John Eastman’s EastShore Chorale takes the stage at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater on May 29, presenting a new program.
Kelly Strayhorn Theater Hosts EastShore Chorale
Swissvale-based artist John Eastman was driving through New Mexico when he heard the Los Angeles Angel Choir sing Toto’s Africa on the radio. Amazed at their performance, the self-professed ideas man decided at that very moment that he wanted to start a choir.
Never mind the fact that he doesn’t sing or have musical training.
He had already founded Eastman Community Projects, an organization that aims to help communities become more art-centric; a choir seemed a worthy addition to his effort. A few months after his 2017 Toto awakening, he attended a performance by Voces Solis, one of Pittsburgh’s most esteemed chamber choirs. After the show, Eastman then introduced himself to the choir director, Ryan Keeling, and said, “Hey, I’m thinking about forming a choir. Can you help me?”
Creating a Choir for Everyone
The pair spent two hours talking over coffee; Keeling shared the names of choir directors, including Ben Filippone, who teaches and directs choirs at the collegiate level. Eastman and Filippone teamed up — the ideas man meets the details man — and, in spring 2018, the EastShore Chorale, a non-denominational, multi-generational choir, became official.
“Ben is a godsend,” Eastman says of his new choir director. “We have this great partnership.”
The pair works to challenge each other as well as the choir, musically and conceptually. They also aim to stage their performances as multidisciplinary adventures. Over the ensuing years, they have built the choir to 43 members plus an accompanying pianist.
Growing as a Group
As they built the number of singers, Filippone has introduced progressively more sophisticated techniques to help them grow as individual performers and also as an ensemble.
“To have a great choir, you need a great balance between the sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses,” says Eastman.
Their song catalog runs eclectic, featuring 14th-century chants, modern ballads, the Beatles, Cyndi Lauper and many more. You’ll hear songs from musicals and movies such as My Fair Lady and Casablanca, songs performed in German, Irish blessings and wordless songs that recreate Indian drum sounds.
Still, Eastman has always had Africa on his mind. Each year, he’d ask Filippone, “Do we have the guns?”
As of 2026, yes, they do.
A Special Performance at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater
On May 29, at East Liberty’s Kelly Strayhorn Theater, EastShore Chorale will hold its most ambitious performance yet: Into the Blue. Eastman selected the evening’s songbook. “I’m an avid music listener. I’m all over the place, with multiple aesthetics of everything.”
This journey across genres and decades features songs — several that embrace a water theme — from Bob Dylan, the Talking Heads, Radiohead, as well as a version of The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s jazz instrumental Take Five featuring lyrics penned by Brubeck’s wife, Lola.
And, yes, Toto, too.
A full band will be joining the show, in addition to their pianist. “The musicians involved in this concert are so invested that they’ve started referring to themselves as the ‘Into the Blue Again Band.’”
Animated graphic sequences that feature Eastman’s visuals will appear on a “massive screen” behind the choir and band, with the colors and designs transforming alongside the music performed from each decade.
As the music evolves, the graphics evolve; as the choir evolves, the audience also evolves.
By Lauri Gravina
Photo Courtesy EastShore Chorale