Dan Leers, Carnegie Music of Art Photography Curator, discusses "Trevor Paglen: Opposing Geometries" - on view now through March 14th in Gallery One and two locations in the Scaife Galleries.  The exhibit received a full page of notice in the Sunday Arts and Leisure section of the New York Times. Paglen's work at the Pace Gallery in London has also won praise. There is a forthcoming series of podcasts, discussion with Paglen and Leers and a catalog on the way. Leers discusses the measures being taken to assure safety during the pandemic and describes many of the photographs on view with details about their processing and philosophy.

James R. Hagerty is the Obituary writer for the Wall Street Jornal. He asked for the job and is optimistic not morbid about life. He's suggested how he'd like his own obituary to be written which attracted notice from the BBC World Service Outlook program. Bob suggests how a good obituary should be put together, describes his writing process, remembers some of his subjects and other interesting and award-winning writing he's done on Home Depot, Fannie Mae and the Mount Lebanon library. He's been based in Hong Kong, Paris, and Atlanta but loves Pittsburgh in this conversation with Jim Cunningham.

Organist Jon Tyllian discusses his virtual Zoom concert for the Brittsburgh Festival in the spirit of England’s Last Night of the Proms with poetry readings and the organ at Calvary Church in Shadyside. Jon studied at Duquesne with Anne Labounsky Steele and others. Now he is the Assistant organist at Calvary working with Alan Lewis. In this conversation with Jim Cunningham he talks about the special features of the music program at Calvary, his upcoming Evensong service at St. Andrew’s in Highland Park where he is a regular guest, why he decided to pursue a  career as an organist and the special appeal of English Music.  The concert is free but you must register on the Brittsburgh website:

 

https://bacpgh.z2systems.com/np/clients/bacpgh/event.jsp;jsessionid=29CC293A246D88DF4AB254BAAE603E2E-n1?event=1317

National Arts Education Week 2020 goes from September 13-19. Leading up to that week, arts advocates explain what concerns they have about the future of arts education programs in local schools and who is finding creative solutions to the challenges facing  school districts. This episode features an interview with Ed Donovan, president of the school board for the Wilkinsburg School District.

WQED talks with Pam Anderson about her trip to Greenland in September 2017. Ms. Anderson describes the wildlife, the culture and daily life of the people, as well as the ongoing effects of climate change. She also shares what she thinks is most important for us to know about Greenland."

"A Couple Quick Quarantine Questions" - Rick Sebak's new one-hour special airs Sunday, September 6th at noon on WQED13 with adventures from the back yard and his porch in Regent Square. Rick pays a visit to the Point Breeze pandemic outpost of WQED-FM to speak with Jim Cunningham and reveals his favorite pandemic restaurants and other secrets of the new progam.

Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks presents CYMBELINE, Shakespeare's Fairy Tale.  In 2020, you will have multiple opportunities to explore the intrigue and adventure of CYMBELINE every weekend in September. Their creative adaptation will begin with a weekly installment and revisit of the prior acts and culminate with the full show the final week of September.  CYMBELINE runs LIVE on Zoom on Friday nights, opening on September 4. The show will be available through the following Tuesdays on YouTube and linked to our social media platforms.  WQED-FM's Anna Singer spoke with Artistic Director Jennifer Tober about how they had to approach this year's Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks.

Dr. Dan Brill, choral and strings teacher at Shady Side Academy Senior School, talks about his teaching career: what he enjoys about teaching, how he engages with his students, and the ways he is adapting to the new challenges of the pandemic. He also explains his plans going into the upcoming school year.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma talks with WQED’s Vice President of Content and Executive Producer of Harbor From the Holocaust, Darryl Ford Williams. The WQED Production airs nationally September 8 at 10pm.  They discuss the music Yo-Yo Ma recorded expressly for the program “Poeme per violoncello et orchestre” written by his father Hiao-Tsiun Ma  who studied violin in Shanghai which became a safe harbor for 20,000 Jews during WWII. It was not until decades later that the composition was completed at the request of a young Yo-Yo Ma who was studying the cello and wanted something challenging to play. The conversation includes Yo-Y o Ma’s knowledge of Shanghai during the Second World War and his return more recently, how the music reveals his Father’s Shanghai experience and his later Parisian sound world, how the recording was made during a pandemic and more.

The Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops Byron Stripling talks with Jim Cunningham about his inspiration from Louis Armstrong's Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, working at Heinz Hall, the Jazz Arts Group in Columbus Ohio, his favorite thing about summer, his name Lloyd Byron Stripling and recording his Crucial Conversations as a response to protests and unrest in the Black Lives Matter movement and the pandemic.