Programming includes Cinematic Soundtrack Festival with Disney’s Fantasia, Danny Elfman, and other movie music Fiddlesticks In Your Neighborhood and Americana Concert also announced Recently the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) announced 2026 Summer with the Symphony programming, featuring a Cinematic Soundtrack Festival , Fiddlesticks in Your Neighborhood , and the Symphony’s annual, free Americana Concert at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum. These programs join an existing lineup of summer programming by the Symphony, including its America250 Festival June 12-21 (featuring all American music like Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and Appalachian Spring with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre), and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers June 26-28. Together, the Symphony’s summer programming combines free community performances, family-friendly experiences, and large-sc...
Post Concert Dessert As a former accordion (and trombone) player, I knew you could play tangos, tarantellas, waltzes, sea shanties, obereks, czardases, mazurkas and polkas, especially polkas, on the accordion, But it took me all these years to find out you can also play Bach and other classical music on the instrument. I discovered the new use of the accordion last evening when I went to hear the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra at the Palace Theater in Greensburg. My main draw was to hear how well the WSO would perform Holst’s “The Planets,” a work I am especially fond of. But to my surprise and listening amazement, I also got to see and hear young Moldovan accordionist, Radu Ratoi, perform with the orchestra Bach’s “Concerto in D minor.” Surprise! Surprise! I was delighted to see the accordion put to such a good use and with such emotion, passion and proficiency by Ratoi, who WSO executive director, Michael Rozell, called a rising young star. His performance was amazing, and he ...