Alumni Profiles

Emmy-winning Producer Brings the World Live Music Performances and More

“Handmade with machine-like precision” is the motto of Emmy-winning producer Marc Bauman ’75 (communication). Since graduation he has applied this principle to hundreds of video and film productions under his care. From live operas to rock’n roll concerts to plays and corporate presentations, Bauman’s repertoire is extensive. And his approach is practically legendary, having been commended with forty Emmy nominations and six Emmy Awards.

Currently, Bauman is supervising producer of Live From Lincoln Center, the highly lauded PBS series he joined in 1981. Working with renowned director Kirk Browning, Bauman supervises all live television broadcasts presented by the 12 resident companies, including the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Lincoln Center Theater, the Juilliard School, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Bauman is responsible for the exacting technical standards that support the exceptional quality of Live From Lincoln Center programming, the only live performing arts series on television.

Had it not been for the Communication Department at UMass Amherst, however, things might have turned out quite differently for Bauman. “I floundered in my early college experience,” he recalls, noting that three different institutions preceded his arrival in Amherst. “At UMass Amherst, the curriculum and the environment were exciting. The people I met shaped my interests and encouraged me to pursue a television career. For that I have to be grateful.”

Television production is a fast-moving, fast-changing field that offers enormous aesthetic stretching opportunities to travel, meet interesting people and become more aware of the world. “I’ve been lucky,” says Bauman. “I have always been able to surround myself with talented people for whom quality is their prime motivation. Working with such talent has made me better at my job—and I continue to look forward to it daily.” Working at WMUA at UMass Amherst back in the 1970s, he says, taught him teamwork. “Television production is mostly teamwork, and the success of a production often is directly proportional to the strength of the team.”

Bauman’s work outside of Lincoln Center has also met with huge success. In 2000 he produced the Showtime presentation of Broadway’s Death of a Salesman for which the Producers’ Guild of America awarded him The David L. Wolper Producer of the Year. In 2002 he produced True West, starring Bruce Willis, for Showtime, and the next year his production of Our Town, starring Paul Newman, marked the first collaboration between Showtime and PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre. Bauman’s evergreen children’s special Cathy Rigby Is Peter Pan production for A&E, brought him another Emmy nomination for Best Children’s Program. Other shows that benefited from Bauman precision include U2’s Elevation Tour live from Boston and their Vertigo Tour live from Chicago for VH-1, Radio City Entertainment Presents an All Star Tribute to Brian Wilson for TNT, Musicians for Bravo, the Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (five times) for VH-1, Dixie Chicks On The Fly for NBC, Ellen DeGeneres in the Beginning for HBO, and more.

Beyond the world of music into the visual arts, Bauman’s clients have included The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Barnum Museum, The Mariners Museum, The New York State Council on the Arts, National Audubon Society, The Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Thames Television and Channel 4-London. In the corporate world clients such as Swissôtel, Pfizer, JP Stevens, and AT&T have used his production talent for videos, teleconferences and worldwide meetings. Bauman is also a seasoned line producer of commercial spots, having supervised more than two hundred and fifty.

Bauman holds a master’s degree in television and radio production from Brooklyn College. He has taught broadcast production at the college level and is frequently asked to lecture at various colleges and universities in the New York area. “I have shown students interested in television production some of the possibilities offered in this exciting field. Students will learn more by ‘shadowing’ a real production experience than in the classroom. It’s both motivating and frightening to them, but for those who are serious, it opens their eyes.”

April 19, 2006