Mavis Staples Headlining Three Rivers Arts Festival Concerts

PITTSBURGH, PA - The Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival has a reputation for attracting top-notch musical acts in addition to artwork and this year is no exception. Mavis Staples leads this year’s lineup of free concerts and will perform June 1 at 7:30 p.m. on the Point State Park main stage.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the rest of the Staple Singers in 1999, Staple has performed with Bob Dylan, Booker T., Ray Charles, and The Band, among many others, and has had music written for her by diverse artists such as Prince, Nick Cave and Neko Case.

Staple’s performance at the arts festival of her latest album, “If All I Was Was Black.” Produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, the album was released in November.

Other acts performing on the main stage during the festival:

• Saturday June 2: Everything Everything

Their albums are maximalist, frenetic, art-pop juxtapositions of rhythm and blues and melancholia and Afrobeat, of synths, guitars and falsetto. If that mashup sounds intriguing to you, you should be entertained.

• Sunday June 3: Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

The symphony won two Grammy Awards in January. Conductor Manfred Honeck and the symphony won a Grammy for best orchestral performance for their recording of "Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5; Barber: Adagio." Engineer Mark Donahue also won a Grammy best engineered album, classical, for the same recording.

• Monday June 4: Banda Magda

Led by Greek-born composer, orchestrator, singer and accordionist Magda Giannikou (Kronos Quartet, Louis CK), Banda Magda moves from samba to French chanson, from Greek folk tunes to Colombian cumbia and Afro-Peruvian lando.

• Tuesday June 5: The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh

The Times They Are A-Changin’: Words and Music of Bob Dylan
The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh has taken choral music to a new level with Steve Hackman’s new arrangement of choral work , “The Music of Bob Dylan.”

• Wednesday June 6: Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

Since forming 10 years ago, the buzz surrounding Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real has been quietly intensifying - perhaps in part because Lukas has some impressive songwriting DNA. His father is Willie Nelson.

• Thursday June 7: Sidewalk Chalk

Chicago-based ensemble Sidewalk Chalk transcends genre with a wholly original sound that blends elements of jazz, funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

• Friday June 8: Valerie June

Since the release of her 2013 breakout Pushin’ Against A Stone, June has been patiently at work in the garden of song, nurturing seedlings into the bloom that is her new album, “The Order Of Time.”

• Saturday June 9: Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder

Ricky struck his first chords on a mandolin over 50 years ago, and this 15-time Grammy Award winner continues to do his part to lead the recent roots revival in music. With 12 consecutive Grammy-nominated classics behind him, Skaggs’ diverse tones come from a life dedicated to playing music.
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• Sunday June 10: The Mavericks

The Mavericks were founded more than 25 years ago by Malo and Deakin as a standout alternative band in a Miami rock scene dominated by hair metal and punk. They won a Grammy in 1995.

Photo via Shutterstock.

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