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.

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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

Mollie O'Brien and Rich Moore

Contact:  Lisa Alexander, PR Coordinator

Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society

(412) 361-1915, lalexander@calliopehouse.org        

CALLIOPE PRESENTS

MOLLIE O’BRIEN & RICH MOORE

(Pittsburgh, PA)- Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society welcomes Mollie O’Brien and Rich Moore to THE ROOTS CELLAR, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Shadyside, on Thursday, February 13, 2014 7:30 PM.

More information and tickets available online at www.calliopehouse.org or by contacting the Calliope office at (412) 361-1915. Tickets are $28 / $12 (w/ student ID)*handling fees included.

Grammy Award winner Mollie O'Brien became known to the rest of the world as a singer's singer when, in 1988, she and her brother Tim released the first of three critically-acclaimed albums for Sugar Hill Records (Take Me Back, Remember Me and Away Out On The Mountain). Eventually, Mollie recorded five equally well-received solo albums (Tell It True, Big Red Sun and Things I Gave Away for Sugar Hill Records, and I Never Move Too Soon and Everynight In The Week for Resounding Records). Additionally, she was a regular on the nationally-syndicated radio show, “A Prairie Home Companion” from 2001 through 2005. She's long been known as a singer who doesn't recognize a lot of musical boundaries, and audiences love her fluid ability to make herself at home in any genre while never sacrificing the essence of the song she tackles. O’Brien has primarily focused her efforts on the fading art of interpretation and the end result is a singer at the very top of her game who is not afraid to take risks both vocally and in the material she chooses.

Husband Rich Moore has busied himself in the Colorado music scene for many years. While staying home with the kids when Mollie & Tim toured, he held a day job and continued to perform locally with a variety of Colorado favorites, including Pete Wernick and Celeste Krenz. Not only is Moore known to produce some of the funniest onstage running commentary, he's also a powerhouse guitar player who can keep up with O'Brien's twists and turns from blues to traditional folk to jazz to rock and roll. He creates a band with just his guitar and, as a result, theirs is an equal partnership.

O’Brien and Moore’s first duet CD, a live recording titled 900 Baseline (Remington Road Records) was released in 2006. Their first studio project, Saints & Sinners (Remington Road Records), was released to nationwide acclaim in 2010. In January 2014 they'll release their followup, Love Runner (Remington Road Records). Both studio projects were produced by Lyons, CO ace arranger and bassist, Eric Thorin, who often joins them onstage for their live shows. All three CDs showcase their talent for unlocking the secrets to a diverse array of songs in authoritative yet very fun and unusual arrangements.

Most of the tracks on Love Runner have to do with the universal theme of home: leaving it and family behind; missing it; never wanting to go back; finding it in surprising places all over the world; wondering what kind of “home” awaits us in the life after this one. O’Brien and Moore let us know via their choice of material that they are not afraid to take risks. It’s almost as if they’re telling us that at this stage in their lives, they are at home with their musical selves - they can do whatever they want and they don’t care if the rest of the world agrees with them. 

To quote the one and only Cher, "In this business, it takes time to be really good." Mollie O'Brien and Rich Moore are proof that age is no obstacle to making timeless, original and inventive music. 

Visit the website here: http://www.mollieobrien.com/

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Founded in 1976, Calliope is a non-profit music organization that organizes and administers a variety of concert series, a folk music school, and educational outreach programs.  As the premier promoter of roots music in southwestern Pennsylvania, Calliope’s mission is to promote and preserve traditional and contemporary heritage-based music and its allied arts.  Calliope programs are supported in part by the A.W. Mellon Education and Charitable Trust Fund of the Pittsburgh Foundation, The Allegheny County sales tax revenues awarded by the Allegheny Regional Asset District, The Heinz endowments, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, University of Pittsburgh Library System, and an anonymous donor. Calliope also thanks the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Chatham University.

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Lisa Alexander, MFA

PR Marketing Manager

Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society

6300 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor

Pittsburgh, PA 15232

412-361-1915

www.calliopehouse.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

Book of Mormon Tickets on Sale

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TICKETS ON-SALE

PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh

WINNER! TONY AWARD – BEST MUSICAL

WINNER! NEW YORK DRAMA CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD – BEST MUSICAL

WINNER! DRAMA DESK AWARD – BEST MUSICAL

WINNER! OUTER CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD – BEST MUSICAL

WINNER! DRAMA LEAGUE AWARD – BEST MUSICAL

WINNER! GRAMMY AWARD – BEST MUSICAL THEATER ALBUM

 “THE BEST MUSICAL OF THIS CENTURY.

