Feb 03 2009
Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts Days in New York City concluded with a satisfying tour of the Museum of Arts and Design on Columbus Circle near the new Trump International Hotel. The docent guided the 25 attendees through the museum's renovated levels and provided a historical perspective on the studio crafts movement.
The tour ended with a talk by Alan Siegel of the brand consultancy firm Siegel & Gale. A former faculty member at Carnegie Mellon, Siegel is now one of the best-known figures of the communications field, an iconoclast and symbol of the deep ties between Pittsburgh and New York City.
Siegel's appearance was an appropriate finale to the College of Fine Arts Days, a series of five events capturing the college's five disciplines of music, art, architecture, design and drama and ultimately showcasing the profound creative connections between the Steel City and the Big Apple.
For Carnegie Mellon students, the time in New York is an experience that will never be forgotten. For the alumni, it was a great way to get re-connected with their alma mater. For Pittsburgh residents, these four days captured only a glimpse at the impact their city has had on New York, the world's artistic capital.
Dean Hilary Robinson sent a post to summarize the final events:
After the concert a dinner was held for trustees, donors, and key musicians - the student leaders of the different sections of the orchestra, Maestro Lockhart, and Andres Cardenes.
In the intimate basement room of the restaurant there was a feeling of excitement, and that we had all witnessed something special. All were agreed that the concert had been magnificent, and that the Mahler performance was outstanding. Not "outstanding for a student orchestra", but "outstanding" full stop.
I was sitting at a table with four of the student musicians, a trustee of the university, and two friends of the college. For me, two important things happened during the dinner. First was the recognition of the way in which the young artists had made an impact upon their audience. The provost, Mark Kamlet, spoke to us all of what he had just witnessed. Not a man given to hyperbole in any way, he waxed lyrical about the students, and was clearly moved by the level of accomplishment that fitted them for the venue of Carnegie Hall. In the way he spoke, he encapsulated many of the comments that I heard from trustees and donors about the evening in particular and the whole of CFA days in general. It is an event the people wish to see happen again.
The second thing was a lesson about the economic reality for the arts, and indeed for education. The provost spoke of the intention of Carnegie Mellon's administration to protect the quality of undergraduate education as the first priority during this perfect economic storm. Then, in conversation at our table, Sean O'Hara (who had performed the double bass solo in the Mahler) talked of his future. A graduate student who will be leaving Carnegie Mellon this summer, he wants to get an orchestral position. There is only on position open presently, in Alabama, and he has an audition lined up. I asked him about the competition, and how many others he expected to be competing against. The students conferred, and agreed there would likely be about 100 being auditioned. It was a salutary moment for me as dean.
On the one hand, educating these young musicians as deeply as possible for their profession is the priority; but in a time of recession for both higher education and for the cultural industries how do we also prepare them for the increasingly competitive nature of the profession? And what about our other young artists in the other disciplines? Every day there is news about more jobs being lost in the arts. Helping them to go out and do what they do as excellently as they do it is indispensable - but what else must we to support them? And how can all of the people who were blown away by that concert best help that effort? This is the urgent challenge for the coming years.
Sue Zwick, wife of an alumnus, attended many of the events. She sent me this post:
"I feel very fortunate that [my husband] Burt is a Carnegie Mellon (School of Management ‘68) alum! Without his affiliation, I would not have had access to these remarkable opportunities in NYC.
The Pearlstein studio tour was an unforgettable experience. In general, we admire his work and had recently visited the Montclair Museum to see the Pearlstein retrospective exhibition. To have had the opportunity to visit with a living artist in his home and see his studio was a unique experience. It was such fun to be able to walk around his studio and see the very props that were in the paintings in the retrospective. Hearing Mr. Pearlstein talk about his career and how he approaches painting was a bonus. One of Mr. Pearlstein's charming qualities is that in his quiet and gentle way, he is unassuming and down to earth.
The tour of the New York Times was a totally different kind of experience. To have been on the inside looking out was a treat for me. I have longingly looked at the building from the outside and tried to picture what it was like on the inside. Now I know! It is so light, airy, colorful and technologically current.
We look forward to what might be offered next year!"
Feb 01 2009
The Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic concert at Carnegie Hall on Friday evening was the cornerstone of the College of Fine Arts Days in New York City and it did not disappoint.
