Voice of the Arts

Bach, Beethoven, and Brunch returns to Mellon Park this summer! The City of Pittsburgh's Special Events Coordinator Melissa Culbertson speaks with Bryan Sejvar about the lineup. East Winds Symphonic Band kicks off the series on June 21st, followed by River City Brass, TRYPO, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and Academy Concerts. Melissa explains the selection process for performers, bringing young musicia...

Renaissance City Winds hosts an America 250 concert this weekend! Bassoonist and composer R. James Whipple and organist Mark Brampton Smith speak with Jim Cunningham about the program. The concert features a touring program, which includes John Knowles Paine's "variations on Star-Spangled Banner," Joseph Haydn's "St. Anthony Chorale", and a piece by Jim Whipple called "Wedding Music for Kensington...

The Mariposas Galácticas is an 8-piece Cumbia Klezmer Punk band from Philadelphia, PA. Combining band members’ South American and Jewish ancestries, the band creates a unique diasporic sound that gets audiences everywhere dancing with rebellious joy. By honoring their Indigenous Andean musical roots, blended together with punkified ancient Jewish melodies, the band plays a mixture of original and...

Thousand Bridges Opera returns to the Margaret Partee Performing Arts Center for their 2026 Pride Month performance! Anna Singer spoke live on the QED Afternoon Show with co-founders Alicia Jayourba and Bridget Johnston, and cast members Denver Perdomo, Zachary Dean Smith, and Brienne Sharo. On the bill are the world premiere of Jodi Goble's Sirens vs Amazons , a sapphic rom-com, and a genderqueer...

The Sacred Nine Project will be at The Woods House in Hazelwood tomorrow evening with a program titled Foster's Foils. Anna Singer speaks with creator C. Leonard Rayban and tenor Robert Frankenberry about the event. This program celebrates Stephen Foster's 200th birthday and serves as a commemoration of his work, while condemning his personal choices. "Nelly Bly" (Nelly Brown) appears in the progr...

This summer, WQED celebrates Rick Sebak's 50 years in public television! Rick hopped over to the WQED-FM studio to chat with Anna Singer live on the QED Afternoon Show about his illustrious career. Rick started out in public broadcasting as a summer intern at South Carolina Educational Television in 1973. He worked on a children's program there hosted by Josie Carey, called "WHEEE." Rick also shar...

Joe Negri loved Pittsburgh, and touched the lives of so many Pittsburghers. This week, WQED Executive Producer Minette Seate and WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham spoke with friends of Joe who worked with him on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood , as a performing musician, and as an educator. Bill Isler, who served as President and CEO of Fred Rogers Productions in the 1980s, tells Minette about working with Joe...

The Pittsburgh Concert Society presents pianist Leslie Amper for their season finale Alumni Concert this Sunday at 2:00pm. Leslie speaks with Jim Cunningham about her program, a multimedia performance that will feature Schumann's Kreisleriana . Interspersed between Kreisleriana ’s eight movements will be spoken excerpts from their many letters in which Robert and Clara reveal their dreams, struggl...

Mandolin virtuoso Carlo Aonzo comes to Third Presbyterian Church in Shadyside this Thursday for the season finale of Music at Third! Music Director Lenny Young visited the WQED studio to speak with Anna Singer live on the QED Afternoon Show about the program. Aonzo, sometimes referred to as the "ambassador of the mandolin," is a globally renowned performer and educator from Savona, Italy. He will...

Squonk will premiere their new show, Joy Machine , this weekend at the Three Rivers Arts Festival! Co-founder and Artistic Executive Director Jackie Dempsey speaks with Melissa Black about the production. Squonk have been putting on interactive multimedia performances for over 30 years, and Joy Machine calls for the most audience participation yet. Participants will be able to express their musica...

It’s been a sad few days in the neighborhood since we heard of the passing of our dear friend Joe Negri this past Saturday, just a few days shy of his 100th birthday. To remember and honor his legacy as a jazz guitarist and lifelong music educator, WQED-FM would like to share excerpts from two interviews with Joe, celebrating career achievements and sharing fond memories of his time on Mister Roge...

City Theatre's current production, Hedwig and the Angry Inch , has been extended through June 14th! Treasure Treasure, who plays Hedwig, stopped by WQED to chat with Anna Singer about the show. Treasure tells Anna about the challenging rehearsal process and warm reception from audiences. She details bringing Hedwig to life, both in Treasure's portrayal of the character, and the show's set design a...

