This November, the PSO heads to the Mon Valley for two free performances at Carnegie One, presented by U.S. Steel. On Saturday, November 7, our youngest listeners and their families can watch a picture book come to life with live music. On Thursday, November 12, PSO Principal Pops Conductor Byron Stripling leads a soulful journey through jazz and gospel. Whether you're bringing a toddler or a lifelong music lover, there's a seat waiting for you.
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A historic setting
Carnegie One is a fitting home for these concerts. It opened in 1889 as the very first Carnegie library in the United States, and its historic music hall reopened in 2025 after a $21 million renovation. Just down the road sits U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Works. Founded in 1875 as Carnegie's first steel mill, it is still in operation today. Bringing live music back to this landmark connects the region's industrial heritage with its cultural future.
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Our partnership with U.S. Steel
These concerts are made possible by U.S. Steel as part of the PSO and U.S. Steel partnership. Together, we're bringing free performances and music education to communities throughout the region, so more people can experience the power of live music close to home.
Musical Storytelling
At Musical Storytelling, the youngest listeners help 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. The book's illustrations are projected on screens beside the stage, so kids can follow along with every page. Corrie Stallings, vocalist with our Fiddlesticks family series, leads movement and interaction throughout, inviting children to sing, move, and play along.
Musical Storytelling brings free, literacy-focused concerts to libraries and community spaces across the region. Designed for children ages 5 and under, each program pairs a children's book with live music to spark imagination, build early reading skills, and model empathy and kindness. There's no better place to celebrate a love of books than the nation's first Carnegie library.
Free, registration required.
From Louis to Aretha
Few musical traditions have shaped American music like jazz and gospel. In From Louis to Aretha, trumpeter, vocalist, and PSO Principal Pops Conductor Byron Stripling, joined by Max Leake on keyboard, traces that lineage from the jazz clubs of New Orleans to the sanctuaries of the Black church, and shows how the two came together to create soul.
Through performance and conversation, Byron explores how Aretha Franklin, inspired by Louis Armstrong's artistry and innovation, carried the freedom of jazz into her own music while staying rooted in the church where her voice was first nurtured. When she brought that gospel power to pop and R&B, she broke new ground, and at times even faced pushback from the community that raised her. Hearing Armstrong and Franklin side by side reveals how deeply connected these two American legends really are.
Free, registration requested.
Plan your visit
Both concerts take place at Carnegie One, 419 Library Street, Braddock. Admission is free, but space is limited, so register early.