The star-studded event included Chester Lane, senior editor of Symphony Magazine; Mark Kamlet, provost of Carnegie Mellon; Hilary Robinson, dean of the College of Fine Arts; Dan Martin, director of Institute for the Management of Creative Enterprises at Carnegie Mellon; John Lehoczky, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Science and many Carnegie Mellon trustees.
Parents and friends filled the hall in anticipation of this monumental concert. The concert reunited renowned conductor Keith Lockhart with his alma mater for the first time in 20 years.
The packed crowd filled the many levels of the ornate Carnegie Hall. Noel Zahler, head of the School of Music addressed the crowd and set the tone for the night, noting that the students on stage represent the future of classical music.
As Zahler left the floor, the large cream-colored door leading onto the stage crept open and out walked Maestro Lockhart. The crowd cheered.
Lockhart walked onto the podium and raised his hand. After a dramatic 4-second silence, the strong tempo of “Three Latin-American Dances for Orchestra” by Gabriela Lena Frank started the concert. Congo-like beats and strong percussions danced the music through the hall. Strong clarinets, trumpets and castanets supported the hot harmonization and rhythm.
After the cheers and loud affirmations from the crowd the large door onto the stage again slowly opened and Andrés Cárdenes walked out. Cárdenes, a faculty member and concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, performed Edouard Lalo’s violin concerto, “Symphonie Espagnole.”
I was perched above stage left, right above Cárdenes’ gray mane. He played with unique passion, often moving his head to the beats and sounds of the orchestra.
The concerto was romantic, yet invigorating and strong. This was a moment for the strings section. Cárdenes and the students vigorously whipped their wands across the instruments. At breaks in the music Lockhart would stop and start Cárdenes and the students with complete precision.
Intermission started after the concerto. I sat in suite 18 on the second tier. As I walked out of my seat I noticed hanging outside the door a framed photo of Earl Wild, signed and thanking Carnegie Hall. Wild, a famed pianist, graduated from Carnegie Mellon’s School of Music. In the photo, Wild was showing a simple smile -- as if he was listening along, proud of his alma mater.
For the students the stress and anticipation were over, lifted by the success of the first two pieces and the cheers of the crowd. Now the students had the opportunity to celebrate their success in New York by playing Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 1 in D Major,” a mainstay in symphony halls around the world.
People shuffled back to their seats. Lockhart commanded the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic to begin the classic Mahler with raised hands. It had many solo moments which highlighted the individual strengths of many of the students. The concert ended with bold percussion booming throughout the hall. As audience members’ ear drums shook, the thunderous ending fell silent for a moment. Then the crowd came to their feet clapping, yelling “bravo” and whaling cheers.
After the concert the scene was electrifying. The buzz, chatter and movement in and out of Carnegie Hall charged Manhattan. It was as if Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Arts had commissioned the Zambelli family to launch fireworks off the top of the hall to exclaim Pittsburgh’s contribution to the cultural fabric of New York City.
One of the many alumni present at this unforgettable concert, Jeri Jackson, from Verona, P.A., graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1956 after attending Margaret Morrison Carnegie College to study textiles and journalism. She now lives in New York. “It was the best Mahler I’ve ever heard by any group! It was wonderful. They are such consummate musicians already. Each of the three works was wonderful but the Mahler piece was so amazing,” Jackson said.
For the students, the memories will last a lifetime. Brianne Lugo, a viola student, sent me a post late last night after the concert:
So let's just say that if you just so happened to be in New York, and you didn't go to the CMU concert, you definitely missed out!
First of all, the mere awe when you walk out onto the stage is breathtaking. You just think about all of the famous musicians that have been there, including Mahler himself conducting the piece we just played. During the morning we were allowed to wander about until 2, and then we all gathered with our all-access passes and feelings of accomplishment backstage.
Andrés Cárdenes played amazingly, and you can tell there was a lot of feeling put into it. I had family, friends, neighbors there to see the concert, and so did many other of my Philharmonic friends. We've never played Mahler's First Symphony so well. The french horns were rocking out at the finale. With a standing ovation and "BRAVO!" coming from all over, it was just perfect.
[Photos by Leigh Davis]
Jan 31 2009
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The exposed metal façade of the New York Times building sits on 8th Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets in downtown Manhattan, a series of ladder-like pipes installed on its exterior. Steve Lee, interim head of the School of Architecture explains to the crowd of visiting alumni that the contractors had changed the footprint of the building so it would be harder for base jumpers to climb the pipes and take a dive.
