"Reflections" by the Tamburitzans

Performance Dates: June 1, 2024 5:00 PM
Location: PNC Theatre

350 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Click here for Google Maps

Performance Times
Saturday 5:00pm

Ticket Price
$20 - $65

For more information about accessibility please visit this page.

Your favorite traditions return to stage, including Croatian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Armenian, and more along with all the enthralling instruments, entrancing costumes and intricate steps you've come to love from America's Longest Running Live Stage Show. It's Folk - with a Fresh Coat of Paint!

Each ticket you purchase not only helps build bridges between countries and culture, but furthers education and understanding. One of the most fascinating parts of the Tamburitzan Ensemble is that every performer is a full time college student. Studying everything from pharmacy, nursing, education and entrepreneurialism, these entertainers provide excellence on stage then only a few hours later, head off to excel in academics.

Our ensemble brings together artists of all different backgrounds and disciplines who, through their years performing, become a family. Our students head out into the world with the knowledge that through performance and art, we can share in the joy of our differences.

So join us on June 1st, when our 27 Student Performers will dance, sing and play their way across the countries of Eastern and Western Europe, entertaining young and old while helping to keep alive the heritages of our shared ancestors. Our Family Friendly show is one of the most colorful and consuming acts you can experience, a tradition for 87 seasons. So whether this is your first show or your fiftieth, welcome to The Tamburitzans!

It all began in Minnesota when Dr. A. Lester Pierce met tamburitza musicians Matt L. Gouze, Frank Gouze, and Anthony Antoncic in the early 1930s. Dr. Pierce’s intrigue with the tamburitza or tambura, a stringed lute-like instrument, sparked an idea which has endured as one of the world’s finest, longest-running live stage shows of its kind. Dr. Pierce negotiated work scholarships for these three young musicians and formed “St. Thomas Tamburitza Trio.”

In 1937, headed east with their musical variety show, the trio stopped in Pittsburgh. Impressed with the city’s cultural diversity, the group made a permanent home for the ensemble via a work scholarship agreement with Duquesne University. This newly formed group would eventually be known as the “Duquesne University Tamburitzans.”

The Tamburitzans have expanded their repertoire throughout the past eight decades to include a wide variety of folk dance and music representing international cultures. Eighty plus years, several international tours, hundreds of performers, and hundreds of thousands of audience members later, the Tamburitzans’ show is an annual tradition for some, and a delightful new surprise for others. Year after year, generation after generation, the Tamburitzans dazzle audiences across the country with elaborate costumes and incredibly versatile musicians, singers, and dancers. The talented young performers are full-time students who have chosen to continue the Tamburitzans’ legacy by bringing international cultures to the modern stage.

In 2014, the Tamburitzans announced that they would become an independent, nonprofit organization. The Tamburitzans now audition and accept students from all Pittsburgh-based universities in additional to Duquesne. The move was envisioned to help increase the ensemble's applicant pool, allow for a more robust performance schedule, and to help position the group to pursue charitable support from individuals, the charitable foundation community, corporations, and government agencies.

To learn more, visit thetamburitzans.org and follow The Tamburitzans on Facebook and Instagram.

"Reflections" by the Tamburitzans Special Event