Pittsburgh Symphony oboe Scott Bell retires this season after 27 years having been hired by Lorin Mazel in 1993. He remembers his work with Maestro Maazel and all the Pittsburgh Symphony Music Directors. Scott shares memories of his teacher John Mack of the Cleveland Orchestra, working in Veracruz Mexico, playing serious bridge, cooking up a storm and teaching for Juilliard in Tianjin, China with much more in this conversation with Jim Cunningham

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director Manfred Honeck joined WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham on the QED Morning Show (7/8/20) with an updated on how he's been dealing with the pandemic.

Jennifer Steele, Pittsburgh Symphony Flute, joined Anna Singer on the QED Morning Show to talk about being stuck at home during the Covid crisis and much more.

Pittsburgh Symphony bass Jeffrey Grubbs talks about his front porch concerts in Highland Park with his wife Tania Grubbs, introduces Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1, remembers playing Shostakovich Fifth in Bucharest, talks about the pandemic, George Floyd protests, his Bright Spot with an original Tania Grubbs composition and Ray Brown’s Afterthoughts with the Pittsburgh Symphony in this live conversation with Jim Cunningham from the QED Morning Show on June 17th, 2020 at 8:30am.

On May 30, 2020, Jim Cunningham interviewed Manfred Honeck live from Austria as part of the grand finale of the Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra season Speaking with Artistic Director Brian Worsdale.  They take questions from TRYPO players and discuss the importance of playing in a youth orchestra. Plus, what Maestro Honeck is doing at home pursuing his hobby of eating and enjoying his family. In August he has agreed to conduct a concert on the 28th with Rudolph Buchbinder of the Gershwin concerto and Dvorak‘s Eighth Symphony at the Grafenegg Festival.

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.