Heaven on Broadway!  A celebration of the privilege

of living inside that improbable paradise called a musical comedy.”

Ben Brantley, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Performances begin
March 26 and run through April 7, 2013
 at the Benedum Center

Individual Tickets Go On Sale December 14, 2012 at 9 AM

The Book of Mormon (Photo Credit:  Joan Marcus)

PITTSBURGH, PA:  The producers of the national tour of the new musical THE BOOK OF MORMON, winner of nine Tony Awards including Best Musical, and PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh announce that single tickets will go on sale December 14, 2012 at 9 AM for the Pittsburgh engagement. Tickets begin at $36 and will be available at the Box Office at Theater Square, 655 Penn Avenue, by visitingwww.TrustArts.org,  or by calling (412) 456-4800.

THE BOOK OF MORMON will run March 26-April 7, 2013 at the Benedum Center, Pittsburgh, PA.  The performance schedule is Tuesday-Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00 p.m.; and Sunday at 1:00 and 6:30 p.m.  Performance schedule, prices and cast are subject to change without notice. THE BOOK OF MORMON is part of the PNC Broadway Across America – Pittsburgh series presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Symphony and Broadway Across America.

THE BOOK OF MORMON features book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. Parker and Stone are the four-time Emmy Award-winning creators of the landmark animated series, “South Park.” Tony Award-winner Lopez is co-creator of the long-running hit musical comedy, Avenue Q.  The musical is choreographed by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw (Monty Python’s Spamalot, The Drowsy Chaperone) and is directed by Nicholaw and Parker.

Award Winning The Book of Mormon (Photo Credit:  Michael O'Neill)

THE BOOK OF MORMON is the winner of nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score (Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone), Best Book (Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone), Best Direction (Casey Nicholaw, Trey Parker), Best Featured Actress (Nikki M. James), Best Scenic Design (Scott Pask), Best Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt), Best Sound Design (Brian Ronan) and Best Orchestrations (Larry Hochman, Stephen Oremus); the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical; five Drama Desk Awards including Best Musical, the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album; four Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Best Musical, and the Drama League Award for Best Musical.

THE BOOK OF MORMON features set design by Scott Pask, costume design by Ann Roth, lighting design by Brian MacDevitt and sound design by Brian Ronan.  Orchestrations are by Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus.  Music direction and vocal arrangements are by Stephen Oremus.

The Original Broadway Cast Recording for THE BOOK OF MORMON, winner of the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, is available on Ghostlight Records.

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For more information, visit www.BookofMormonTheMusical.com
  Follow THE BOOK OF MORMON on Twitter and on Facebook.

Media Contacts:

Diana Roth / roth@trustarts.org / (412) 471-8717
PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh series

National Tour Press Contact: John Gilmour / jgilmour@alliedlive.com  /  (312) 428-2400
Broadway Press Contact: Chris Boneau, Jim Byk, Christine Olver
cboneau@bbbway.com/jbyk@bbbway.com/colver@bbbway.com  (212) 575-3030

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

Remmereit, Shaham Return to Heinz Hall with Walker Work

For Immediate Release

Dec. 5, 2012

GUEST CONDUCTOR ARILD REMMEREIT, GRAMMY-WINNING VIOLINIST GIL SHAHAM RETURN TO HEINZ HALL; PSO PERFORMS COMMISSIONED WORK BY PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING COMPOSER GEORGE WALKER

Violinist Gil Shaham

 PITTSBURGH – Multiple Grammy Award-winner Gil Shaham returns to Heinz Hall to perform Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto in a weekend of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s BNY Mellon Grand Classics concerts led by guest conductor Arild Remmereit.

The concerts will begin at 8 p.m., Friday, Dec. 14 and Saturday, Dec. 15 and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 16. Tickets, ranging from $20 to $93, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412.392.4900, or by visiting www.pittsburghsymphony.org.

