Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the second-most populous city in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia and the 68th-most populous city in the U.S., with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 census. The city anchors the Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania. Its population of 2.457 million is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, the 7th-largest in the Mid-Atlantic region and the 26th-largest in the U.S. Pittsburgh is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–Weirton–Steubenville combined statistical area which includes parts of Ohio and West Virginia.
The University of Pittsburgh is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the university's central administration and around 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The 132-acre Pittsburgh campus includes various historic buildings that are part of the Schenley Farms Historic District, most notably its 42-story Gothic revival centerpiece, the Cathedral of Learning. Pitt is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is the second-largest non-government employer in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.
Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in October 1878 with an enrollment of 40 students and a faculty of six. In 1911, the college became the first Catholic university-level institution in Pennsylvania. It is named for an 18th-century governor of New France, Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville.
The United States of America is the home of the hip hop dance, swing, tap dance and its derivative Rock and Roll, and modern square dance and one of the major centers for modern dance. There is a variety of social dance and performance or concert dance forms with also a range of traditions of Native American dances.
"Misirlou" is a folk song from the Eastern Mediterranean region. The original author of the song is not known, but Arabic, Greek, and Jewish musicians were playing it by the 1920s. The earliest known recording of the song is a 1927 Greek rebetiko/tsifteteli composition. There are also Arabic belly dancing, Albanian, Armenian, Serbian, Persian, Indian and Turkish versions of the song. This song was popular from the 1920s onwards in the Arab American, Armenian American and Greek American communities who settled in the United States.
Robert Morris University (RMU) is a private university in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1921 and is named after Robert Morris, known as the "financier of the American revolution." It enrolls nearly 5,000 students and offers 60 bachelor's degree programs and 35 master's and doctoral programs. Most students are from the Pittsburgh area, while 16 percent of freshmen in 2018 were from outside Pennsylvania.
Balkan music is a type of music found in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. The music is characterised by complex rhythm. Famous bands in Balkan music include Taraf de Haïdouks, Fanfare Ciocărlia, and No Smoking Orchestra.
John Edward Murray Jr. was a chancellor and a professor of law at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He was a former dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the Villanova University School of Law, as well as a former president of Duquesne University.
The Duquesne Gardens was the main sports arena located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the first half of the 20th century. Built in 1890, the building originally served as a trolley barn, before becoming a multi-purpose arena. The Gardens opened three years after a fire destroyed the city's prior sports arena, the Schenley Park Casino, in 1896. Over the years, the Gardens was the home arena of several of Pittsburgh's historic sports teams, such as ice hockey's Pittsburgh Pirates and Pittsburgh Hornets. The Western Pennsylvania Hockey League, which was the first ice hockey league to openly hire and trade players, played all of its games at the Gardens. The arena was also the first hockey rink to ever use glass above the dasher boards. Developed locally by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, Herculite glass was first tested in Pittsburgh. Most rinks were using wire mesh before the shatterproof glass was invented. Finally, the Pittsburgh Ironmen, a charter member of the Basketball Association of America, played at the Gardens from 1946 to 1947.
Richard George Crum was a prominent international folk dance researcher, teacher and choreographer. He conducted extensive field research in Eastern Europe in the 1950s and was choreographer for the Duquesne University Tamburitzans. He ran several international folk dance festivals, including those at St. Paul, Minnesota and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The culture of Pittsburgh stems from the city's long history as a center for cultural philanthropy, as well as its rich ethnic traditions. In the 19th and 20th centuries, wealthy businessmen such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry J. Heinz, Henry Clay Frick, and nonprofit organizations such as the Carnegie Foundation donated millions of dollars to create educational and cultural institutions.
The Pittsburgh Folk Festival is a large multicultural celebration of diverse international ethnic heritages, which has been held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since 1956.
The Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University is a private Catholic university law school located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is approved by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. Dean April M. Barton joined the school in 2019 as its 13th dean.
Taras Filenko is an ethnomusicologist, lecturer, and concert pianist most renowned for his research and proliferation of Ukrainian music history of 19th and early 20th centuries. Dr. Filenko’s findings are presented in his Ph.D. dissertation from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (1989), his second Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from University of Pittsburgh (1998), and The World of Mykola Lysenko book in English (2000) and Ukrainian (2009). As a two-time recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, Dr. Filenko has conducted lectures and developed courses at academic institutions throughout Europe and North America focused on the classical and ethnic musical culture of Eastern Europe.
The Mary Pappert School of Music is one of the ten degree-granting divisions that comprise Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Donald Silvio Nesti, C.S.Sp. is an American Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. He served as the tenth president of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1980 until 1988. He is the founder and current director of the Center for Faith and Culture at the University of Saint Thomas in Houston, Texas, and a professor of theology at St. Mary's Seminary, also in Houston.
The Brigham Young University International Folk Dance Ensemble is a Brigham Young University (BYU) performing group that performs folk dances from many parts of the world. They were established as a small performing group in 1959 by Mary Bee Jensen and have grown to include around 180 participants. However, about 30 of the dancers participate in the touring ensemble which has performed in many locations around the world including at the cultural festival held in connection with the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea and at the opening ceremonies in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
WESA is a public radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts with an ERP of 25 kW. WESA is a full member station of NPR and is also affiliated with Public Radio International and American Public Media.
Eugenia Popescu-Județ was a Romanian dancer, dance teacher, choreographer and folklorist. Trained in ballet, she performed as a solo dancer for several professional theatres in Bucharest and became a famed choreographer of folk-inspired character dance working for film, TV, and several professional ensembles in Romania. She taught folk dance in Romania and internationally. Later she became an expert in manuscripts relating to the 17th century Romanian prince and composer Dimitrie Cantemir.
