Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

PSO Conductor Earl Lee and PSO guest soloist Ray Chen will lead an evening exploring real and virtual “connections.”

Featured Musicians:

Canadian musician Earl Lee pursues a diverse career both as a conductor and a cellist. Lee currently holds the RBC Resident Conductor position of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Artistic Director & Conductor position of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. Lee frequently appears on the podium at the Roy Thomson Hall leading the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, as well as making guest conducting appearances throughout the world. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School with degrees in cello, Earl began his conducting studies in 2010 studying with Ignat Solzhenitsyn.

Ray Chen has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra Nazionale della Santa Cecilia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and debuts include the SWR Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, and Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra. His commitment to music education is paramount, and inspires the younger generation of music students with his series of self-produced videos combining comedy and music. Through his online promotions his appearances regularly sell out and draw an entirely new demographic to the concert hall.

Featured Authors:

Melissa Dias-Mandoly is a writer and artist living in Pittsburgh with her cat, Catrick Bateman. She’s the Production Editor at the University of Pittsburgh Press, where she spends most of her days proofreading and designing books. She earned degrees in poetry and film at the University of Pittsburgh. As a student, she won the undergraduate poetry award in 2012 and 2013. She was recently a finalist for the Noemi Press Book Award, the Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship, the Submerging Writer Fellowship, and the Jake Adam York prize.

Keith S. Wilson is an Affrilachian Poet and Cave Canem fellow. He is a recipient of an NEA fellowship as well as fellowships/grants from Bread Loaf, Kenyon College, Tin House, MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, UCross, and Millay Colony, among others. Keith serves as Assistant Poetry Editor at Four Way Review and Digital Media Editor at Obsidian Journal. His first book, Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love, was published by Copper Canyon. Keith has received a Best of the Net Award, an Illinois Arts Council Agency Literary Award, and the Rumi Prize. He has been anthologized in Best New Poets, and was appointed a Gregory Djanikian Scholar. His nonfiction won a Redivider Blurred Genre prize. Keith’s work has appeared in Poetry, Elle, The Kenyon Review, Adroit Journal, the Boston Review, Crab Orchard Review, Narrative, 32 Poems, Arts & Letters, Rhino, and Vinyl.