Celebrate ARCA’s 20th Anniversary with a Gala Birthday Pops Concert

Virtuoso pianist, Nathan Carterette — Mezzo-soprano, Katherine Soroka

It’s time for a musical birthday celebration – the 20th for Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts!

Join the fun and celebrate ARCA’s 20th Anniversary at the Gala “Birthday” Pops Concert on Sunday, October 12, at 2 PM in Lincoln Hall with mezzo-soprano Katherine Soroka, who sang the first ARCA concert in Lincoln Hall in 2006. She is joined by virtuoso pianist and ARCA favorite Nathan Carterette, distinguished violinist Maureen Conlon Gutiérrez, and acclaimed tenor Robert Frankenberry.

 Violinist Maureen Conlon Gutiérrez — Tenor Robert Frankenberry

Celebrated for their individual performances on concert and operatic stages internationally and nationally, Katherine, Nathan, and Robert will also bring to ARCA’s Anniversary concert audience their joy of making music together in ensembles in Pittsburgh and Erie.

Honoring the history and artistry of the musicians and entertainers who have graced Lincoln Hall’s stage since its founding, the Pops program will include an eclectic mix of musical genres that audiences have enjoyed for 20 years – from virtuosic classical piano, violin solos, and vocal chamber music, and vocal music from spirituals and art song to opera and musical theatre.

The audience will enjoy a champagne toast at the intermission following a tribute to ARCA’s founders, funders, and friends.

Adults $25, ARCA Members $20, Students $5. Buy online at alleghenyriverstone.org or call 724-659-3153 to reserve and pay with cash/check at the door.

As part of Foxburg’s renaissance 20 years ago, Dr. Arthur and Patrica Steffee, who had purchased the Fox estate, realized that no development of Main Street businesses would create the kind of tourism destination they desired for the region without a strong arts presence. With a board comprised of community leaders and arts lovers from Foxburg, Emlenton, and Parker, they founded Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts to become that cultural hub.

After a year of renovating the original 1909 performance space on the second floor of the Foxburg Free Library and installing a seven-foot Steinway piano and Wurlitzer theatre organ purchased by the Steffees. ARCA presented its first two public performances in Lincoln Hall in the Fall of 2006 – Wurlitzer theatre organ and classical cabaret.

The concert commemorates the visionaries who founded ARCA and the contributions of audience members, donors and volunteers whose enthusiasm, generosity and support have made this rural arts initiative a success. Twenty years later, ARCA is the premiere fine arts center in northwestern Pennsylvania, having touched the lives of thousands of audience members from a 7-county region with more than 400 concerts and 90 visiting artist exhibits at the Red Brick Gallery – and reached thousands of students in the A-C Valley Schools through educational residencies.

Known to ARCA audiences as a Board member and artistic program manager, Katherine Soroka has had a double career both onstage and backstage in some of the country’s major performing arts organizations. Hailed for her “masterful” and “heartfelt vocalism” (Pittsburgh Post Gazette), she is known for her moving performances as a singer-actress that are brimming with life, pathos and humor -”finding both lush lines and dramatic intensity… commanding the stage”.(TribLive) A winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions, she has appeared nationally and regionally with orchestras and in recital, opera, chamber music, contemporary music, music theatre and cabaret.

ARCA welcomes back dazzling virtuoso and poetic pianist Nathan Carterette, hailed as “very compelling in his power and presence” (International Composer), “wonderfully poetic,” (Westfalen Post) and ”exuberant yet sensitive,” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Nathan has distinguished himself in the concert world by performing a huge range of works from Elizabethan keyboard music to Bach’s Goldenberg Variations to tour de force Romantic block busters and music of living composers with whom he has collaborated. Bringing to ARCA his ”Poets of the Piano” series that he took on a 25-city American tour, Nathan has dazzled ARCA audiences in three solo piano concerts and a collaborative performance in ARCA’s 10th Anniversary concert.  

Robert Frankenberry, a polymathic Renaissance music man, enjoys a multi-faceted relationship with music as a singer, pianist, conductor, orchestrator, producer, director, and composer. On stage, he has performed a wide range of roles including Mozart (Amadeus), John Adams (1776), Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos), King Kaspar (Amahl and the Night Visitors) the title roles in Don Carlo, The Tales of Hoffmann, Faust, and Willy Wonka. As a composer, his opera The Blue Fairy with libretto by Kip Soteres, received its premiere in June of 2025 by Aria412. In composer Daron Hagen’s continuing exploration of opera film, Rob appears as composer Robbie Doerfler singing and playing the piano in the filmed version of I Hear America Singing, which has won 15 awards at film festivals in 2025.

Maureen Conlon Gutiérrez is making her ARCA debut, long admired for her solo and chamber artistry and as concertmaster of the Johnstown Symphony. A native of Mexico, she has performed to acclaim across the globe as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player – participating on recordings as a classical artist, cross genre violinist, light rock improv and tango violinist. Miss Conlon has appeared on television and radio internationally and is a prize winner of many national and international competitions in the United States and in Mexico. An ardent chamber musician, Maureen co-founded the Trio Nova Mundi with whom she performed across the Americas.

After the concert, continue the celebration at the wine and cheese reception for the opening for the opening of the exhibit of art, jewelry and sculpture by Rafi and Klee – INTERWOVEN: The Art of Growth and Connection at the Red Brick Gallery at 17 Main Street, Foxburg, PA 16036.