This was just one of the many nuggets of information Lee shared on a guided tour, Friday afternoon, of the New York Times building by Renzo Piano, one of his favorite architects.
The popular tour of about 20 people left at 11:45 a.m. and at 1 p.m. from the New York Times building's large entrance. The entrance has a large hallway colored bright orange-yellow. There is a series of small five-inch monitors installed with wires along each wall, scrolling questions about people, places and events in green digital text.
The questions displayed on the screens have all been submitted to the editorial department, explained Cameron Brown. A Carnegie Mellon College of Humanities and Social Sciences alumnus, Brown is now a software engineer at the New York Times and had graciously organized this tour for his fellow graduates.
The tour took visitors to the 14th floor, a common area above the cafeteria. Everything is open and airy, the glass façade allowing lots of light to enter. The hallway on the 14th floor is painted a bright yellow shade. Framed photos of the New York Times' many Pulitzer Prize winners are installed salon-style along the bold color. The floor houses all of the executive conference rooms.
On the 14th floor Steve Lee gathered the crowd by a large window and pointed to the steel beams exposed outside.
"Renzo Piano is an architect who believes in exposing all the functional aspects of the building," Lee said. "The shades for the sun - you'll see it. If something is there to prevent the building rocking back and forth in the wind - you'll see it. When you look at other buildings you can't see these features because the decision was made to put those elements on the inside. Renzo Piano decided to put them on the outside."
The tour continued to the 7th floor where the art department and the designers all work. The white hallway that connects the two workspaces on each side forms a gallery, the current exhibition featuring prints of editorial portraits of familiar politicians.
AUDIO (.mp3 format)
Steve Lee, interim head of CMU's School of Architecture talks with Eric Sloss about the New York Times building and its architect, Renzo Piano:
All of the work areas have thin gray carpet and new technology making the workspaces functional and adaptable. Large round vents that can easily be turned off and on for circulation are installed in the floor. Each work area was made to be adjustable, to change and accommodate workers' needs.
The tour took about 45 minutes, meandering in and out of conference rooms and other floors. The tour ended at the cafeteria as groups of alumni scattered, heading for something to eat or taking their conversation about the building elsewhere. Lee had left everyone something to ponder in Piano's magnificent building.
Jan 30 2009
N
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The crowd bustled into Lincoln Center. Despite the construction outside the Vivian Beaumont Theater and the economy, "South Pacific" was nearly sold out. The production started at 8 p.m. with an intermission around 10 p.m. and the show concluding around 10:45 p.m.
As others shuffled out of the theatre, those participating in the College of Fine Arts Days in NYC weaved through the crowd to get back in. A relatively lively group of people sat in the first five rows. Carnegie Mellon alumnus Charlie Brady, class of ‘01 and Robert Lenzi, class of ‘08 made it backstage for a quick clothing change and returned with most of the cast of "South Pacific." Opera singer Loretta Ables Sayre, who plays Bloody Mary, and Jeremy Davis, who plays one of the Swings, were some of the gracious singers to come onstage.
Brady and Lenzi stood near Dean Hilary Robinson and Dick Block, associate head of the School of Drama and moderator of the night's talkback. The other cast members found comfort sitting on the floor after an exhausting production.
A simple floor lamp with the shade off and a few stage lights illuminated the thespians and the minimal props -- a palm tree and a beach ball.
The show has been running close to a year, and Block asked the actors how it feels to keep doing the show over and over again. "It's so fun!" said Margot De La Barre, who plays Ensign Connie, "I'm still finding new things to work on and the characters keep growing and changing."
"The nice thing about this show is we have a lot of freedom," Brady, who plays Petty Officer Hamilton Steeves, said, "And that lends itself to maybe push the envelope too far but it gives us a lot of freedom to play and find new things. We kind of just bring the energy of the day to the show and go with it. We don't have a lot of boundaries."
"The camaraderie and the friendship the cast share is special. Coming directly from school to here it was a shift, but we all hang, play softball and go bowling. To have that energy with the cast and to bring it on stage, it couldn't be any easier," Lenzi said. Lenzi plays a sailor in the production.
"We know the show really well and we know how it works. As long as we come out together and we are present and listening that's all we need to do. And the rest takes care of itself," Brady concluded.
"South Pacific" seems to be the champion of theater productions this season as many theaters are closing their doors due to low ticket sales. Block asked what it is like to perform in one of the few productions still running.
