Summer on the Bluff Concert Returns to Duquesne

Back by popular demand, the second Summer on the Bluff concert featuring artistic director and pianist David Allen Wehr returns to Duquesne University on Saturday, May 20.

“Last July’s inaugural Summer on the Bluff concert featured a mix of jazz and light classical music as a contrast to the meatier repertoire of the main season,” said Wehr. “Building on that success, the centerpiece of the May 20 concert will be Claude Bolling’s 1973 Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio, a smash crossover hit whose recording was nominated for a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance.”

The flute part, according to Wehr, is written out for a classical performer, while the jazz trio (piano, bass guitar and drums) improvises. Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio will be led by Lorna McGhee, principal flutist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, who will be joined by renowned jazz pianist Joe Utterback and Mary Pappert School of Music faculty Bill Purse on bass and Tom Wendt on drums.

McGhee, originally from Scotland, will join Wehr for Franz Schubert’s virtuosic Variations on Trockne Blumen, a nod to the current Schubert on the Bluff series. Duquesne faculty member and international soprano singer Sari Gruber and Wehr will perform Schubert’s original song.

Utterback, Purse and Wendt will also perform W.C. Handy’s immortal St. Louis Blues.

Summer on the Bluff will be held at 4:30 p.m. in the PNC Recital Hall of the Mary Pappert School of Music. The one-hour program will be performed without intermission, and a Meet-the-Artists reception will follow in the PNC Recital Hall lobby.

Tickets are $15. Visit www.duq.edu/bluffmusic or call 412.396.6083 for more details.