Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Brings Cirque Artistry to Heinz Hall During PNC Pops Series

Cirque de la Symphonie, the sixth concert of the 15-16 PNC Pops Season, is bringing stunning visual displays to the classical concert experience at Heinz Hall on April 29-May 1.

The program is a unique form of three-dimensional entertainment, combining classical masterpieces with unbelievable human body performances. Aerial flyers, acrobats, contortionists, dancers, jugglers, balancers and strongmen will all be part of the show, on and above the stage.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of guest conductor Jack Everly, will join the cirque performers in a beautiful entertainment spectacle. The program will feature a variety of musical styles including orchestral, cinematic, ballet, waltz and tango from an abundance of classic and contemporary composers such as Shostakovich, Williams, Bizet, Tchaikovsky, Respighi and Strauss, among others. Opening with the lively “Festive Overture,” the program will dazzle with selections from Carmen, Carousel and Swan Lake, while cirque artists bring the stage to life.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. on Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. on Saturday and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. A Pops Talk will occur on stage following the Friday evening performance only. Tickets, ranging in price from $24 to $99, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or visiting pittsburghsymphony.org/cirque.

The Pittsburgh Symphony would like to recognize and thank PNC for its 2015-2016 title sponsorship of PNC Pops. Fairmont Pittsburgh is the official hotel of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Radio station WQED-FM 89.3 and WQEJ-FM89.7 is the official voice of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

About the Artists

JACK EVERLY is the principal pops conductor of the Indianapolis and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa). He has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and appears regularly with the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. Everly will conduct more than 90 performances in more than 20 North American cities this season.

As music director of the National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth on PBS, Everly proudly leads the National Symphony Orchestra in these patriotic celebrations on the National Mall. These concerts attract hundreds of thousands attendees on the lawn and the broadcasts reach millions of viewers and are some of the very highest rated programming on PBS television.

Everly is the also music director of Duke Energy Yuletide Celebration, now a 30-year tradition. He led the ISO in its first Pops recording, Yuletide Celebration, Volume One, that included three of his own orchestrations. Some of his other recordings include In The Presence featuring the Czech Philharmonic and Daniel Rodriguez, Sandi Patty’s Broadway Stories, the soundtrack to Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Everything’s Coming Up Roses: The Complete Overtures Of Jule Styne.

Originally appointed by Mikhail Baryshnikov, Everly was conductor of the American Ballet Theatre for 14 years, where he served as music director. In addition to his ABT tenure, he teamed with Marvin Hamlisch on Broadway shows that Hamlisch scored. He conducted Carol Channing hundreds of times in Hello, Dolly! in two separate Broadway productions.

In 1998, Everly created the Symphonic Pops Consortium, serving as music director. The Consortium, based in Indianapolis, produces new theatrical pops programs, including the most recent Classic FM: Decades of Radio Hits. In the past 17 years, more than 275 performances of SPC programs have taken place across the United States and Canada.

Everly, a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, is a recipient of the 2015 Indiana Historical Society Living Legends Award and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Franklin College in his home state of Indiana. He is a proud resident of the Indianapolis community for more than 14 years and when not on the podium you can find Everly at home with his family, which includes Max the wonder dog.

CIRQUE DE LA SYMPHONIE is an exciting production designed to bring the magic of cirque to the music hall. It is an elegant adaptation of some of the most amazing cirque acts performed on a stage, shared with the full symphony orchestra and showcasing many of the best artists in the world. The audience is thrilled and bedazzled by aerial flyers, acrobats, contortionists, dancers, jugglers, balancers and strongmen. These accomplished veterans include world record holders, gold-medal winners of international competitions, Olympians and some of the most original talent ever seen. Each performance is perfectly choreographed to classical masterpieces, raising cirque artistry to a fine arts level.

Adding a stunning visual element to the concert experience, these aerialists and acrobats provide a three-dimensional entertainment extravaganza. Orchestras play with enhanced enthusiasm, while patrons marvel at the jaw-dropping spectacle of aerialists flying overhead and astonishing acrobatic feats. Fusing the power and majesty of the live orchestra with the best of cirque artistry, Cirque de la Symphonie is the only cirque company in the world that performs exclusively with symphony orchestras. Over one hundred orchestras worldwide have featured Cirque de la Symphonie in sold-out venues, adding energy and excitement to the concert experience.

The PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, celebrating 120 years of music in the 2015-2016 season, is credited with a rich history of the world’s finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), Andre Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works, and gave the first performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 “Jeremiah” in 1944 and John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony broadcast on the airwaves coast-to-coast and in the late 1970s it made the ground breaking PBS series “Previn and the Pittsburgh.” The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900—including international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America—the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest orchestras.

HEINZ HALL FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, Heinz Hall also hosts many other events that do not feature its world-renowned orchestra, including Broadway shows, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org.

Editors please note:

Friday, April 29 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 30 at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 1 at 2:30 p.m.

Heinz Hall
PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
PNC POPS: Cirque de la Symphonie
JACK EVERLY, conductor

Dmitri Shostakovich:

Festive Overture, Opus 96

Aram Khachaturian:

Suite No. 1 from Gayane
III. Ayesha’s Awakening and Dance

Le Pero, Alfredo & Gardel, Carlos (Robert Wendel):

Por Una Cabeza

John Williams:

“Devil’s Dance” from The Witches of Eastwick

Georges Bizet: