Tour de Force
Impressions and Inspiration from PSO’s 2024 European Festivals Tour
School of Music
written by
Cally Jamis Vennare
In the summer of 2024, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and Music Director Manfred Honeck toured nine cities in Austria, Italy and Germany as part of its acclaimed European Festivals Tour. The prestigious Salzburg Festival in Austria — where PSO was the only American orchestra invited to appear — was the first stop of many that included concerts in Grafenegg, Merano, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne, Wiesbaden and Vienna. The PSO was joined by classical superstars Anne-Sophie Mutter, Yefim Bronfman and María Dueñas throughout the tour.
CFA’s School of Music features an impressive 20 world-class PSO musicians among its faculty. We spoke with three — David McCarroll, Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida and William Caballero — about performing abroad, PSO’s important role as Pittsburgh’s cultural ambassador, and the experiences that they will share with their CMU students.
Salzburg Festival with pianist Yefim Bronfman, PSO Music Director Manfred Honeck and members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Prior to joining the PSO in 2022, David McCarroll was living in Berlin, performing extensively in Europe, and collaborating with the Vienna Piano Trio — one of the world’s leading chamber ensembles. Not surprisingly, he feels right at home on a European tour, his second with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and always looks forward to the warm embrace by the passionate audiences that result in sell-out halls wherever PSO performs.
“Saying that the audiences are ‘enthusiastic’ is an understatement. I mean, we have very, very warm receptions everywhere we go and wonderful audiences who want to hear us because of PSO’s history of touring and our recordings,” said McCarroll. “People in Europe really do know the PSO, and they look forward to hearing us every other year when we tour.”
The rigors of multi-city travel can be challenging for anyone but are particularly so for professional musicians; each hall could be considered a distinctive instrument. McCarroll and his PSO colleagues must not only keep themselves healthy for optimal performance, but also adapt to everchanging conditions — “different cities, different halls, different acoustics.”
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra takes great pride in its role as Pittsburgh’s cultural ambassador — locally, regionally and around the world. The impact of PSO’s “baton diplomacy” through its European tours promotes cultural ties that build bridges to collaboration and connections with businesses around the world.
On stage or off. In Pittsburgh or around the world. McCarroll and his colleagues know that PSO’s role as a cultural ambassador is an important lesson to share with the next generation of musicians. “I feel like there’s a lot to show the world about Pittsburgh, and the incredible quality of this orchestra, when we go on tour,” noted McCarroll. “It’s a special honor. Even when you are not playing, you are still an ambassador for the Pittsburgh Symphony and this city.”
"Touring focuses you on what is most important: the masterpieces of music we play, bringing them out as truthfully and honestly as possible and what that means from a musical point of view, building technique and making technical decisions as you learn the piece. These are all the things that I try to instill in my students."
David McCarroll
Artist Lecturer of Violin, School of Music
When asked how many times they’ve been on tour with the PSO, Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida exclaimed, “too many times to count!” Her husband, William Caballero, simply smiled and nodded his head in agreement. Even though they have been married for only three years, DeAlmeida and Caballero have each performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony for over three decades, traveling abroad with PSO to Asia, Russia, Poland, South America, Japan, China, Australia, Israel, the Canary Islands and Puerto Rico, among other tour locations.
After all the years of touring internationally (and domestically), there are still surprises … and compromises. “Every venue is different. Sometimes you’re on risers, but other times you may all be on the floor. So, if you have a tall cellist in front of you and you can’t see the music director, you say: ‘Excuse me Charlie, can you move a little to the left and I’ll move to the right.’ Or maybe the venue is too small, so we must let go of a few string players on the end to make room for everyone to fit,” explained DeAlmeida. “It’s a huge chess game for us and for whoever organizes the tour!”
Left and right: Honeck, McCarroll and PSO symphony members. Center: Caballero solo at Konzerthaus Dortmund with DeAlmeida and PSO colleagues.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has toured internationally since 1947 and is one of a small number of American orchestras that continue to do so on a regular basis. Touring has also been known to attract the highest level of musicians from around the world. Yet in the eyes of seasoned PSO musicians like DeAlmeida, there’s no place like home. “The neat thing about touring is that when we return to Pittsburgh, we realize how wonderful Heinz Hall is and how lucky we are to play in such a great space!”
Both DeAlmeida and Caballero gain inspiration from their touring, which in turn is reflected in their music-making. Travels to small country homes in the mountains or beautiful natural settings in places like Switzerland and Austria allow musicians to experience, firsthand, what influenced masterworks by composers like Brahms, Mahler and Mozart. “We both love Mahler,” DeAlmeida said. “Imagine hearing the Swiss or Austrian cowbells that are in his music! Or visiting the mountain homes where he composed. Then you really feel Mahler.”
DeAlmeida and Caballero have been passionate educators, as well as musicians, throughout their careers. They consider themselves to be “two of the luckiest people on earth to have both” and “never take that responsibility lightly.”
As he reflected further upon his teaching, Caballero shared these final words of wisdom for his students and any emerging musician. “I would not know as much as I do now if it was not for teaching. It’s made me a better musician, and I sincerely thank all my students for that experience. In turn, I hope I’ve been able to share all that I’ve learned from teaching with them. In my repertory class at CMU, there is lots of commentary by my students. I encourage it and tell them: ‘This is the beginning of your teaching.’”
featuring the following:
images of Merano, Italy by Damian Pertoil
images of Salzburg, Austria by Marco Borrelli
images of Cologne, Germany by Christian Palm
images and video of Vienna, Austria by Andrea Hummer
images of Düsseldorf, Germany by Reinhard A. Deutsch
images of Dortmund, Germany by Holger Jacoby
images of Wiesbaden, Germany by Ansgar Klostermann
images of Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany by Daniel Dittus
