. The 2011 Grand Marshals are Samantha Brown, host of Travel Channel´s "Passport to Europe", Ilse Aigner, German Secretary for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, the newly appointed German Ambassador to the United States, Peter Ammon, and Erik Betterman, Director of Germany´s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.
Highlights of the Steuben Parade broadcast also include video clips from well-known German-Americans. Former Grand Marshals Donald Trump, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and super model Carol Alt have produced greetings for the Steuben Parade. Viewers will also be treated to a special performance by the widely celebrated Alex Meixner Band on the Entertainment Stage, as well as performances by many dance groups from both the United States and Germany.
The live broadcast of the German-American Steuben Parade is generously supported by the German Information Center, Mercedes-Benz, the New York Stock Exchange and Hofbräu America as Underwriters. In addition, many German-American clubs and associations, as well as individual members of the German-American community have contributed to fund this significant program. It will bring German-American history and culture to a much broader and larger audience than ever before. Fund raising for this broadcast is still ongoing. Donations can be made at www.GermanParadeNYC.org/TV in support of the German-American Steuben Parade.
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