Home is where the concerts are…Heinz Hall

Life over these past two weeks has been very different than the first two weeks at any of my previous assignments. For starters, the day after I arrived, the orchestra left for their tour of Florida with guest conductor Charles Dutoit. It wasn’t until just this week that I was finally able to begin meeting the musicians and listening to the orchestra…and listen to them I did.

In an attempt to get as much as possible out of this year, I promised that I would attend as many events (performances, fund-raisers, etc) associated with my host orchestras as possible without going nuts. This, of course, was much easier at my previous assignments with the smaller budget orchestras of the Memphis Symphony and LA Chamber Orchestra. Keeping my promise, I have almost literally been living in Heinz Hall this weekend.

This week’s concert set included the following program conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev with guest violinist Nikolaj Znaider:

• Mozart | Symphony No. 31, “Paris”
• Bruch | Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra
• Tchaikovsky | Suite from Sleeping Beauty

This concert set was a “triple” (three performances). I assisted backstage for first and second concerts (Friday and Saturday) and sat in the house to enjoy the third (Sunday). Also, as part of a new music festival called “U3” (named after the three local universities of Duquesne, Carnegie Mellon, and U. of Pitt), one student composer from each school had a work tweaked and performed at a new music reading session performed by the PSO on Saturday morning in the Hall.

(A little bit of context: Our involvement with U3 is the first of its caliber that I know of in the world. Any composition student can tell you what an incredible opportunity this is to have a work read by a top-tier orchestra. Usually, they are restricted to hearing playback by university orchestras at best. The session was very successful, has great potential to develop, and will likely turn into an annual event.)

Between going to these concerts, hanging around the office to get extra work done, and preparing to apply for jobs, I might as well have set up a cot in Heinz Hall this weekend!

Nevertheless, it has been a wonderful weekend. The orchestra sounds absolutely incredible and I look forward to many more weekends of concerts over the remaining 12 weeks.