The Steinberg Society was established to recognize donors who have ensured the future financial stability of the PSO by designating the Orchestra a beneficiary in their estate plans and have advised the Donors Relations Office that they have done so. Named for beloved conductor, William Steinberg, the organization honors members who have made deferred gifts through wills, charitable trusts, life insurance, retirement accounts and other deferred gifts. Maestro Steinberg’s portrait in the Grand Lobby marks the site of the honor roll where members names are inscribed, recording their commitment in perpetuity.

About William Steinberg

William Steinberg was born in 1889 into a musical family in Cologne, Germany. As a child, he was recognized as an exceptional violinist and pianist. During the Nazi regime, Steinberg emigrated to Israel where he co-founded the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, which would later become the Israel Philharmonic. Arturo Toscanini was so impressed by Steinberg’s work that he invited him to become associate conductor of the newly formed NBC Orchestra. After several seasons with NBC and then the Buffalo Philharmonic, William Steinberg came to Pittsburgh in 1952. Following four years of guest conductors, Pittsburgh audiences welcomed this conductor who seemed to perform each concert as though it might be his last. Steinberg and his orchestra performed and recorded a vast, diverse range of repertoire from Beethoven and Wagner to American composers Roy Harris and Richard Rogers. In 1964, the Pittsburgh Symphony under Steinberg was chosen by the Cultural Presentations Office of the Department of State for a three-month, fourteen-country tour of Europe. Then in 1973, Steinberg led the orchestra on a three-week tour of Oregon, Alaska, and Japan. Maestro Steinberg once said that one had to go to Carnegie Hall in New York to really hear the Pittsburgh Symphony. The creation of Heinz Hall in 1971 provided a new acoustically appropriate environment and fulfilled Steinberg’s and many others’ dream of a proper concert hall home for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.