George Merrick, who plays Lt. Buzz Adams, said, "It is awesome to be on the winning team! It sounds so gross and competitive, but it's amazing when you work on something as hard as we did and as intimate as we did and it turns out as good as you want it to be and others want it to be. You always try to be proud of your work but this was easy. Everyone is embracing it."
* * *
Brianne Lugo, a musician in the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic e-mailed me an update on the excitement and anticipation of arriving in New York and playing Carnegie Hall:
After arriving at midnight on Thursday, EVERYONE was excited to be in the great New York City! Maybe it was just to get off the bus, but it doesn't matter, we were in the greatest city in the world. Earlier in the day we had a 4 hour rehearsal with Maestro Lockhart, which set us up for our big adventure. Several of us dropped our luggage in our rooms at the Wellington Hotel and then just wandered the local area. I underestimated the amount of people that have never been to New York, so of course they didn't know where to begin. I told them to just walk out the doors and head in any direction and they'll be sure to see something noteworthy. Several people were talking about getting up in the morning and practicing, and I contemplated the idea. But after having been woken up early by the lovely construction across the street it soon faded. Today we have our dress rehearsal at 2:00 in the great Carnegie Hall. I am so proud and anxious to walk out onto the stage to gaze out into the magnificent building. It's going to be fantastic to hear the Mahler symphony there!
Jan 30 2009
SOMEWHERE ON THE ROAD - Brianne Lugo, a 3rd year viola student, captured the mood on the coach bus with this photo (right) filled with Carnegie Mellon School of Music students.
This photo was taken after the students stopped for a bite to eat. They were expected to arrive in New York City around 10 p.m.
Jan 29 2009
The Carnegie Mellon School of Music office reported that the three coaches carrying the 116 students left Pittsburgh a little after 3:15 p.m. to New York. They should arrive around 10 p.m.
* * *
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- I found out that about 10 faculty and staff from Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama are in New York City at the Ripley-Grier Studios in midtown Manhattan this week starting to audition students for enrollment. I attended the auditions last year. You can cut the tension with a knife. Students are shuffled room to room in front of various faculty. The auditions start early in the morning and another set of auditions happen in the afternoon. Groups of students shuffle in and out of studio rooms while many parents sit and wait, nervously, for their sons or daughters to finish.
Jan 29 2009
Eric Sloss, director of media relations at Carnegie Mellon University, is blogging from New York while joining staff, students and alumni from the school's College of Fine Arts as they take a whirlwind tour spanning the college's five disciplines -- art, design, music, drama and architecture -- to showcase Pittsburgh artists making an impact in NYC. The first stop Wednesday was at the studio of realist painter Philip Pearlstein, a Pittsburgh native and Carnegie Mellon alumnus.
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- 
Both Mr. and Mrs. Pearlstein attended Taylor Allderdice High School. Now married to one of the most important artists of their generation, Dorothy is still amazed by the number of talented artists and musicians that graduated from her high school.
Following graduation, Philip and Dorothy crossed paths once more at Carnegie Mellon, then Carnegie Tech. She knew Philip as the "art star" of Taylor Allderdice.
"I knew his name because of what he did in high school. We met at Carnegie [Mellon] when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore. We went to the same high school but I didn't meet Philip in high school because we never ran around in the same circles," Mrs. Pearlstein said.
Philip Pearlstein enrolled at Carnegie Mellon as a freshman but soon left to serve in World War II. Though he was enlisted in the infantry unit, he also painted signs for the war effort. Jokingly, he says the title given him was "infantry and artist."
Mr. Pearlstein came back from war and finished his sophomore, junior and senior year on the G.I. Bill. He left Pittsburgh to get a degree in art history at NYU, and though he went on to teach graphic design, he never taught the craft that would make him a legend: painting.
Philip Pearlstein's studio sits on a busy street in midtown Manhattan. The small elevator that leads to his studio had a sign posted: "No more than 6 people on the elevator." Pearlstein can recall a time when the frail elevator was filled over capacity and the New York City Fire Department was called to rescue the stranded passengers.
The elevator leads to a dull yellow hallway that connects the living room and kitchen area to the dining room. The hallway is narrow, with a series of drawings or prints of ancient ruins installed high on the wall. On the side wall next to the entrance of the elevator is a round life preserver with hand-written notes all over it. It was a gift to Dorothy Pearlstein in commemoration of her 80th birthday. They enjoy boating in the summer.
