Pittsburgh Symphony to Perform Free Concerts at Carnegie One

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will return this November to Braddock, PA for two free performances presented by U.S. Steel. On Saturday, November 7, the PSO's Musical Storytelling series invites children ages 5 and under and their families into a picture book brought to life by live music. On Thursday, November 12, PSO Principal Pops Conductor Byron Stripling traces the line from the jazz clubs of New Orleans to the sanctuaries of the Black church in From Louis to Aretha. Both performances take place at Carnegie One, 419 Library Street, Braddock, and are free with registration.

Carnegie One opened in 1889 as the first Carnegie library in the United States, and its historic music hall reopened in 2025 following a $21 million renovation. A short distance away, U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Works — Carnegie's first steel mill, founded in 1875 — remains in operation today. Made possible by U.S. Steel, the concerts are part of the partnership between the PSO and U.S. Steel, which brings free performances and music education to communities throughout the region.

Musical Storytelling, Presented by U.S. Steel

Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 12:00 p.m.

At Musical Storytelling, the youngest listeners help to tell the story. Guest narrator Tanika Harris reads Fly by Brittany Thurman while pianist Rodrigo Ojeda and a string quartet of PSO musicians perform music that follows the book's action and mood, with its illustrations projected on screens beside the stage. Corrie Stallings, vocalist with the PSO's Fiddlesticks family series, leads movement and interaction throughout, so children can sing, move, and play along with the story.

Musical Storytelling brings free, literacy-focused concerts to libraries and community spaces across the region. Designed for children up to age 5, each program pairs a children's book with live music to spark imagination, build early literacy, and model empathy and other positive social behaviors — a fitting celebration for the nation's first Carnegie library.

From Louis to Aretha, Presented by U.S. Steel

Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.

Few musical traditions have shaped American music as profoundly as jazz and gospel. In From Louis to Aretha, trumpeter, vocalist, and PSO Principal Pops Conductor Byron Stripling, joined by Max Leake on keyboard, follows that lineage from the jazz clubs of New Orleans to the sanctuaries of the Black church, and shows how the two traditions came together to create the language of soul.

Through performance and conversation, Stripling explores how Aretha Franklin, inspired by the artistry and innovation of Louis Armstrong, carried the freedom and expressiveness of jazz into her own music while drawing deeply on the church where her voice was first heard and nurtured. When she brought that gospel power to pop and R&B, she challenged expectations and sometimes faced resistance from the very community that had shaped her. Heard side by side, the music of Armstrong and Franklin reveals the connections between the sounds that inspired two American legends.