Founded in 2018 by artist-designer John Eastman, and directed since its inception by Ben Filippone, the choir continues to strive for ever higher levels of artistry, attract talent from across the city, and to make a lasting positive impact on its members as they hone their singing skills together and forge new friendships.

To keep up to date on the choir’s activities and performances, please “like” their Facebook page and visit their website:

https://www.facebook.com/EastShoreChorale/

http://eastshorechorale.com/

The EastShore Chorale Staff

Benjamin Filippone  —  Choir Director

Benjamin Filippone is active throughout the Pittsburgh area as a choir conductor and voice teacher. He serves as Minister of Music at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, and the music director of the Mon Yough Chorale. He also teaches at the Community College of Allegheny County and sings with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh. He performed the role of Ben in Menotti’s “The Telephone” and recitals at the Maiski Opera Festival in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, and performed world premiers as a soloist and ensemble singer with OvreArts. He holds a BA in music education from Grove City College, a MM in vocal performance from Duquesne University, and studied in the DMA program in choral conducting with a minor in music theory at the University of Arizona. He has appeared as the guest conductor for the Westmoreland County Music Educators Association Jr. High Chorus Festival, served as the chorus master for Undercroft Opera, and participated for three summers as a conductor with the Sarteano Choral Conducting Workshop with Simon Carrington in Sarteano, Italy.

Ryan Keeling  —  Consulting Advisor

We are very pleased to report that Ryan Keeling has joined our Community Choir project in a consulting advisory role. Ryan Keeling is active as a teacher, singer and conductor in the Pittsburgh area and is the Assistant Conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s “Chorus of Choice,” and Director of Choral Activities at West Liberty University where he conducts the WLU Singers, Choral Scholars and College Community Chorus, and teaches Music History and Conducting. He also serves as Artistic Director of Voces Solis and Music Director of OvreArts where he conducts the OvreArts Sinfonia and is the founding conductor of the OvreArts Chamber Singers.We are very excited and thrilled to be working with Ryan.

John Eastman — Founder and Creative Influence, The EastShore Chorale

John Eastman was born in Braddock, PA. His family immigrated from Gruta, Poland in 1923. Eastman is an abstract painter, wood sculpture-furniture designer, and mixed media installation artist. He currently works in several studios in Pittsburgh, PA. and Brooklyn NY. In 2017, he founded Eastman Community Projects (ECP), a non-profit in the East End to help the area become an Art-Centric community. The EastShore Chorale is a project of ECP.

Eastman is a native of South Western Pennsylvania, frequents multiple areas of Europe, and New Mexico. He started as a self taught abstract painter of large works in 2002, and began to exhibit in galleries and museums within 3 years, adding wood sculpture and furniture to his body of work in 2010. In the past year, his work has evolved into designing and building small buildings wrapped in corrugated sheet metal and painted framed wood, with art installations residing within, creating an exterior artwork structure, with interior art. The structures blend into the industrial past of the Western Pennsylvania, while reflecting the current neighborhood surroundings of nature, buildings, lights, and streets. Eastman is also founder and Managing Director of Redfish Creative (www.redfishcreative.com) a consulting-centric creative firm focusing on technology projects and servicing clients multi-nationally.