Patti Smith performs.

PBS’ big program for fall is Ken Burns’ 12-hour “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” beginning Sept. 27. But public broadcasting brought the music to the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Included:

• “Young@Heart,” the acclaimed documentary about a chorus of New England senior citizens who perform rock and pop songs, airs on “Independent Lens” this fall. Three members of the chorus and the director were on hand but didn’t give us a song.
• “Joan Baez: Sing Me Home,” a riveting biography of the folk singer, is scheduled for Oct. 14 on “American Masters.” By satellite from the Newport Folk Festival, Baez also didn’t sing — and she wouldn’t answer questions about her relationship with Bob Dylan, who’s featured in the documentary. “Once you’ve
  seen it, you won’t ever really have another question of me about Bob Dylan,” she said.
• Jimmy Smits is “the English-language voice” (as he put it) for “Latin Music USA,” which airs in October. Bobby Sanabria described himself as one of the talking heads in the program, but he was actually a singing head and got an audience of usually non-participatory critics to clap along as he told how “the journey of these five beats that we call la clave” traveled from West Africa to the Caribbean and Cuba to New Orleans and beyond.
• “Playing for Change: Peace Through Music,” a multimedia project bringing musicians from all over the world together, brought in executive producer Norman Lear (”All in the Family”) to talk about it. 
• “Patti Smith; Dream of Life,” airing Dec. 30 on “POV,” is an 11-year project by Steven Sebring to document “godmother of punk” Patti Smith, and both flew in from touring in Japan for a panel on the film. Smith, 62, who said “my voice is actually much stronger than it was when I was stronger,” ended the session by picking up a guitar to sing two songs, “Grateful” and “My Blakean Year.”