PSO to open concert series at Westminster
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has performed many times as part of the Celebrity Series at Westminster College. Now the orchestra is embarking on a new season at the school in New Wilmington.
The inaugural season of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Westminster series will feature the Grammy-award winning orchestra under the direction of Manfred Honeck.
The expertise of the Celebrity Series staff along with Orr Auditorium as the venue seem to be what was needed to make this new partnership work, according to Westminster College President Kathy Richardson.
The PSO will perform in the 1,700-seat concert hall where the college's various music ensembles and guest artists from the Celebrity Series regularly perform.
Dr. Daniel Perttu, who heads the School of Music at Westminster, said he's thrilled about the concert series and helped work to make the logistics happen.
“I'm truly excited about it! It will be a great opportunity for our students and for the surrounding community,” Perttu said.
“The programs the PSO chose are both interesting and highly enjoyable. Students at Westminster may or may not have had exposure to a world-class orchestra such as the PSO, so this is a fantastic opportunity for them to hear the orchestra live. I hope they will all take advantage of it,” he said.
The 2018-19 season will open with “Bernstein in Pittsburgh” on Oct. 6.
Honeck will lead the orchestra in a centennial celebration of the birth of American composer Leonard Bernstein. Mezzo soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano will be featured.
The performance will be filled with pieces Bernstein conducted with the Pittsburgh Symphony early in his career, including works by Beethoven, Haydn and Stravinsky, as well as Bernstein's own “First Symphony,” which the PSO premiered in 1944.Honeck will return to Westminster with violinist Julian Rachlin for the second concert in the series March 25.This program will feature the melodies of Grieg's “Morning Mood” and “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and Mendelssohn's “Violin Concerto.”Perttu said the School of Music students were excited with the announcement of the concert series.“It's inspirational to them. And, it gives them a sense of pride in our college and in our greater community — the fact that the PSO wants to come to Westminster shows that having a relationship with our college is important to the orchestra,” he said.“This also helps the orchestra because it inspires students to go to the concert, and these students may then become regular orchestra patrons in the future.”More information is available by calling the Celebrity Series office at 724-946-7354.
