PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES FULL SCHEDULE OF FRONT ROW: THE PSO VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE

NEXT: TWO-PART EPISODE EXPLORES PIONEERING COMPOSERS AND PITTSBURGH ARTISTIC PATHBREAKERS AT EXCEPTIONAL LOCATIONS

For Immediate Release
November 12, 2020

PITTSBURGH, PA—The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra today announced the remaining schedule of episodes in its fall digital series, Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience, with music performed by ensembles of the Orchestra, special guests, and behind-the-scenes interviews and features that bridge the musical journey that is guided by the episode’s particular theme. The next episodes are: Originators and Disruptors, Finding Your Song, Tapestry of Light: A Holiday Celebration, Holiday Sensory Friendly, and For the People. These episodes were recorded at locations throughout the region.

Watch a trailer for Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience

All episodes are available free to the public on the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s website pittsburghsymphony.org, as well as available for free On Demand for Comcast’s Xfinity customers in the Pittsburgh region. Each program is available for viewing for six months following the premiere.

Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience, continues on November 20 with a new two-part episode, Originators and Disruptors, that marries the genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, a group of pioneering Pittsburgh artists from an array of disciplines, and three contemporary American composers with performances at three exceptional locations: Heinz Hall (the home of the Pittsburgh Symphony), The Andy Warhol Museum and Fallingwater, the house designed by renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

“The brilliance of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra leaps off the screen in our digital series Front Row. Following the premiere in October, we continue with four new episodes that move across our region in fantastic locations with great music that inspires, uplifts and reaches out to the community with love and joy. It is a particular thrill to have our new Principal Pops Conductor Byron Stripling both conduct and perform on this series” said Melia Tourangeau, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. “The necessity of moving to a digital environment because of the pandemic and the restrictions that have resulted have changed how we can present music at this time, including not having our Music Director Manfred Honeck in person or live audiences at Heinz Hall. And so, we have adapted, innovated and responded in by performing and creating music in new ways and with technology that clearly show the vital relationship that this orchestra has with our community.”

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra would like to thank BNY Mellon, PNC, UPMC Health Plan, Comcast, and Holiday Sponsor, Highmark, for their generous support of Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra thanks Dentons Cohen & Grigsby for additional support of the Holiday episode. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra would like to thank FedEx Ground, Highmark, Allegheny Health Network, and Wesley Family Services for their generous support of Sensory Friendly concerts. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra thanks the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD) for its generous support.

FRONT ROW: THE PSO VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE

New Episodes

Episode 2: Originators and Disruptors (Part 1)
Premieres Friday November 20, 2020 7:30 p.m. EST
Episode 2: Originators and Disruptors (Part 2)
Premieres Friday, November 27, 2020 7:30 p.m. EST

Alexi Kenney, Guest Concertmaster and Leader

“Originators and Disruptors” marries the genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, a group of pioneering Pittsburgh artists from an array of disciplines, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in three exceptional locations. As an homage to this year’s 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Part 1 is an immersion in Beethoven, looking at his boundary-pushing early and middle periods. The music draws from his amazing wealth of string repertoire and also highlights some of his wind and brass chamber music. Part 2 brings together the musicians with contemporary American composers (Libby Larsen, Gary Schocker and Charles Rochester Young) and a Beethoven orchestration by Music Director Manfred Honeck in a salute to a bouquet of Pittsburgh pathbreakers who defied their times and boundaries: Rachel Carson (environmentalist and writer), Martha Graham (choreographer), Thaddeus Mosley (sculptor), Fred Rogers (television creator) and Andy Warhol (multi-media artist).

Traversing special indoor and outdoor locations, this episode was recorded live at Heinz Hall, The Andy Warhol Museum and Fallingwater. Designed by renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater is a house in the mountains of Southwestern Pennsylvania that is one of Wrights’ most acclaimed works exemplifying the unification of art and nature. Fallingwater is a designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Andy Warhol Museum, located in Pittsburgh, is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. Warhol’s prolific works include classical music album design and a series of Beethoven screenprints that capture the composer’s vivid colors that are the heart of this episode.

