Charleroi Community Days: Live music returning to borough building

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

For the first time in decades, music will flow from the third floor of the Charleroi Borough Building.

A virtual concert series for Community Days — instead of a street festival with vendors — will take place this weekend.

Organizers hope the two-day virtual event will attract thousands of viewers as classic big bands and young performers fill the former Cougar Canteen with music. 

Mark Smith, president of the Mon Valley Academy for the Arts, a nonprofit organization that provides arts and cultural programs throughout the area, and Council President Mark Alterici started brainstorming the idea several weeks ago. 

The event may offer the MVAA the opportunity to reach its largest audience yet as it prepares for its ninth virtual concert. 

In June, the MVAA held its first virtual event, which attracted 5,000 viewers. The organization’s most recent event had more than 26,000 watching.

Smith hopes the two-day Community Days concert will top 50,000 listeners.

The event will begin at 8 p.m. today when Six Gun Sally, playing southern rock classics and selections from its upcoming CD, kicks off the show. 

Six Gun Sally will perform on the MVAA’s Facebook page live until 9:30 p.m.

On Saturday, a group of 20 young musicians — the Twin Coaches Jr. Stage Band jazz trio Kinda Blue — will perform from 7 to 7:45 p.m. before the Wally Gingers Orchestra plays big band favorites from 8 to 9 p.m.

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