How did you spend your summer vacation? For some of the luckiest symphonic musicians in America, the answer runs something like this: “I made TV movies of knockout music.” Now in its tenth year and sixth season, the All-Star Orchestra is the brainchild of the maestro and trumpet virtuoso Gerard Schwarz. Fresh out of the Juilliard School, Schwarz blew his horn with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez, going on to freelance as a big-name soloist and then branching into conducting. From 1982 to 2001, he defined New York summers as the first music director of Lincoln Center’s late lamented Mostly Mozart Festival. In an age of dwindling to nonexistent music appreciation in public schools, Schwarz’s concept for the All-Star Orchestra was retro to the max: play symphonic masterpieces, emphatically including American repertory, for underserved general audiences across the nation. By way of introduction, Schwarz and the players dispense Jeopardy!-worthy fun facts, smartly chosen to sensitize listeners’ ears to fresh, zesty adventures in sound. In June, an imaginative prelude to the current season juxtaposed the pomp and circumstance of the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony with the exotic New World exuberance of the Sinfonia India of Carlos Chávez. The hour-long shows air on some 250 public TV stations; past episodes remain available on YouTube. —Matthew Gurewitsch