PSO Recording Wins Award

For Immediate Release
March 5, 2014

PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S “STRAUSS” RECORDING NAMED A GRAMOPHONE EDITOR’S CHOICE FOR MARCH

PITTSBURGH—Gramophone magazine picked “Strauss,” the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s recent recording of Strauss tone poems on Reference Recordings Fresh! label, as one of its “Editor’s Choice” recordings for March 2014.

Reviewer Ivan March said of the recording, “This is one of the outstanding Strauss CDs of the year; the quality of playing and recording makes it very recommendable indeed.” He also credited Music Director Manfred Honeck for his interpretations, “which vividly bring out the music’s emotional and pictorial detail.”

The CD was released in November 2013 and has received numerous positive reviews. A second release in the collaboration with Reference Recordings will be released in July and features work by Dvoøák and Janáèek.  “Strauss” was recorded and mastered by the team at Soundmirror, whose outstanding orchestral, solo, opera and chamber recordings have received more than 70 Grammy nominations and awards. FRESH! is part of Reference Recordings’ mission to encourage artists and give them a strong platform for promotion and sales nationally and internationally.

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recordings are made possible by a generous grant from BNY Mellon.

For more than 116 years, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been known for its artistic excellence. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians. This tradition was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900, the Pittsburgh Symphony is critically acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest orchestras. They have made more than 35 international tours, and recently returned from their 2013 European Festivals Tour, where enthralled audiences filled the PSO’s concerts in Grafenegg, Berlin, Bucharest, Paris, Düsseldorf,Frankfurt, Lucerne and Bonn.

###

Contact: Louise Sciannameo, Vice President of Public Affairs
Phone: 412.392.4866 | email: lsciannameo@pittsburghsymphony.org
Contact: Joyce DeFrancesco, Director of Media Relations
Phone: 412.392.4827 | email: jdefrancesco@pittsburghsymphony.org

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

Tony Bennett at Heinz Hall

For Immediate Release
Jan. 24, 2014

BNY MELLON JAZZ PRESENTS TONY BENNETT AT HEINZ HALL
Tickets go on sale Monday, Feb. 3

PITTSBURGH—Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts announced today that iconic crooner Tony Bennett will perform in concert on Friday, May 16 at 8 p.m. as part of the BNY Mellon Jazz Presents series.

A legendary entertainer with a storied career, Bennett has amassed numerous achievements, including 17 Grammy Awards and the prestigious Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He has sold millions of records, including dozens of platinum and gold albums, worldwide. His is one of the most recognizable voices in the history of popular American music, touching the hearts and souls of audiences with warmth and charm. Bennett’s signature tunes like “Steppin’ Out with My Baby” and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” are a part of the fabric of American music culture, and with six decades of experience, Bennett is at the peak of his musical power.

Appearing with Bennett will be very special guest Antonia Bennett. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will not be performing with Bennett.

Tickets, ranging in price from $59 to $149, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or by visiting heinzhall.org. Tickets go on sale Feb. 3 to the general public.
Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recognize and thank BNY Mellon for its title sponsorship of this concert.

As a teenager, Tony Bennett sang while waiting tables and in military bands as a member of the Army during World War II. His big break came in 1949 when legendary entertainer Bob Hope spotted him at a nightclub in New York City. With millions of records sold world-wide and platinum and gold albums to his credit, Bennett has received 17 Grammy Awards and the Grammy Lifetime Award. His 2007 prime-time special, “Tony Bennett: An American Classic,” won seven Emmy Awards. He is one of a handful of artists to have new albums charting in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and the first two decades of the 21st century. Bennett became a Kenny Center honoree in 2005, was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2006, earned a Citizen of the World award from the United Nations and was given a Billboard Magazine Century Award in honor of his outstanding contributions to music. An author and artist as well as a musician, Bennett has artwork on permanent display at the Butler Institute of American Art, the National Arts Club and the National Portrait Gallery. He is an active advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the American Cancer Society, as well as for arts education and environmental and social justice causes. For more, visit tonybennett.com.

Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a nonprofit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, Heinz Hall hosts many events that do not feature its world-renowned Orchestra including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org.