The program also features Tchaikovsky’s “Winter Dreams” Symphony, and Pulitzer Prize-winner George Walker’s “Strands,” co-commissioned by the PSO and three other orchestras. In 1996, Walker became the first black composer to receive the coveted Pulitzer Prize in music for his work, Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra. His works have been performed by virtually every major orchestra in the U.S. and many in England and other countries. He has won numerous awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships and two Rockefeller Fellowships.

Shaham last performed at Heinz Hall in January 2010. Nicknamed “the Turkish March,” Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto begins with a sweet melody and ends with hints of military-Turkish music. Tchaikovsky’s “Winter Dreams” is one of the Russian composer’s earliest and masterful works.
                                             
The PSO would like to recognize and thank BNY Mellon for their 2012-2013 title sponsorship of BNY Mellon Grand Classics. Fairmont Pittsburgh is the official hotel of the PSO. Delta Air Lines is the official airline of the PSO.

Arild Remmereit, Courtesy of RPO

Over a five-month period in 2005, conductor Arild Remmereit made five dramatic debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Munich Philharmonic, and Vienna Symphony, quickly establishing himself as a major talent on the international scene. The New York Times called his Pittsburgh debut “a breathtakingly dynamic reading of the Schumann [Symphony No. 4]… The only thing listeners seemed to want to talk about afterward was Mr. Remmereit.  ‘Sensational’ was the word heard most frequently.” Remmereit was immediately re-engaged in Pittsburgh, Vienna, Milan and Baltimore and has since conducted many other prominent orchestras, including the Detroit Symphony, where he appears frequently, England’s Hallé Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale in Florence, National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa, Dallas Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, and Seoul Philharmonic. The 2012-13 season includes return engagements with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and NACO, which he conducts in subscription and on tour, and debuts with the Naples Philharmonic and Orchestre Symphonique de Québec.

One of the foremost violinists of our time, Gil Shaham’s combination of flawless technique with inimitable warmth and a generosity of spirit has solidified his legacy as an American master. In the 2012-13 season, Shaham continues his long-term exploration of “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” a project beginning in 2010 and comprising performances at some of the most well-established concert venues with the world’s greatest orchestras. “Violin Concertos of the 1930s,” including the Barber, Berg, Stravinsky and Britten Violin Concertos, as well as the Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2 and the Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2, will be performed with the Orchestras of Baltimore, Boston, New York, Chicago, Montreal, San Francisco and Kansas City and abroad with the Orchestre de Paris and the NHK Symphony.

George Walker

Born in June 1922 in Washington, D.C., of West Indian-American heritage, George Theophilus Walker’s first piano lessons began at age 5 under the supervision of his mother, Rosa King. Before graduating from Dunbar High School at age 14, Walker was presented in his first public recital at 14 at Howard University's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel. In 1937, he was admitted as a scholarship student to Oberlin College, where he studied piano with David Moyer and organ with Arthur Poister. Graduating at 18 from Oberlin College with the highest honors in his Conservatory class, he was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music to study piano with Rudolf Serkin, chamber music with William Primrose and Gregor Piatigorsky, and composition with Rosario Scalero, teacher of Samuel Barber. He graduated from the Curtis Institute with Artist Diplomas in piano and composition in 1945, becoming the first black graduate of this renowned music school. Walker has published more than 90 works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, piano, strings, voice, organ, clarinet, guitar, brass, woodwinds, and chorus. His awards include the Harvey Gaul Prize, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo and Bennington Composer Conference Fellowships, two Guggenheim Fellowships, two Rockefeller Fellowships, a Fromm Foundation commission, two Koussevitsky Awards, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, a Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Award, the Mason Gross Memorial Award, numerous grants from the Research Councils of Smith College, The University of Colorado, Rutgers University, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New Jersey Council on the Arts. Walker has received important commissions from many ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic (Cello Concerto), Cleveland Orchestra (Dialogus for Cello and Orchestra),  Boston Symphony (Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra), Eastman School of Music (An Eastman Overture) , Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Violin and Piano Sonata No. 2), David Ensemble (Five Fancies for Clarinet and Piano Four Hands), Affiliate Artists and Xerox (Guido's Hand), Pew Charitable Trust (Piano Sonata No. 4), The Boys Choir of Harlem (Cantata), The Cleveland Chamber Symphony (Orpheus), New Jersey Symphony (Pageant and Proclamation), Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust (Modus), New Jersey Chamber Music Society (Wind Set), Maryland International Piano Competition (Bauble), Columbus Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra (Tangents), New Jersey Youth Symphony (Icarus In Orbit), and Network for New Music (Abu).

