PNC Pops to Welcome Best of Broadway for 'STANDING OVATIONS'

The PNC Pops proves "there's no business like show business" during an evening of Broadway showstoppers with "Broadway Standing Ovations" on February 17-19 at Heinz Hall.

Audience favorite Jack Everly returns to lead the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Student Chorale and guest vocalists in a program featuring some of the most beloved songs from the Great White Way, including "Man of La Mancha," "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," "Music of the Night" and more.

Guest vocalists for this program include Johnstown, Pennsylvania, native Kathy Voytko, Ron Remke, Ted Keegan and Richard Todd Adams - who have performed in some of the most prominent Broadway, off-Broadway and touring productions of the last decade.

The Pittsburgh Symphony Student Chorale is composed of high school and collegiate singers from the Pittsburgh area. The Student Chorale was created by Principal Pops Conductor Marvin Hamlisch and Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh Music Director Emeritus Robert Page and currently is directed by Christine Hestwood. Participating schools include Belle Vernon Area High School, Blackhawk High School, California University of Pennsylvania, Chatham University, Monessen High School, Pitt Greensburg, Point Park University, Quaker Valley High School, South Fayette High School and University of Pittsburgh.

The curtain rises on "Broadway Standing Ovations" on Friday, February 17 and Saturday, February 18 at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, February 19 at 2:30 p.m. Doors open one hour prior to concert start times. A Pops Talk will be held on stage following the Friday performance only. Pops Talks are free and open to ticketholders.

Tickets, ranging in price from $22 to $99, can be purchased by calling the Heinz Hall box office at 412-392-4900 or visiting pittsburghsymphony.org/Broadway.

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.

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 over 14 years and when not on the podium you can find Everly at home with his family, which includes Max the wonder dog.

Kathy Voytko was most recently seen in the original Broadway cast of Tuck Everlasting. She also performed in the 2014 Tony Award-winner for best musical, A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder. She made her Broadway debut in the original cast of the Oklahoma! revival, starring Andrea Martin and Patrick Wilson, and then the Tony Award-winning Nine starring Antonio Banderas and Chita Rivera. She played Ariadne in Stephen Sondheim's The Frogs opposite Nathan Lane at Lincoln Center. She also appeared in Broadway's The Pirate Queen and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal. Voytko toured the United States as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, and as Eva in the 25th anniversary tour of Evita. She is often a soloist in Do You Hear the People Sing? - the dream concert by Boublil and Schönberg, on its international tour, and was also a soloist in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Voytko sang at Carnegie Hall in Oscar Hammerstein & Jerome Kern's Showboat, and in the live concert recording of Kristina, by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the writers of Mamma Mia and Chess. The company then reprised the concert live at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In addition to being featured as a soloist with symphonies across the United States, Mexico and Canada, Voytko has portrayed Clara in Passion, Fantine in Les Miserables, Fiona in Brigadoon and Polly in Crazy For You, for which she received the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She received a B.F.A. in musical theatre from Shenandoah Conservatory and grew up in lovely Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She is happily married to John Cudia, and they are the proud parents of Alena and Evelyn.

Ted Keegan is a native of Watertown, New York, with an undergraduate degree from Ithaca College and a graduate degree from UNC-Greensboro. He has been seen as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, the national tour and Phantom, The Las Vegas Spectacular. Keegan has performed the role in more than 24 states across the country. He has had the great pleasure of appearing as The Phantom on television, performing live from Rockefeller Center for The Today Show on NBC. He has the distinction of being the actor who has sung the role in front of the largest audience ever, when he made a spectacular flying entrance from the dome of Madison Square Garden singing "The Phantom of the Opera" during the half-time show of the NBA All-Star Game. Keegan was deeply involved in the George Gershwin Centennial Celebration. He performed unpublished Gershwin at the opening of the George and Ira Gershwin Room at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., which The New York Times reviewed as one of the 10 best musical events of the year. Keegan has also sung Gershwin with Audra McDonald in New York and with Marin Mazzie at the opening of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He appeared in the Frank Loesser Celebration at Symphony Space in New York City and was a soloist at the Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, singing Unheard Bernstein. Keegan hosted the Yuletide Celebration in Indianapolis, singing with the 90-piece Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. A few of the orchestras Keegan has performed with as a solo performer include the Detroit, Syracuse, Charleston, West Virginia, Portland, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Omaha, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Rockford and Edmonton symphonies and the Dayton Philharmonic, as well as the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center. Keegan is founding member of The Phat Pack, which was named the Best All Around Performer of 2013 by the Las Vegas Review Journal. Keegan made his Broadway debut in the highly acclaimed revival of Sweeney Todd, where he was seen as Anthony. Other Broadway and national tour credits include Cyrano: The Musical, Mordred in Camelot with Robert Goulet, Kander and Ebb's The World Goes 'Round and another Phantom, too - in the European tour of the Kopit/Yeston version.

