Ifetayo Ali 15 year old cellist from Chicago and Sphinx competition winner talks about the Lalo Cello Concerto which she will pay for her debut with Lucas Richman and the Pittsburgh Symphony  at Life Every Voice Saturday January 20 at 8pm at Heinz Hall. In 2013, at the age of ten, Ifetayo was honored at the Friends of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra Rising Stars Showcase, where she recorded the 1st movement of the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto (No. 1). To date, the video has over 75,000 YouTube views and over 10 million Facebook views.

Juanjo Mena conductor of the BBC Manchester Orchestra, born in the Basque region of Spain returns to Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony on January 12 and 14. He fills us in on the program with Jacques Ibert’s Flute Concerto played by Lorna McGhee with the Debussy Printemps, Ravel’s Noble and Sentimental Waltzes and the Stravinsky Firebird Suite. Maestro Mena reveals his plans for involving the community as the new conductor of the Cincinnati May Festival, talks about his new recordings for Chandos and much more.

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director Manfred Honeck talks about this weekend's concerts, which include Handel's Messiah and Haydn's "The Creation."

Sam Helfrich talks about the staging he's designed for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's performances of Haydn's "The Creation" this weekend at Heinz Hall.

Manfred Honeck describes his Thanksgiving and discusses the Thanksgiving weekend concerts at Heinz hall with von Suppe’s Light Cavalry Overture,  Noa Wildschut in her American debut with Ravel’s Tzigane and the Chausson Poeme, the Typewriter and Plink Plank Plunk by Leroy Anderson and Viennese favorites Gold and Silver WEaltdz by Lehar, Johann Srauss Jr’s  Emperor Waltzes, Bandits’ Galop and more Viennese favorites. Maestro Honeck remembers his first concert with the Vienna Philharmonic and his work with Leonard Bernstein, fills us in on his trip to the Chicago Symphon with Schubert and discuses a new history of the Vienna Philharmonic just published.

Pittsburgh Symphony Co Principal bassoon David Sogg presents Musicological Musings for Music 101 with lunch at the Dorothy Porter Simmons Regency Rooms Wednesday November 29, 12:30. David describes his research into baroque music in Dresden and makes observations about the treasures off the city and his interest in German culture.

Dozens of Pittsburgh Symphony musicians, the Mendelssohn Choir, CMU students, pianist Henry Spinelli and many more will help the Pittsburgh Symphony Association with their most significant fundraising event of the year taking place away from Heinz Hall, "Symphony Splendor," a holiday home tour at Virginia manor in Mount Lebanon on Sunday November 19, 2017 from 11am to 5pm. With why you should go it’s Chris Thompson, Committee Chair of Music Acquisition and Diane Unkovic, Co Chair of the event and Association Board member. Chris Thompson is the wife of Thomas Thompson fifty year Pittsburgh Symphony veteran clarinetist and she sings as a member of the Mendelssohn Choir. Diane Unkovic has served in numerous civic capacities including serving as a staff member for Senator John Heinz and she is the wife of Dennis Unkovic of the law firm Meyer Unkovic and Scott.  

Manfred Honeck stops by the QED Morning Show to talk about this weekend's concerts with "Larghetto for Orchestra" by James MacMillan, the Beethoven Symphony No. 3, and the Schumann Cello Concerto with soloist Alisa Weilerstein.

Violinist Ray Chen with Taiwanese ancestry grew up in Australia and now makes his debut playing the Bruch G minor Concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Here is everything you need to know about Bruch’s greatest hit and what Ray is up to with You tube and social media where he has done comedy and profiled his heroes in addition to playing at the Nobel Prize ceremonies.

Krzystof Urbanski, the Music Director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Principal Guest of the NDR Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg Germany conducts the Shostakovich Symphony No 5 , Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and the Bruch g minor Violin Concerto with Ray Chen in his Heinz Hall debut. He agrees that Shostakovich was rejoicing under pressure in the 5th and haunted by terror from his own government.