‘Best of the Bluff’ Series Returns to In-Person Performances

The Mary Pappert School of Music’s popular Best of the Bluff concerts will make its triumphant return to in-person performances on campus for the second of the two-year series.

David Allen Wehr

The series is based on the 2018 poll results when Bluff series audience members had the opportunity to vote for their favorite musical works from a list of nearly 300 performed since the series launched in 2002.

The results of the poll informed the programming for the Best of the Bluff, which kicked off an expected two-year run in July 2019. The pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the final concert of the first series and all of the second series. However, many videos of performances by Duquesne faculty were recorded and posted on YouTube for a Virtual Best of the Bluff collection.

“Now, we are able to pick up where we left off with composer Franz Schubert’s Trout Quintet, which was the top vote-getter in our poll,” said David Allen Wehr, dean of the music school and founding artistic director of the Bluff series. “All of the artists are thrilled to be performing again for live audiences, especially in the intimate atmosphere of PNC Recital Hall, which is perfect for chamber music.”

Audience members will be required to wear masks at the kick-off concert, Best of the Bluff, Year Two: Back to the Bluff, Sunday, Aug. 29, at 3 p.m. in PNC Recital Hall of the music school.

Also on the program will be Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata #4 for Cello and Piano and Robert Schuman’s Fantasy-pieces for Cello and Piano, performed by Wehr, who is the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) principal cellist Anne Martindale Williams.

Faculty from the music school, many of whom are PSO musicians, also will perform throughout season two of the Best of the Bluff series. In addition to being musicians, they are teacher-scholars whose creativity make their classrooms and studios exciting learning environments for Duquesne students.

Other featured performers at the Back to the Bluff concert include:

  • Meghan DeWald Althouse, soprano
  • Benjamin Binder, piano
  • Jennifer Gerhard Mangone, viola
  • Adam Liu, cello
  • Rachel Stegeman, violin
  • Jeffrey Turner, double bass.

The series includes the following concerts, all scheduled at 3 p.m. in PNC Recital Hall:

  • Best of the Bluff, Year Two: Dynamic Duos, Sunday, Sept. 19
  • Best of the Bluff, Year Two: Mixed Doubles, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022
  • Best of the Bluff, Year Two: Virtuoso, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022
  • Best of the Bluff, Year Two: To the Distant Beloved, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2002.

Renewals are currently underway for season pass holders from Best of the Bluff, Year One. Admission opens to the public Monday, Aug. 23, at 9 a.m. Season passes are $75 each and individual seats are $15. Visit duq.edu/BluffSeries for reservations or call the Brown Paper Tickets Box Office at 1.800.838.3006.