Pittsburgh Symphony Announces Eighth Fellow In Training Program For African American Musicians

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce the appointment Shantanique Moore, flutist, as the next recipient of the symphony's two-year fellowship designed to enable one young African American musician the ability to dedicate him or herself to the pursuit of an orchestral career. Ms. Moore will be the eighth recipient of a fellowship from the symphony's EQT Orchestra Training Program for African American Musicians (OTPAAM).

We're delighted to welcome Shantanique Moore to Pittsburgh to make music with and learn from the world-class musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, said Melia Tourangeau, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. We're proud to be one of the first orchestras in the national effort to increase diversity in American orchestras and our track record shows our success in helping our EQT Fellows advance their orchestral careers.

The EQT OTPAAM program is part of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's Diversity plan which, through leadership recruitment, professional development and programming, promotes diversity in orchestra settings to better reflect the diverse communities and audiences the orchestra serves. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is a partner orchestra of the National Alliance for Audition Support, a field-wide initiative of The Sphinx Organization, New World Symphony and the League of American Orchestras.

Shantanique Moore, flutist, is an accomplished musician and flute instructor. She has performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, among others. Moore is the winner of First Prize in the Ervin Monroe Young Artist Competition (2016), the Southern Great Lakes Concerto Competition (2013), and the Wayne State Concerto Competition (2012). She is a graduate of Wayne State University (Master of Music, Flute Performance; Bachelor of Music, Flute Performance).

During the fellowship period, the selected musician spends two seasons immersed in the working environment of the symphony and studies with members of the orchestra to train and to prepare for professional auditions and performance opportunities. The fellowship provides musicians a customized combination of audition preparation, professional guidance and mentoring, and audition support.

With the mentorship of the Pittsburgh Symphony musicians, the performance opportunities and mock auditions, I believe this program will benefit me vastly. Although I have some experience playing in orchestras and taking auditions, being surrounded by professional orchestral musicians will accelerate my progress as an auditioning musician, said Shantanique Moore.

Prior Fellows have experienced substantial career advancement as a result of the fellowship:

• 2017-2019 Fellow Joshua Jones, percussion, won a position with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Percussion during the first year of the fellowship
• 2015-2017 Fellow Torrell Moss, percussion, was accepted as an Artist Diploma candidate at Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, as a result of his fellowship.
• 2013-2015 Fellow Adedeji Ogunfolu, horn, won a position with the San Antonio Symphony during the first year of the fellowship.
• 2011-2013 Fellow Ryan Murphy, cello, won a position with the San Antonio Symphony in 2012.
• 2007-2008 Fellow Geoffrey Johnson, oboe, won acting second oboe of Detroit Symphony from 2014-2017. Mr. Johnson was the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's first OTPAAM fellow.

The EQT OTPAAM program is made possible by the generosity of Milton and Nancy Washington, and the title sponsorship support from the EQT Foundation. Pittsburgh Symphony Learning & Community Engagement programs are supported by generous grants from Lincoln Learning Solutions, The Jack Buncher Foundation, the Allegheny Regional Asset District, and the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.

About the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Over the last quarter century, MANFRED HONECK has firmly established himself as one of the world's leading conductors, renowned for his distinctive interpretations and arrangements of a wide-range of repertoire. For more than a decade, Honeck has served as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, continuing a great legacy of music-making that is celebrated at home, abroad and on recordings, including the 2018 Grammy Award for Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 and Barber's Adagio for Strings. Since 2008, Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra have served as cultural ambassadors for the city as one of the most frequently toured American orchestras. In addition to performing at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the orchestra regularly performs in major European music capitals and at leading festivals such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, BBC Proms, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Grafenegg Festival and the Salzburg Festival, and continues a close relationship with the Musikverein in Vienna. The PSO and Honeck return to Lincoln Center in May 2019 and their next European tour takes place in fall 2019. Under Honeck's leadership of the Pittsburgh Symphony, he instituted a new initiative to preserve the orchestra's celebrated sound, resulting in more than a dozen recordings on the Reference and Exton labels. Together, Honeck and the PSO have recorded symphonies by Beethoven, Bruckner, Dvo k, Mahler, and Tchaikovsky, as well as Strauss tone poems. They have received critical acclaim and honors from around the world, including the "Best Orchestral Performance" Grammy Award in 2018, along with two other Grammy nominations. Honeck has conceived of and conducted several large-scale or operatic works as semi-staged productions for the concert hall, including Handel's Messiah, Haydn's The Creation, and later this season in Pittsburgh he will lead performances of Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust. Beyond the podium, he has conceptualized and arranged a number of staged works into symphonic "Fantasies" or "Suites," among them Jan ek's Jen fa (Grammy nominated), Strauss's Elektra, Dvo k's Rusalka, and Tchaikovsky's ballet Sleeping Beauty, which he frequently programs on concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, at home and on tour, as well as with orchestras throughout the United States and abroad.

