Voice of the Arts

Students from Carnegie Mellon University's Preparatory School will participate in a Concerto Fest! Luz Manriquez, Director of the school's Piano Division, and her student Alex Shen speak with Jim Cunningham about the performances.

There are 25 young performers involved, ranging from age 7-18. They will each play one movement of a concerto. Luz, along with her colleagues Sung-Im Kim and Amaury Morales, serve as the orchestra. 

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Acclaimed sleight-of-hand artist Dan Kamin brings THE MAGIC LESSON to the Greer Cabaret Theater! He speaks with Anna Singer about the show.

Dan talks about finding inspiration from gamblers, card sharks, and con-men, and adapting his magic-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also remembers learning body movement from Jewel Walker at Carnegie Mellon University. THE MAGIC LESSON is an intimate magic show that marks Dan's return t...

Bach, Beethoven and Brunch kicks off this weekend, and the East Winds Symphonic Band serves as this summer's opener! Conductor Susan Sands and co-founder/euphonium player Roger Schneider speak with Bryan Sejvar about the band and their concert program.

Roger recounts the history of the band, which is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year. Susan joined the band as an oboe player in 1988 and began conducting two years later. She...

RESCHEDULED: Performances of The Cowboy Evolves have been rescheduled to the following dates:

Monday, July 13 at 7pm - City of Asylum

Tuesday, July 14 at 7:30pm - Vanka Murals, St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale

Chamber Music Pittsburgh presents their 2026 Pittsburgh Performs series! Jim Cunningham speaks with PSO Paul J. Ross Fellow bassoonist Carlos Clark, PSO violinist Jennifer Orchard, and violinist Omari Abdul-...

Resonance Works present a new version of Gounod’s Roméo & Juliette. Anna Singer spoke with conductor/producer Maria Sensi Sellner, director Justin Lucero, and the actors playing our star-crossed lovers, Ben Werley and Helen Zhibing Huang, live on the QED Afternoon Show about the production.

Maria talks about creating this version of the opera with Justin and bringing it to the New Hazlett with Resonance Works' orchestra. ...

The Blairsville Chamber Music Festival returns this weekend! Blairsville Chamber Music Society's Executive Director Sarah Marshall and Artistic Director Avital Mazor spoke with Anna Singer live on the QED Afternoon Show about the concert lineup.

Sarah explains how the festival got its start, and moving back to her hometown from New York City. Avital talks about this year's program, spanning five concerts. The festival begins on Fri...

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra come together this weekend for Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. PBT Artistic Director Adam McKinney speaks with Anna Singer by phone about the collaboration.

PBT will perform Mark Godden’s choreography, Angels in the Architecture, which is a tribute to communities of the Shaker religious sect. The performance will feature the set pieces from the ballet's premi...

French Moderns: Matisse / Renoir / Degas opens at The Frick Pittsburgh on June 20th! Chief Curator & Director of Collections Dawn Brean and Director of Learning & Visitor Experience Kelsie Paul spoke with Anna Singer about bringing the exhibition and its surrounding programs to life.

Dawn talks about the curatorial process, which begins with an idea and manifests as crates of artwork. Some of the featured artists--in additi...

A rare staging of Shakespeare's Hamlet, based on the first quarto, will be at the University of Pittsburgh's Rauh Theater this weekend! Director Jeremy Seghers and actor Ayden Freed speak with Melissa Black about the show.

The first quarto, infamously referred to as the "bad quarto," is the earliest and least known text of Hamlet. Jeremy talks about why he wanted to tackle this version of the play and the key differences between Q1...

Happy Pride Month, neighbors! In this episode, local drag artist Kaydence McQueen sits down with WQED Digital Correspondent Nick Tommarello to chat about Pittsburgh's drag culture and her Pride activities.

Kaydence was drawn to drag through gender expression, and she enjoys combining her passion for theater and fashion in her performances. Kaydence takes Nick through what goes into creating her drag performances, whether the proces...

The Lindsay Theater's 2026 summer season is bringing back the 90s! Their Director of Communications and Media Relations, Josh Axelrod, stopped by the WQED-FM studio to chat with Anna Singer about the lineup.

The series opens with Jerry Maguire, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. It also commemorates 35 years of Boyz N the Hood and Thelma & Louise. And, of course, Jurassic Park, Ghost, Basic Instinct, The Pelican B...

Bach, Beethoven, and Brunch returns to Mellon Park this summer! The City of Pittsburgh's Special Events Coordinator Melissa Culbertson speaks with Bryan Sejvar about the lineup.

East Winds Symphonic Band kicks off the series on June 21st, followed by River City Brass, TRYPO, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and Academy Concerts. Melissa explains the selection process for performers, bringing young musicians to the series, and the various b...

Renaissance City Winds hosts an America 250 concert this weekend! Bassoonist and composer R. James Whipple and organist Mark Brampton Smith speak with Jim Cunningham about the program.

The concert features a touring program, which includes John Knowles Paine's "variations on Star-Spangled Banner," Joseph Haydn's "St. Anthony Chorale", and a piece by Jim Whipple called "Wedding Music for Kensington." Mark and Jim talks about the ven...

The Mariposas Galácticas is an 8-piece Cumbia Klezmer Punk band from Philadelphia, PA. Combining band members’ South American and Jewish ancestries, the band creates a unique diasporic sound that gets audiences everywhere dancing with rebellious joy. By honoring their Indigenous Andean musical roots, blended together with punkified ancient Jewish melodies, the band plays a mixture of original and classic tunes that span diffe...

Thousand Bridges Opera returns to the Margaret Partee Performing Arts Center for their 2026 Pride Month performance! Anna Singer spoke live on the QED Afternoon Show with co-founders Alicia Jayourba and Bridget Johnston, and cast members Denver Perdomo, Zachary Dean Smith, and Brienne Sharo.

On the bill are the world premiere of Jodi Goble's Sirens vs Amazons, a sapphic rom-com, and a genderqueer English adaptation of Jacques Offen...

The Sacred Nine Project will be at The Woods House in Hazelwood tomorrow evening with a program titled Foster's Foils. Anna Singer speaks with creator C. Leonard Rayban and tenor Robert Frankenberry about the event.

This program celebrates Stephen Foster's 200th birthday and serves as a commemoration of his work, while condemning his personal choices. "Nelly Bly" (Nelly Brown) appears in the program, which includes spirituals, abol...

This summer, WQED celebrates Rick Sebak's 50 years in public television! Rick hopped over to the WQED-FM studio to chat with Anna Singer live on the QED Afternoon Show about his illustrious career.

Rick started out in public broadcasting as a summer intern at South Carolina Educational Television in 1973. He worked on a children's program there hosted by Josie Carey, called "WHEEE." Rick also shares some of his memorable WQED progr...

Joe Negri loved Pittsburgh, and touched the lives of so many Pittsburghers. This week, WQED Executive Producer Minette Seate and WQED-FM's Jim Cunningham spoke with friends of Joe who worked with him on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, as a performing musician, and as an educator.

Bill Isler, who served as President and CEO of Fred Rogers Productions in the 1980s, tells Minette about working with Joe on Mister Rogers, his kindness and ...