For immediate release contact: Richard Engel

September 3, 2009 412-681-5449

New Performance Space at PCA

and New Calliope Concert Series

(Pittsburgh, PA) – Work is now underway in the lower level of the Marshall building on the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA) campus, to transform Simmons Hall into an acoustically-sound listening room with a club-like atmosphere. Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society will present the Calliope Center Stage Concerts there on a monthly basis.

Named for steel executive Richard P. Simmons, Simmons Hall has been used for years as a dance studio and an informal music space. It occupies most of the lower level of the historic yellow mansion that houses the PCA galleries, at the corner of Fifth and Shady Avenues in Shadyside.

The remodel of Simmons Hall has been funded entirely by an anonymous donor, music enthusiast and longtime friend of Calliope, which has had office space on the PCA campus for five years. Walls, floors and seating for 75-150 will be replaced to create a better sound and more welcoming atmosphere.

“This is a great example of strategic planning coming to fruition,” says Laura Domencic, Director of Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. “We’re partnering with a great local institution in Calliope, to be more open, more often to a wider audience.”

The inaugural Calliope Center Stage Concert will present The Mavens, who play an authentic and original form of western-swing and roots rock music, on September 25, 2009 at 7:00pm. Tickets are $10 at the door. The second concert, scheduled for October 23, is Calliope’s annual fundraiser and barbecue, with bluesman Ernie Hawkins. On November 19, vaudevillian ragtime-blues band The Wiyos (which is currently on tour with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson) are scheduled to perform in the space.

“Calliope was founded 33 years ago in the Northside home of bagpiper George Balderose,” says Patricia Tanner, Executive Director of Calliope. “At that time, both the organization’s offices and performance space were held at the original ‘Calliope House.’ We are delighted to continue our collaboration with PCA and to once again have a proper home for Calliope.”

Simmons Hall will continue to be used by the PCA School and its partners. Calliope and the PCA School are tentatively planning three new collaborative summer Art Camps for the space in 2010.

The project architect is Rothschild Doyno of Pittsburgh; contractors for the project are Keane Construction of Monroeville, PA and Acoustics & Vibration Specialists of Bridgeville, PA. RenplanÒ assistance from the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh.

For more information, call 412-361-0873, or visit www.pittsburgharts.org.

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