The apartment is broken into two main spaces that run the length of the building: the living and dining areas, and the studio. Mr. Pearlstein's painting studio is comprised of a single, long space with spotlights and a cement floor. Two paintings are in the works and sit on large easels with painting supplies before them. He says he usually works on about three paintings at a time.
"Generally I work on portraits, mostly friends. Occasionally there are commissions, but only on occasion. But I work on portraits, usually people I know working in galleries," Mr. Pearlstein said.
The living room has worn carpeting with two large windows looking out onto the street. There is a large TV perched on a small metal stand, a small living area with a large sofa along the wall, two wicker chairs with round metal support. The Pearlstein's kitchenette has black counter tops with a Matisse painting hanging over. The living quarters are made more homey by the large carpets covering the floor.
Connecting his painting studio and the living area is a hallway lined with large shelving units filled with marble, stone and rock statues. In the studio space the concrete floors are exposed, sometimes painted or covered with tile or pieces of carpeting. The space is raw, with its exposed pipes and unpainted walls.
Mr. and Mrs. Pearlstein are avid collectors of things. Many trinkets, dolls, statues, ancient sculptures, puppets and toys adorn the studio space. Many of them have come from flea markets. Some of these collections have found their way into another art form, sharing the canvas of one of Pearlstein's paintings. A series of wooden geese that sits along the concrete is rendered in a 6' x 6' painting that hangs above the dining room table, with two naked women flopped among the birds.
Near the dining room table Pearlstein keeps a series of flat files covered with hundreds of small sculptures, stone trinkets and small masks. On the back wall a number of ferns, plants and other greenery sit on a large wooden table. Wind dials perch above them as if they harbored an indoor garden.
AUDIO (.mp3 format)
Philip Pearlstein talks about:
About 20 people gathered for the studio tour at 7 in the evening, mostly Carnegie Mellon alumni, their careers spanning from engineering to the arts, some visiting from the classes of 1944 and 1946. As the studio tour began everyone crowded close together, sitting in some of the various chairs or standing near the walls. They gathered around an unfinished painting. It was warm in the studio and faint smells of paint or varnish filled the air.
Mr. Pearlstein stood in front of the unfinished painting, brushes sticking out of cans, paint tubes sitting on a tray, brush cleaners near them. These tools show recent use, evidence that at 84 years, he is still an avid painter.
As College of Fine Arts Dean Hilary Robinson introduced him, Mrs. Pearlstein looked on from a rocking chair. He then talked about how he became a recognized artist in New York after being noticed in an article he wrote for an art trade magazine. He talked fondly of legendary Carnegie Mellon professor Robert Lepper and how graphic design influenced his life and craft.
Hilary Robinson sent a post on visiting Philip Pearlstein and his wife Dorothy:
About twenty people gathered in Philip Pearlstein’s studio last night to share wine and to hear him talk about his life’s work. Mr. Pearlstein and his wife Dorothy – also an alum – welcomed us all with great grace and ease for an outstanding evening that it was a privilege to attend.
Their home and studio is a warehouse style loft that they have filled with curios, folk art, artifacts, and an eclectic collection of chairs and settees. These objects have increasingly found their way into Mr.Pearlstein’s paintings, and he offered interesting insights into his working methods through referring to them. Standing in front of a painting that he had been working on for just two days, he said that he would start working in the middle of the canvas. In this case, the middle was the visual meeting point of two curves – the leg of a model, and the arm of the chair on which she was seated. The chair had its own story: Mr. Pearlstein bought it in the Carnegie Museum, at a knockdown price in a sale.
It is an unusual, handsome, chrome plated armchair with a leather cushion seat, and appeared (as has the model) in a number of the paintings in the studio. These objects were acquired for their own worth, and not with the intention of putting them into paintings, and the models? They are artists who prefer to sit for another artist than to work tables.
Mr. Pearlstein’s definition of realism was interesting: he said that for him, it was a matter of translating what he was seeing as he saw it onto the canvas – looking, measuring, and placing. He published articles on the work of Picabia and Duchamp, and the more he thought about them the more he considered them to be realists – Picabia’s figure works, Duchamp’s found objects, or readymades – famously, the urinal: ‘Fountain’, 1917/1964 and the still-shocking ‘Etante Donnés’ he described as realist works in their impulse.
