Song Shop Concert with Violins of Hope

Pittsburgh Opera’s popular Brown Bag concerts have a new name for 2023-24 to honor the Bitz Opera Factory’s industrial heritage – Pittsburgh Opera’s Song Shop concerts.

The free, informal Song Shops feature Pittsburgh Opera’s Resident Artists. Beginning at 12:00 PM on selected Saturdays of each month, September 2023–May 2024, these one-hour performances are free, fun, and open to everyone. Guests are encouraged to bring a friend and bring a lunch. FRIENDS of Pittsburgh Opera provide a reception after each Song Shop concert. Doors open at 11:30AM.

We are honored and humbled to partner with Violins of Hope Greater Pittsburgh for our November 2023 Song Shop concert.

Violins of Hope Greater Pittsburgh is a landmark community project centered on the valuable lessons of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Over the course of two months, through educational and cultural programs, this unique project will use lessons of the Holocaust to demonstrate humanity’s amazing ability to rebound from even the darkest depravity. The centerpiece of this project will be an exhibit of stringed instruments that were played by Jewish prisoners in the concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Some of these instruments will be on display for the November Song Shop concert. Trained docents will facilitate an understanding of music’s role in prisoners’ lives, whether as a mechanism for survival, mental escape, or even resistance. Each instrument merits a story of hope and survival. Through this partnership, we are tuning out prejudice and building lasting bridges.

Parking is available in the Bitz Opera Factory garage for those with accessibility needs only. If you need an accessible parking spot, please either call 412-281-0912 ext.3 or email us. Accessible parking reservations are due by 4:00 PM Friday before the event.