McKnight clears the air

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Pop singer Brian McKnight has love for Pittsburgh, and wants his fans here to know that his recently canceled appearance at Heinz Hall was not due to him.

"I am so sorry that the promoter canceled the show," he said yesterday in a statement. "I was very much looking forward to performing at Heinz Hall on Saturday, and to once again be in front of the people of Pittsburgh who have always been so great to me. I have never in my 10-plus years of performing and touring canceled a show, and I hope that this will be rescheduled soon. I look forward to coming to that wonderful city in the not so distant future"

His publicist, Janell Barrett, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, owner and operator of Heinz Hall, Downtown, asserted yesterday that it was promoter Bennett Entertainment Group that canceled McKnight's appearance. That led to the PSO having to call off the entire night, which included a world premiere of a work, "Pastime" by Richard Danielpour, that it had booked to coincide with All-Star Game at PNC Park Tuesday. Bennett Entertainment could not be reached for comment.

"Brian doesn't want fans to think he just woke up one day and said, 'I don't want to be in Pittsburgh,' " says Barrett.

In an earlier interview this week with McKnight, he said that he looked forward to visiting Pittsburgh again:

"The people are very much the same where that kind of industry is the hallmark. They're working people, real people. Not like here in LA where they have time to be idle. You just work so hard to get the things that you have."

(Staff writer Philip Stephenson contributed. Classical music critic Andrew Druckenbrod can be reached at adruckenbrod@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1750. )