As a guest conductor, Honeck is a regular guest with all of the major American orchestras, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. He continues to appear in the world's leading concert halls and festivals, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome, Vienna Philharmonic, and the Verbier Festival. He served as Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart from 2007 to 2011, and has led operatic performances at Komische Oper Berlin, Th tre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, Salzburg Festival, Semperoper Dresden and the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Born in Austria, Honeck received his musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. He was a member of the viola section of the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestra for eight years. Transitioning to conducting, he began his career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado, and as artistic leader of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra. He received the prestigious European Conductor's Award in 1993 at the Zurich Opera House, and has served as Music Director of the Norwegian National Opera, Principal Guest Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and most recently as Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Honeck also has served as Artistic Director of the International Concerts Wolfegg in Germany for more than twenty years.Manfred Honeck has received honorary doctorates from several North American universities. Most recently, he was awarded the honorary title of Professor by the Austrian Federal President. An international jury of critics selected him as the International Classical Music Awards "Artist of the Year" 2018.

The 2018 GRAMMY Award-winning PITTSBURGH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, known for its artistic excellence for more than 120 years, is credited with a rich history of the world's finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. Past music directors have included Fritz Reiner (1938-1948), William Steinberg (1952-1976), Andre Previn (1976-1984), Lorin Maazel (1984-1996) and Mariss Jansons (1995-2004). This tradition of outstanding international music directors was furthered in fall 2008, when Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck became music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony. The orchestra has been at the forefront of championing new American works and gave the first performance of Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 "Jeremiah" in 1944 and John Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine in 1986. The Pittsburgh Symphony has a long and illustrious history in the areas of recordings and radio concerts. Its "Pittsburgh Live!" series with Reference Recordings has resulted in back-to-back Grammy Nominations in 2015 and 2016. As early as 1936, the Pittsburgh Symphony broadcast on the airwaves coast-to-coast and in the late 1970s it made the ground-breaking PBS series "Previn and the Pittsburgh." The orchestra has received increased national attention since 1982 through network radio broadcasts on Public Radio International, produced by Classical WQED-FM 89.3, made possible by the musicians of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. With a long and distinguished history of touring both domestically and overseas since 1900 including international tours to Europe, the Far East and South America the Pittsburgh Symphony continues to be critically acclaimed as one of the world's greatest orchestras.

MELIA P. TOURANGEAU was appointed president and chief executive officer in May 2015 and began her tenure in July 2015. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, known for its artistic excellence for more than 120 years, is credited with a rich history of the world's finest conductors and musicians, and a strong commitment to the Pittsburgh region and its citizens. The Pittsburgh Symphony has an annual operating budget of approximately $32 million and employs 76 full-time administrative staff and 97 contracted musicians. Tourangeau strives to develop trust and communication throughout the organization and with its constituents. Tourangeau came to the Pittsburgh Symphony from the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, the only combined 52-week orchestra and opera organization in the United States.

Tourangeau served as president and CEO of that organization beginning April 2008. Under her leadership USUO increased ticket revenue over $1 million, returned the Annual Fund to pre-recession levels and secured over $6 million in bridge support between 2008 and 2012. Expense increases were held to 6% over a six-year period averaging a 1% increase annually between 2007 and 2013. Utah Symphony's seventh music director, Thierry Fischer, was identified and contracted beginning in 2008. Prior to joining the USUO, Tourangeau was appointed president of Grand Rapids Symphony in April 2005 after a year-long national search. As president, Tourangeau was responsible for the overall financial, operational and administrative management of the organization with an $8.5 million annual operating budget, an administrative staff of 33 and 75 contracted professional musicians. Under her leadership, GRS balanced the budget and increased community support.

HEINZ HALL FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS is owned and operated by Pittsburgh Symphony, Inc., a non-profit organization, and is the year-round home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The cornerstone of Pittsburgh's Cultural District, Heinz Hall hosts many events that do not feature its world-renowned Orchestra including Broadway shows, popular touring artists, comedians, speakers and much more. For a full calendar of upcoming non-symphony events at the hall, visit heinzhall.org

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