###

Contact: Louise Sciannameo, Vice President of Public Affairs
Phone: 412.392.4866 | email: lsciannameo@pittsburghsymphony.org
Contact: Joyce DeFrancesco, Director of Media Relations
Phone: 412.392.4827 | email: jdefrancesco@pittsburghsymphony.org

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

WQED Elects New Board Members

WQED MULTIMEDIA ELECTS FOUR NEW MEMBERS TO ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Annual Meeting Highlights Accomplishments

PITTSBURGH - At its annual meeting today, the WQED Multimedia Board of Directors named four key community leaders to its board and six new members to its Community Advisory Board.

WQED Chair Debra Caplan noted that WQED continued to break new ground in Fiscal Year 2012 by adding a new digital television channel (WQED Showcase); a new radio stream (WQED Concert Channel); and launching new initiatives of its iQ: smartmedia educational initiative: iQ Smart Parent and iQ Kids Radio.

“Despite the loss of state operating funding and the threat of federal funding cuts, WQED continues to serve the community by becoming more entrepreneurial and growing its membership base,” said Deborah L. Acklin, President and Chief Executive Officer.

“The retail arm of WQED hit a home run in 2011 and 2012 with the sale of Pittsburgh From the Air and Pittsburgh from the Air II, which generated more than 11,000 DVD and Blu-ray sales. WQED now rents Studio on Fifth for weddings and banquets and to advertising agencies and independent producers. Fiscal Year 2012 marked the 13th straight year that WQED generated net revenues from operations.”

Fiscal year 2012 also brought news of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support production of a national documentary on the life and work of Pittsburgh native and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson.

August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand will be a 90-minute high-definition television documentary and the first in-depth exploration of the life, work and cultural impact of the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning African American playwright and Pittsburgh native (1945 – 2005). The program will be a co-production of WQED and the PBS series American Masters and will air in late 2014.

New board members elected to a three-year term today were:

- W. Thomas McGough, Jr., Chief Legal Officer, UPMC
 - Darlene Motley, Ph.D., Associate Dean, School of Business, Robert Morris University
- Dr. Mildred S. Myers, Teaching Professor of Management Communications Emerita, Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business
 - James Singer, Partner, Fox Rothschild LLP

Debra L. Caplan, Senior Vice President, Allegheny General Hospital, remains Chair of the Board of Directors and Michael Bryson, retired from BNY Mellon, remains Vice Chair of the Board.

Outgoing board member Clyde Jones was named a member of the WQED Honor Board.

WQED’s Board of Directors also approved six new members to its Community Advisory Board (CAB):

 - Paul Homick, Director of Major Gifts, Carnegie Mellon University
 - Chaz Kellem, Manager of Diversity Initiatives, Pittsburgh Pirates
 - Laurie Mizrahi, President and CEO, Mizrahi, Inc.
 - Suzi Neft, Owner, Suzi Neft Promotes
 - Conor J. Platt, Founder, Confluence Capital Management
 - Devon Smeal, Music Educator, West Mifflin Area School District

WQED Pittsburgh has a proud history of honors, including 134 National and Mid-Atlantic Emmy® Awards, an Academy Award, and many, many others, including two Emmy® Awards for Station Excellence. WQED was founded in 1954 as the nation’s first community-supported broadcaster. The people of WQED create, produce and distribute quality programs, products and services to engage, inform, educate and entertain the public within their community and around the world. WQED Pittsburgh is one of the first broadcasters in the country to be fully high-definition (HD) in its studio and field production capabilities. It is the parent company of WQED-TV (PBS); WQED: The Neighborhood Channel; WQED: The Create Channel; WQED Showcase; Classical WQED-FM 89.3/Pittsburgh; Classical WQEJ-FM 89.7/Johnstown; the Pittsburgh Concert Channel at WQED-HD2 (89.3-2FM) and online at www.wqed.org/fm; local and national television and radio productions; WQED Interactive (www.wqed.org) and iQ: smartmedia, WQED’s Educational initiative (www.wqed.org/edu).
# # #

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh