Principal percussionist Andrew Reamer from his home in the North Hills talks about his drum manufacturing company, his motorcycle riding, practicing, eagerness to return to Heinz Hall, his contributions to the Bright Spots of Extraordinary measures and the Feuerfest Polka by Strauss which has become a regular feature of the thanksgiving concert in the style of the Vienna New Year’s Day program with Manfred Honeck  and the Nimrod from Enigman Variations by Sir Edward Elgar, one of his favorites plus a suggestion for a great burger place. Live conversation Wednesday morning May 3, 2020 with Jim Cunningham from the QED Morning Show.

Co Principal Bassoon David Sogg plays some Benda live over the phone from his home in Highland Park, explains his choice of composer for the Extraordinary Measures website, introduces the Carl Nielsen Symphony ‘The Inextinguishable’ and the Graun Bassoon Concerto in C, tells us he is reading Love in the Time of Cholera and cooking a bit more while at home with wife Lisa bioethicist and philosopher at the University of Pittsburgh.

Vice President of Artistic Planning discusses what her colleagues in the orchestra world are thinking about returning to the stage. She introduces music by Brahms, remembers her time as a violist in the Biava Quartet and the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony and explains what the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is doing with the Extraordinary measures website.

Pittsburgh Symphony Principal Tuba, Craig Knox, talks with Jim Cunningham from his home in Mount Lebanon about the stay at home quarantine, delivery of dinner, teaching online, when we’ll have music at Heinz Hall again and Craig chooses the very solemn slow second music of the Bruckner Symphony No 7 as music to provide comfort during these troubled times. Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony had planned to record the Bruckner 7 this Spring until concerts were canceled.

Robert Lauver, Pittsburgh Symphony Horn, talks about his jazzy Strauss Til Eulenspiegel posted on the Pittsburgh Symphony Extraordinary Measures website. His teacher who played on the Beatle's Sergeant Pepper album and worked with famous horn virtuoso Dennis Brain. Robert explains how he worked with horn star Barry Tuckwell, talks about the technology involved in online music making, and remembers Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who had four horn soloists in the Konzertstuck by Robert Shcumann at Heinz Hall and Robert salutes teachers with a personal favorite by Korngold.

Pittsburgh Symphony Principal Clarinet Michael Rusienk and Principal Bassoon Nancy Goeres live by phone from home on the Classical QED Morning Show with Jim Cunningham sharing the latest thinking on when live concerts will return, the Extraordinary Measures website, when hockey will be back, a favorite golf course, the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and the basset clarinet, where to ride a bike in Western Pa and coffee drinking to begin the day.

WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham spoke with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Principal Harpist Gretchen van Hoesen about how she is dealing with the coronavirus lockdown; the orchestra's Extraordinary Measures program; how her family is doing, and much more.

Pittsburgh Symphony Principal Flute Lorna McGhee appears by phone live on the QED Morning show with Jim Cunningham talking about her pandemic plans and suggesting some Bach to bring comfort from the B minor Mass with John Eliot Gardiner. She listens in on the Beethoven Pastorale Symphony conducted by Manfred Honeck which will be heard in an Extraordinary Measures website sharing on Friday night.

Anne Martindale Williams, Principal Cello of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, joined Jim Cunningham on the QED Morning Show to talk about how she is dealing with having to stay at home during the Coronavirus situation.

Pittsburgh Symphony Resident Conductor Andres Franco speaks with Jim Cunningham about being at home with his wife Co Principal Clarinet Victoria Luperi. Working on the Northside, coffee culture, beans from Commonplace Coffee, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony and Pablo Casals Bach, Extraordinary Measures, the PSO website and looking forward to a return to music this summer.  He reports that Mom is well, she is an engineer in Columbia, his native country.