Principal Flute Lorna McGhee performs Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1.  And Manfred Honeck conducts Mozart’s Overture to Idomeneo and the Symphony No. 9 by Schubert.    

Principal Flute Lorna McGhee performs Mozart’s Flute Concerto No. 1.  And Manfred Honeck conducts Mozart’s Overture to Idomeneo and the Symphony No. 9 by Schubert.    

June 17th through July 2nd at the Carnegie Stage in Carnegie, PA, "Not My Revolution" is a one woman play created by Elizabeth Huffman and directed by Louanne Moldovan. The play was inspired by the 1967 Josef Bush play "French Gray."  "Not My Revolution" travels back and forth in time between Marie Antoinette’s imprisonment during the French Revolution in 1793 and a ghetto in Istanbul in 2011 where a once wealthy Syrian art dealer is struggling to survive catastrophic losses due to the civil war in her country. Elizabeth tells her story to Jim Cunningham with her work around the globe and concentration in creating companies in Los Angeles and New York. In LA, she acted and directed with the Classical Theatre Lab. In 2005, she former her own company ICAP, with over 40 classically trained actors from around the world. In 2009, Elizabeth began working for two years as Interim Artistic Director for Classic Greek Theater of Oregon in Portland.  Elizabeth has family ties to the Mon Valley and has returned home recently with hopes of contributing to the local scene.

"Brand New Way" is the Spring concert at Heinz Hall of the Three Rivers Young People's Orchestra conducted by Brian Worsdale and Pierce Cook who leads the Symphonette. The free concert May 28 5pm at Heinz Hall brings Pittsburgh Symphony violinist Irene Cheng to play the Sibelius Suite and the orchestra will present the Pines of the Appian Way from Pines of Rome by Respighi. Paul Evans has the percussion ensemble, Rebecca May is featured, Rebecca Mack is the Concerto Competition winner with Richard Strauss, Dr Zuly Inirio from Unisound and the Black Teaching Artist in Residence program sings Lift Every Voice, Hannah Ishizaki returns to conduct a new favorite she has written-- Miniatures. Jim Cunningham speaks with Executive Director Lindsey Nova and Pierce Cook who also teaches at Mount Lebanon High School and is giving Beethoven talks for the Beethoven String Quartets in the Carnegie Library project of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

As Assistant  Conductor, Ryan Keeling prepared the Mendelssohn Choir for the Beethoven Ninth Symphony with Manfred Honeck in their most recent performances bringing to a grand conclusion the Pittsburgh Symphony Beethoven in Your Neighborhood project of presenting all nine Beethoven Symphonies in various venues in a single week. The sold out concert at Heinz Hall and the repeat performance at St Vincent’s Basilica in Latrobe followed in the path of the Grammy nominated Reference recording. Ryan tells Jim Cunningham about keeping the Honeck ideas in place and the special nature of his Viennese style Beethoven. Ryan Keeling also discussed upcoming Mendelssohn concerts and the work he does in Mount Lebanon at church and  with his Voces Solis ensemble. The Beethoven Ninth will be broadcast June 2 at 7pm on WQED-FM.   

WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham spoke with Guest Conductor Matthias Pintscher, Principal Flute Lorna McGhee and PSO Vice President of Artistic Planning Mary Persin during intermission of our live broadcast.