Ron Remke can currently be seen in BAZ-Star Crossed Love in Las Vegas at the Palazzo Theater. He was also in the closing cast one of the longest running shows in Las Vegas Donn Arden's Jubilee! and was a soloist with the renowned 12 Irish Tenors. He is a frequent guest artist with symphonies throughout the United States and is also a sought after performer on the high seas having visited more than 70 countries while performing on board the Silver Spirit and the Regent Voyager as their production singer. Theatrically, he's performed in numerous regional productions and toured the US in the cast of Kiss Me, Kate. He is the voice of Juan in Sonia Monzano's No Dog Allowed! and his debut CD entitled Broadway Classics is available on iTunes.

Richard Todd Adams can currently be seen on Broadway in Cats, where he stands by for the roles of Old Deuteronomy and Gus/Bustopher Jones. He has spent much of the last decade performing across the country in some of the most sought-after roles in musical theatre. He is one of a handful of American actors to have portrayed The Phantom, Jean Valjean and Javert. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he began his career starring as Raoul with both the Los Angeles and national touring companies of The Phantom of the Opera. Upon returning to New York, he appeared off-Broadway in Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill, Michael John LaChiusa's Little Fish at Second Stage and David Friedman's Listen to My Heart at Studio 54. He made his Broadway debut in 2005 in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White, and shortly thereafter, appeared on Broadway again in Boublil and Schoenberg's The Pirate Queen. He won the 2008 Jeff Award for his portrayal of Javert in the Chicago production of Les Miserables at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre. He then returned to the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera, this time to play The Phantom. He spent 2011-2013 playing both Jean Valjean and Javert on the 25th anniversary tour of Les Miserables. Regionally, he has starred in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Jekyll And Hyde, 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, 1776, Showboat, Ragtime and Man of La Mancha. For more, visit richardtoddadams.com.

The PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STUDENT CHORALE is composed of high school and collegiate singers from the greater Pittsburgh Area. The Student Chorale was created by the late Principal Pops Conductor Marvin Hamlisch and Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh Music Director Emeritus Robert Page. The Chorale's current director is Christine Hestwood.

CHRISTINE HESTWOOD is a Pittsburgh-based conductor, educator and singer who has enjoyed a long association with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Her past projects include work in audience engagement and music education advocacy and her favorite projects include the Night of 2,000 Stars (co-director), a 1996 project that featured 2,000 high school singers and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She served as co-director of the April 2013 Music for the Spirit concert, where more than 1,500 singers from Pittsburgh area high schools, colleges and community choirs joined voices to sing with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She was the assistant conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and music director of the Junior Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. Hestwood is a vocal music teacher in the Upper St. Clair School District and the director of music at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Upper St. Clair. Hestwood sings with Seraphic Singers, a 12-voice professional women's chorus based in Pittsburgh. Hestwood earned degrees from Duquesne University (B.S. in voice and music education) and Carnegie Mellon University (M.M. in conducting), where she studied with Robert Page.

The PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, known for its artistic excellence for more than 120 years, 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), André 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. Its "Pittsburgh Live!" series with Reference Recordings has resulted in back-to-back Grammy Award nominations in 2015 and 2016. 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 hosts many events that do not feature its world-renowned Orchestra including Broadway shows, popular touring artists, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org.