Editors Please Note:
Friday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 15 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 16 at 2:30 p.m.

Heinz Hall
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
ARILD REMMEREIT, conductor
GIL SHAHAM, violin

George Walker                          Sinfonia No. 4, “Strands”
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart                        Concerto No. 5 in A major for Violin and Orchestra, K. 219
I.                    Allegro aperto
II.                  Adagio
III.                Rondo: Tempo di menuetto
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky              Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Opus 13, “Winter Dreams”
I.                    Allegro tranquillo
II.                  Adagio cantabile man non tanto
III.                Scherzo: Allegro scherzando giocoso
IV.                Finale: Andante lugubre – Allegro moderato – Allegro maestoso

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Contact: James Barthen, Vice President of Public Affairs
Phone: 412.392.4835 | email: jbarthen@pittsburghsymphony.org
Contact: Ramesh Santanam, Director of Media Relations
Phone: 412.392.4827 | email: rsantanam@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

Blues Legend B. B. King to Perform at Benedum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Today's date: October 23, 2012
Contact: Diana Roth, (412) 471-8717, roth@trustarts.org


B.B. King, award winning, blues guitarist
performing at the  Benedum Center, Wednesday, November 21, 2012, at 7:30 p.m.

Pittsburgh, PA:  The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust presents award-winning, blues guitarist B.B. King at the Benedum Center on Wednesday, November 21, 2012, at 7:30 p.m.  For information and tickets: visit www.Trustarts.org, call (412) 456-6666, or in person: Theater Square Box Office, 655 Penn Avenue.  To purchase 10 or more tickets at discounted rates, please call (412) 471-6930.  The performance is a part of the Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents series presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

Riley B. King, better known as B.B. King, has been enthralling audiences for more than fifty years.  Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, King played on street corners for dimes and would sometimes play up to four towns in a night.  His passion for music led him to Memphis, Tennessee where he got his big break performing on Sonny Boy Williamson's radio program on KWEM. This led to steady engagements at the Sixteenth Avenue Grill in West Memphis, and later to a ten-minute spot on Memphis radio station WDIA. "King's Spot," became so popular, it was expanded and became the "Sepia Swing Club."
 
In 1952, King had his first hit with “Three O’Clock Blues” which was followed by countless more.   Over the years B.B. King has performed an estimated 15,000 shows and is one the most beloved blues musicians of all time.  Known as the King of the Blues, he is credited with inventing the genre of the blues.  President Obama recently declared at a B.B. King performance, "This music speaks to something universal. No one goes through life without both- joy and pain, triumph and sorrow. The blues gets all of that, sometimes with just one lyric or one note. "

King named his famous guitar Lucille after narrowly escaping a fire in a dance hall caused by two men fighting over a woman named Lucille.  The beloved Gibson guitar has become an essential part of his identifiable guitar style.  Borrowing from Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and others, King integrated his precise and complex vocal-like string bends and his left hand vibrato, both of which have become indispensable components of rock guitarist's vocabulary.  King has mixed traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a totally unique sound. In King’s words, "When I sing, I play in my mind; the minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille."

King released his 24th studio album, One Kind of Favor, in August, 2008.  It went on to win a Grammy award for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 51st Grammy Awards.  He also contributed to Cyndi Lauper's album Memphis Blues in 2010.  He continues to tour playing many of his hit songs from over the years.

King has received many accolades and awards throughout his career.  In 1984 he was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.  That same year he received NARAS' Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.  King also holds honorary doctorates from Tougaloo (MS) College in 1973; Yale University in 1977; Berklee College of Music in 1982; Rhodes College of Memphis in 1990; Mississippi Valley State University in 2002 and Brown University in 2007. In 1992, he received the National Award of Distinction from the University of Mississippi.  He continues to tour extensively and his classic hits such as "Payin' The Cost to be the Boss," "The Thrill is Gone," How Blue Can You Get," "Everyday I Have The Blues," and "Why I Sing The Blues" continue to thrill audiences today.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit organization whose mission is the cultural and economic development of Pittsburgh’s 14-block Cultural District through public and private support.  The Trust presents and encourages diverse performing and visual arts programs within the District, and is an impetus for additional development in downtown Pittsburgh.

