Program areas at MCG
Mcg jazzmcg jazz has become one of the longest-running subscription concert series for live jazz in the country and has been named a great jazz venue by downbeat magazine for ten consecutive years. Mcg jazz presented its 36th annual concert season in 2022-23 with a line-up filled with a diverse range of internationally acclaimed artists. The concert season featured 11 unique performances that included nea jazz masters dianne reeves, eddie palmieri, and arturo sandoval; award-winning smooth jazz saxophonist, mindi abair; and a lineup of trending women artists, such as the group artemis and the up-and-coming vocalist samara joy, who made her debut at mcg jazz in 2023 right after winning two grammy awards. World music standout performances included danilo prez and the django festival all stars and the mcg jazz recording label presented a special program of pittsburgh resident musicians who released new music in 2022-2023. Mcg jazz's 36th concert season also featured "5 women saxophone journeys," a unique performance and artist engagement with five women saxophonists who performed one public concert that demonstrated through words and music how they persevered in a field historically unwelcoming to women. Prior to the public performance, each saxophonist was interviewed individually about their career, influences, mentors, and their personal journeys. All five interviews were documented and are currently being transcribed for use as an educational tool. The interviews and performance footage will be edited and made available to educators, musicians, and the general public.mcg jazz's educational partnerships with pittsburgh public schools expanded by offering a district-wide professional development engagement for music teachers. Teachers participated by learning about sound vibrational therapy and a new digital platform for online instruction. Mcg jazz also offered the "youth in the mix" program to pittsburgh westinghouse academy students to introduce them to live audio and video technology. The "school of swing" program was brought back in-person this year on site at the mcg concert hall with 920 third and fourth-graders from 12 different pittsburgh public schools in attendance.
Mcg youth & artsmcg youth served 401 unique youth in school-day, after-school, and summer programs in 2022-23. Of that total, 309 individual teens participated in the afterschool apprenticeship training program (atp). Student enrollment in 2022-23 atp increased 22 percent from the previous school year. Mcg youth also provided alternative school day programming to 45 students from holy family institute, pressley ridge day school, friendship academy, and pittsburgh public schools' city connections. Mcg youth's creative youth development courses are offered in four studios ceramics, photography, design arts, and digital arts. Surveys of high school seniors who participated in mcg youth's atp and reviews of graduation records show that 100 percent of participants graduated from high school on time in 2023, and 94 percent planned to pursue higher education opportunities. Of these students, 82 percent indicated that they credit mcg youth with helping them to pursue post-secondary education.to complement its after-school offerings and to inform participants about post-secondary opportunities, mcg youth has built an extensive college and career program which provides opportunities for all atp-enrolled students to develop soft skills, meet with college representatives, visit college campuses, and participate in workshops focused on topics ranging from financial aid, goal-setting, college and career readiness, and alternative career pathways. A new partnership with carnegie mellon university (cmu) reserves four enrollment spaces at cmu for atp digital arts students. Many of the skills learned in mcg youth's digital arts courses are transferrable to college-level courses and long-term careers in the technology field, as well as others. Most job sectors are now incorporating some form of artificial intelligence (ai) technology and atp students have the early opportunity to best prepare themselves for both the job market and/or higher education.