Episode 3: Finding Your Song
Premieres Friday, December 4, 2020 7:30 p.m. EST

Byron Stripling, Principal Pops Conductor/Soloist
Bobby Floyd, Piano
Yazid Gray, Baritone
David Sogg, Co-Principal Bassoon
Devin Moore, Viola
Attack Theatre
Victoria Luperi, Principal E-flat Clarinet and Associate Principal Clarinet
Deanna Witkowski, Piano
Paul Thompson, Bass
Tom Wendt, Drum Set

With the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s new Principal Pops Conductor Byron Stripling as a featured artist and conductor, Finding Your Song explores the journeys of artists and how they come to find their voice, song, inspiration and connection to the world. Conceived during the COVID-19 shutdown, a time of longing for connection, this episode is an in-depth look at diverse artists from varied music, dance and visual arts backgrounds and eras, with both music icons and emerging artists who have found their “song”—and, the impact the city of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Symphony have had on them. Finding Your Song travels from Heinz Hall to Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to The Andy Warhol Museum and to the Hill District. This episode includes the works of composers Gabriela Lena Frank, recipient of the 25th Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities (November 2020), Hannah Ishizaki, a Pittsburgh native who is currently a student at the Juilliard School of Music, and Jorge Montilla, one of the many fine musicians that has come through Venezuela’s “El Sistema.”

Episode 4: Tapestry of Light: A Holiday Celebration
Episode 4: Holiday Sensory-Friendly

Premieres Friday, December 18, 2020 7:30 p.m. EST

Byron Stripling, Principal Pops Conductor/Soloist
Vanessa Campagna, Vocalist
Chris Sanders, Vocalist
Marylène Gingras-Roy, Viola
Rodrigo Ojeda, Piano
Bobby Floyd, Jazz Organ
Members of the Pittsburgh Youth Chorus
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School

Enjoy the magic and excitement of the holiday season with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra!  Perfect for all ages, the Heinz Hall tradition goes digital with Front Row: Tapestry of Light, A Holiday Celebration.  Take a journey with us from our home at Heinz Hall in downtown Pittsburgh, to Vienna, Austria for a visit with music Director Manfred Honeck, and to sacred spaces across Pittsburgh. Offering comfort and joy during these uncertain times, this program celebrates music, faiths, traditions, peace and light. Gather with friends and family to watch old favorites and discover new surprises.

This will be the second Holiday Sensory Friendly concert, the Pittsburgh Symphony’s sixth season offering sensory friendly concerts and the first one presented virtually. Principal Pops Conductor Byron Stripling will welcome the audience, and adaptions include a shortened length of time for the concert; special print-at-home art by artist Emily Marko which connect to the concert’s theme of celebrating holidays and traditions through music; and supportive materials and resources created in conjunction with community partners.

Episode 5: For the People (Part 1)
Premieres Friday, January 22, 2021 7:30 p.m. EST
Episode 5: For the People (Part 2)
Premieres Friday, January 29, 2021 7:30 p.m. EST

Andrés Franco, Conductor
Alexi Kenney, Guest Concertmaster and Leader

A constellation of five female composers (Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Jessie Montgomery, Florence Price and Joan Tower) forms the foundation of Episode 5: For the People, an all-American program highlighting the unique American soundscape and the cultural and musical forces of openness, possibilities, challenges and opportunities. Though each work on this program was written in the past 100 years, the diverse voices of these composers are brought together with music that honors the distinctly American inventions of ragtime, jazz and the blues, and the grand, sweeping sounds of Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man is juxtaposed with Tower’s Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman. This episode was recorded live at Heinz Hall and at Washington Penn Plastics Hangar.

 

Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience premiered on October 19, 2020, with Episode 1: Our Love for Pittsburgh with works from composers as varied as Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Jessie Montgomery. This episode salutes Pittsburgh through a glorious musical exploration of Pittsburgh dramatic geographic setting and the people drawn to it.

Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience is being created in partnership with Flying Scooter Productions, a Pittsburgh-based creative agency and film studio that produces for some of the most beloved national and local brands and has collaborated on a variety of xcampaigns in the non-profit sector. In 2019 and 2020, it was recognized with Telly Awards (Gold, Silver and Bronze) for its work in partnership with Light of Life Rescue Mission to raise the conversation and discussion around addiction and homelessness, and the work of the Mission to change lives and transform generations.

 

Media Contacts
Julie Goetz | Director of Communications
jgoetz@pittsburghsymphony.org | 412.392.4866 or 412.905.9058 (mobile)