Mr. Pearlstein was full of stories, engagingly told, about his early influences and the experiences that shaped his practice. An alum of the old ‘P&D’ department (Painting and Design), his approach was molded as much by commercial art as by fine art. He told us of how he spent a year as a young man working for Life Magazine in their picture editing department, and how although he did not think of it at the time, he later contemplated how his compositional eye was formed by learning from how the editors cropped photographs – ‘what was important in a picture, and what could be left out’.
And the story about Warhol, the apartment and the cats? I asked him this privately: Not so, he said. The reason for leaving the apartment was much more prosaic – something to do with the changing needs of the landlady, and both he and Warhol left at the same time. A little footnote for art historians.
Jan 28 2009
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- 
Happily, I found out in the Pittsburgh International Airport terminal that I was on the same flight as Hilary Robinson, Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Eric Shiner, the new Milton Fine Curator of Art at the Andy Warhol Museum. After landing we all decided to share a car into Manhattan. Mr. Shiner will be in New York City visiting galleries, museums and artists to develop programming for the Pittsburgh museum. On the drive into the city he shared stories about Andy Warhol and even pointed out the location of Warhol’s first studio near the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) through the car’s steamy, rainy windows. Meeting Mr. Shiner is evidence that there is a strong Pittsburgh arts connection in New York City.
Hilary Robinson sent a post about her arrival:
We were amongst the lucky ones to leave the 'burgh for the Big Apple and arrive on time, even in the face of some nasty ice conditions. Never before have I been so pleased to see rain in Pittsburgh!
We landed at JFK's terminal 5- where better to land for CFA Days since the college hosts five schools of art, architecture, design, drama and music? Different art forms come together to make the limbo between real life and flying as stress-free as possible.
The architecture works; the design of elements such as security, signage and concessions works too; in the centre of the concourse, above people's heads, video art is screened. The last time I flew out of JFK, I ate in a cafe with screens showing a Fellini movie. That clinched it: JetBlue is now my favorite domestic airline.
Exiting the terminal, one comes face to face with the superb 1962 TWA terminal, designed by Eero Saarinen, presently being renovated.
The flight was uneventful but for the happy coincidence of being on the same flight as Eric C. Sloss and Eric C. Shiner. Mr. Shiner is the curator at the Andy Warhol Museum, where I am a board member.
Warhol was an alumnus of CFA, where he was a good friend of Philip Pearlstein -- when the two young men left Pittsburgh for New York, they were roommates.
Rumor has it is that Philip Pearlstein left to set up home elsewhere after Andy brought home too many stray cats: at one point it is said there were 20 cats in the small mid-town Manhattan apartment.
Tonight, at the first event in CFA Days, Mr. Pearlstein is graciously opening his studio to a small group of alumni and friends of the college. It will be a wonderful opportunity to see his work in progress, and to hear about his current retrospective exhibition at the Montclair Art Museum.
Mr. Pearlstein painted a portrait of former Carnegie Mellon president, Dick Cyert, which hangs with other portraits of past presidents in the President’s Dining Room in the University Center on Carengie Mellon’s Oakland campus. Of the six hanging there, it is by far the most compelling painting.
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Jan 28 2009
New York City is dingy and gray. I flew JetBlue, which surprisingly arrived on time despite the ice storm.
I checked into the hotel around 1 p.m. Some of my colleagues’ flights were delayed. One of my colleagues had a flight at 8 a.m. but her flight was delayed and she did not leave Pittsburgh until 4 p.m.
Jan 28 2009
The Pittsburgh region has been hit by an ice storm as Carnegie Mellon faculty, staff and students prepare to travel to New York City for a week of College of Fine Arts events. Some people are traveling from as far as Texas to attend and we can only hope they will bring the warm weather with them!
Luckily, there seems to be enough time for the snow to melt and for the School of Music students to arrive before the events begin. They leave tomorrow for their Friday engagement at Carnegie Hall, where they will join legendary conductor Keith Lockhart in concert.
There will be a total of 116 students traveling on three large coach busses. Despite the cold, their instruments will be safe -- a climate-controlled transport will move 10 celli, 9 basses, 8 percussions - timp, chimes, bells, xylophone, etc., 1 harp and 1 contrabassoon to Carnegie Hall.
The concert starts at 8 p.m. on Friday but they need to be at Carnegie Hall several hours earlier for rehearsals, so let's hope for safe travels.
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