PSO introduces Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience | Pittsburgh City Paper

PSO introduces Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience

click to enlarge PSO introduces Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience
Photo: Kristi Jan Hoover
Rhian Kenny
Update: Tue., Oct. 13
While the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience is free and available to the public on their website, Comcast Xfinity customers in Pittsburgh and throughout southwestern Pennsylvania can now also access episodes via On Demand - bringing the performances to a bigger screen.

To do so, customers should navigate to Get Local/Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; on the X1 platform, they should navigate to Xfinity Services/Get Local/ Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra or say “Get Local” into the X1 voice remote.

“Comcast is proud to bring the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s newest music into the homes of music lovers in southwestern Pennsylvania.” says Toni Murphy, Comcast’s Regional Vice President of Sales and Marketing, in a press release. “We knew the PSO was unable to offer live performances and that many of our Xfinity customers are long-time fans. Our Xfinity Video on Demand platform enables us to unite the PSO with its audience and provide a new, virtual Front Row experience from the convenience of their homes.”

Original story published Fri., Oct. 2
Wednesday, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra introduced a new online series which will bring PSO musicians and more beyond the confines of Heinz Hall. Experience classical music, popular music, and more virtually, thanks to Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience.

Comprised of five episodes, Front Row premiers Mon., Oct. 19 and will free to the public at pittsburghsymphony.org.

"As our country continues to experience the deep impact of the COVID pandemic, our hunger to create and to enjoy music also continues unabated," says Melia Tourangeau, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's president and CEO in a press release. "It is in that spirit that we have created Front Row: The PSO Virtual Experience which brings together the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians, special friends and community partners to offer music to lift spirits, stories to inspire, and places and people to touch your soul."

Each Front Row episode will run from 60-90 minutes and will include
music performed by ensembles of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, special interviews, and "other features that bridge the musical journey that is guided by the episode’s particular theme," like a behind-the-scene looks with the orchestra, a Heinz Hall exploration hosted by Jim Cunningham, artistic director at WQED-FM, and perspectives from the musicians, conductors and other members of the Pittsburgh Symphony leadership.

"
After we announced the reinvention of the 125th season in August, we went into high gear and have worked relentlessly, within health and government restrictions, to bring the fantastic sound of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to the world in this new digital series," says Tourangeau.

The first episode, "Our Love for Pittsburgh", will open to the sounds of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings and continue with works from composers such as Jessie Montgomery, Francesco Geminiani, Ennio Morricone, and Billy Strayhorn, as "the Orchestra salutes Pittsburgh through a glorious musical exploration of our dramatic geographic setting and the people drawn to it — the innovators, the immigrants, the trailblazers and the artists."