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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

Gilberto Gil Performs at the Byham Theater

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Today's date: October 18, 2012
Contact: Diana Roth, (412) 471-8717, roth@trustarts.org

Gilberto Gil 

Thursday, November 15, 2012, Byham Theater 

Pittsburgh, PA:  The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust presents Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, Gilberto Gil, at the Byham Theater on Thursday, November 15, 2012, at 7:30 p.m. Gilberto Gil is known for both his musical innovation and political commitment. He is one of the first artists to lead the ‘Tropicalia’ music movement. Gil’s music has modernized Brazilian popular music and his style blends an eclectic range of influences including rock music and Brazilian genres like samba, salsa,bossa nova, and African music and reggae. His performance is highly praised by Variety, “There may have been one man onstage, but there was enough warmth, love, intelligence and sheer talent on display to power an orchestra.”

Gil’s For All Tour will feature the folkloric, celebratory, Baião music of Northeast Brazil; accompanied by guitarist Sergio Chiavazzolli, drums player Jorge Gomes, bass player Arthur Maia, accordionist Toninho Ferragutti, violin player Nicholas Krassik and percussionist Gustavo Di Dalva. Their performance reinvents old classics, and presents new songs such as "Fé na Festa", o "Livre Atiradore a Pegadora", from Gil’s new album (Fé na Festa) all dedicated to Baião. This tour has been greatly praised: The New York Times wrote, “He played delicate bossa novas, strummed rockers and intricate sambas; he crooned, whispered and whooped, equally at home in the fast patter of a samba or the curvaceous contours of a ballad…” While the LA Times said, “The prevailing tone of Gil’s songs is a ruminative sweetness, albeit one achieved via brainy harmonic and melodic gambats…”

For information and tickets ($30.00 - $53.00), visit www.Trustarts.org, call (412) 456-6666, or in person at Theater Square Box Office, 655 Penn Avenue. To purchase 10 or more tickets at discounted rates, please call (412) 471-6930. The performance is a part of the Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents series presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.

With 52 albums released, Gilberto Gil has 12 gold records, 5 platinum albums, 7 Grammys and more than 4 million records sold. Gil has been honored by several entities and personalities and has also received many prizes in Brazil and abroad such as The Polar Prize in 2005. Gil’s recent album Fé na Festa was released in 2011. He is a unique composer powered by immense talent and curiosity, and a musical ambassador powered by firm cultural conviction.

Gil was born in Salvador, Brazil and was interested in music from a very young age. After experimenting musically during his teens, he settled on the guitar as his main instrument and wrote songs that reflected his focus on political awareness and social activism. He began collaborating with artist Caetano Veloso in 1963 and together they created the genre Tropicalism. This new music style was radically innovative-mixing native styles with rock and folk instruments. Because of Gil's experimenting with music and fusing samba, salsa, and bossa nova with rock and folk music, he's recognized today as one of the pioneers in the World Music genre.

Tropicalism expressed various artists’ deeply critical views of Brazilian politics. Eventually the movement was repressed by the authoritarian regime and resulted in Gil and Caetano being imprisoned and eventually exiled to England. While in England, Gil was influenced by several different genres including reggae, rock, and jazz. This exposure helped later in developing his distinctive musical style.  Gil returned to Bahia in 1972 to focus on his musical career and environmental advocacy work. While serving as Salvador’s Secretary of Culture, Gil helped protect Brazilian waters by founding Onda Azul (Blue Wave). Additionally, Gil served as Brazil’s Minister of Cultural and during that time sponsored Culture Points- a program that provided music and educations grants to the underprivileged.

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit organization whose mission is the cultural and economic development of Pittsburgh’s 14-block Cultural District through public and private support. The Trust presents and encourages diverse performing and visual arts programs within the District, and is an impetus for additional development in downtown Pittsburgh.


Photo Credit: Perfil Guitarra

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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