Dana Bishop-Root, Director of Education and Public Programs at Carnegie Museum of Art, talks about all of the holiday events taking place at the Museum, including the Carnegie Trees, live performances, the Neapolitan Presepio, and of course holiday shopping.  

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director Manfred Honeck recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut with Mozart's "Idomeneo."   WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham spoke with Metropolitan Opera Radio host Debra Lew Harder about her impressions of Manfred with the Met.   

Jim Whipple is a founding member of the Renaissance City winds playing bassoon. He introduces a concert on December 20th in Oakland and November 26, 2023 at Holmes Hall on the north side. The program Tchochkes includes music for the holidays and special items rarely if ever performed in Pittsburgh with an emphasis on American composers. The concert on the 26th is in memory of the last owner of Holmes Hall, John Desantis, who has one of the world's most comprehensive collections of toy trains. Concert goers can tour the home after the concert. 

WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham spoke with Jessica Gaynelle Moss about the exhibit "Shrine" at the Mattress Factory through December 30, 2022. "Shrine" uplifts and recognizes Black mothers, artists, creatives and/or activists and honors sacred and holy spaces— or shrines– as sites of resistance and liberation struggle.

Kola Owolabi from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend Indiana presents a free Sunday 3:30pm recital at St Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh’s Oakland. Kola visited the WQED-Fm studio to speak with Jim Cunningham about the program he’s prepared with Bach Muffat and contemporary music for the king of instruments. He outlined his musical journey which includes stops in Monral at McGill University, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, Nigeria, Ann Arbor Michigan, Yale University and South Bend.  The state of the organ world, how young organists of color will increase in number and the topic diversity generally in the music world, the special qualities of the Beckerath instruments and the spirit of Notre Dame grads all turn up in this lively get together. Cathedral Director of Music and organist Brian Gurley introduces Kola and adds a cheer for Notre Dame. 

Michael Seamans talks with WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham about Fungus Books and Records.

Anna Bulkina makes her Steinway Society debut on Sunday November 20 at 3pm in Kresge Theater at CMU. She explains in this conversation with Jim Cuningham her most unusual program of never before heard in Pittsburgh surprises including Leo Ornstein's Suicide n an Airplane as well as the George Antheil Airplane Sonata, music by Schoenberg, Henry Cowell, Igor Stravinsky's Ragtime, Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and Prokofiev's Third Sonata.  She arrived in Texas where she teaches now having traveled from the Rachmaninov Conservatory in Rostov Russia and she can be seen in many Youtube videos playing Bach and Czerny Etudes.