The Fred Rogers Institute at St. Vincent College is hosting a concert that features the pianos of Fred and Joanne Rogers on Wednesday, June 3rd at 7:30pm! The Institute's Director, Emma Swift Lee, speaks with Jim Cunningham about the evening. The concert will feature pianists Gloria Cook and Cynthia Lawing, and marks the first time these pianos have been played publicly. Gloria and Cynthia will st...

New Product Company comes to the Cultural Trust's newest venue, Three Stories, with Whistleblowers ! Writer and director Spencer Byham-Carson speaks with Jim Cunningham about the play. Five employees at a fictional aerospace company are forced into a mandatory empathy course. When a whistleblower scandal goes public mid-session, the exercises stop being hypothetical. What follows is darkly funny,...

Karla Boos, Founder and Artistic Director of Quantum Theatre, will be leaving the company at the end of 2026 after triumphant 36 years. She joined Jim Cunningham to talk about the new season, and her retirement. For her final show with Quantum, Karla will direct a production of Shakespeare's The Tempest from July 17th through August 23rd. She tells Jim why she chose it and gives her thoughts on th...

Celebrate the grand finale of TRYPO’s season at Heinz Hall on Saturday, May 23rd at 7:00pm! Music Director Brian Worsdale stopped by the WQED-FM studio to chat with Anna Singer about the concert. Classical QED's Jim Cunningham will host the evening, which brings together all of TRYPO's large ensembles! Brian talks about the program, which includes works by Arturo Márquez, Saint-Saëns, and Frank Ti...

On Sunday May 17th, 2025 - WQED-FM broadcast the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra concert live from Heinz Hall. Jacob Joyce conducted music by Respighi, Rachmaninoff and Bernstein. During intermission, Jim Cunningham spoke with PYSO Music Director Jacob Joyce. He spoke about the first half of the concert, the dedication of the kids in the orchestra, the upcoming tour to Greece, and the Respighi...

On Sunday May 17th, 2025 - WQED-FM broadcast the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra concert live from Heinz Hall. Jacob Joyce conducted music by Respighi, Rachmaninoff and Bernstein. Prior to the concert, Jim Cunningham spoke with A.J. Schmidt, a member of the PYSO Flute section. He spoke about his experience in the Youth Orchestra, being a Senior at Franklin Regional High School, attending Rice...

Hear "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin on the mighty organ of East Liberty Presbyterian Church with the powerful pianist Nathan Carterette as the Arsenal Duo plays a free concert on Sunday May 17th at 3pm. Organist Edward Alan Moore and pianist Nathan Carterette joined Classical QED morning host Jim Cunningham to talk about the concert with new music dedicated to the duo, Cesar Franck for the...

Pianist Chaeyoung Park makes her Pittsburgh debut on Sunday, May 17 at 3:00pm at the Kresge Theater at Carnegie Mellon University for the Steinway Society of Western Pennsylvania. She explains in this conversation with Jim Cunningham how she put together Beethoven's Tempest Sonata with Ravel's La Valse as a combination of the storm with dance, adding Spanish pieces by Albeniz, Granados and Mompou...

The Lindsay Theater has an upcoming screening of Robert Cochrane's Boys of Summer: Short Stop , the third installment of his documentary series chronicling precious time spent with his father, Dan Cochrane, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2001. Robert joined Jim Cunningham from California to talk about the film. For this screening, the Lindsay is partnering with the Parkinson Foundat...

The Millvale Music Festival takes place this weekend, May 15th & 16th! Anna Singer spoke with collaborators for concerts taking place at St. Nicholas Croatian Church about the festival's classical music programming. St. Nicholas is the home of the murals of Maxo Vanka. Becky Gaugler, Director of Education for the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka, talks about the ongoing restor...

Phipps Conservatory opens their new show, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, this weekend! Associate Director of Exhibits Jordyn Melino stopped by to chat with Anna Singer live on the QED Afternoon Show about the exhibit. Jordyn takes Anna through the process of bringing an exhibit to life. She started thinking about Alice in Wonderland two years ago, planning how to transform the original Lewis Ca...

Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures recently announced its 2026-2027 season! Executive Director Sony Ton-Aime joined Anna Singer live on the QED Afternoon Show to talk about the series and other upcoming lectures. There are four upcoming June lectures, featuring Winchester Thurston alum Alec Karakatsanis, Michael Lowenthal ( Place Envy ), Lisa Olszak Zumstein ( The Brady's Bend Flood of 1980 ), and Isaac F...

The Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra recently released a new recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony! Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles joined Jim Cunningham from Berlin to talk about the CD. Sir Donald discusses the orchestra's high caliber, the involvement of musicians from various major orchestras including Pittsburgh, and the evolution of the festival's recording agenda, highlighting the pa...