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Home tour in Upper St. Clair benefits Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read
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During the holiday season, we tend to hear the same renditions of the same songs by the same artists, venue after venue, year after year.

The fifth annual Symphony Splendor tour of homes offers a refreshing change of pace.

“We will have musicians in every house,” Peters Township resident Cathy Trombetta said about the Nov. 18 event. “They change every hour and a half. And from 11 to 5, there will be holiday music in every one of the nine homes. It’s almost like having a concert inside the homes as you go along.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Jodi McClelland, whose home will host Symphony Splendor visitors, always has enjoyed decorating for the holidays.

Trombetta, who chairs the event, is looking forward to a new tour location for 2018. After two years in Shadyside and two in Mt. Lebanon’s Virginia Manor neighborhood, Symphony Splendor is coming to Upper St. Clair, where visitors can take a look at a series of splendid homes that are decked out for the holidays.

A featured stop is Gilfillan Farm’s main house, which was built in the mid-19th century and will feature decorations of the period.

“We’re even having the original china from the Gilfillan family,” Trombetta said. “So the dining room will look like it’s set for 1857,”

With regard to dining, Atria’s Restaurant is having a food truck on the property, with proceeds from sales also benefiting the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

“We also have a home on the tour that we are calling Southern Charm, and you expect Paula Deen to come around the corner at any minute. The wife is from the South, and she wanted to have a home that’s like a Southern farmhouse,” Trombetta explained. “The front door is even made out of wood that was shipped in from North Carolina.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac

The dining room table is ready for Symphony Splendor visitors at the McClelland house.

Other stops on the tour include a contemporary home decorated in beige, tan, aqua and white, and residences of more traditional design that have undergone renovation.

Among the latter is a house built in 1953 in which Jodi McClelland and her family have lived for 20 years. Previous owners did a major overhaul in the late ’80s, including the addition of an indoor swimming pool.

The McClellands have revamped the kitchen and bathrooms, installed hardwood floors and made other improvements. The latest project wrapped up in October, providing a new look for the front porch and back patio.

The stylistic flourishes inside and out reflect Jodi’s work with LSM Interior Design in Peters Township, plus her freelance designing.

“I’ve been interested from when it was time to make a Barbie house to decorating my own bedroom,” she said.

What she has done with her own home reflects how she likes to live.

Harry Funk / The Almanac

The music room in the McClelland house is ready for the holidays.

“My surroundings influence my mood, so it’s important to me to always be in some kind of comfortable surrounding,” she explained. “But I believe that function has to come first. It’s impossible to create a space and just make it aesthetically pleasing and not livable. It has to be both.”

That especially makes sense in the context of raising children.

“I have three kids who grew up in this house,” Jodi said, “so my house has evolved with their needs: accommodating friends, having the basketball party here or the soccer team or the cross country pasta dinner, to family gatherings or adult dinner parties.

“Or it’s movie night, where we all just watch TV together,” she continued. “I think my house can accommodate all that, and it kind of reflects in all the different spaces.”

She is enthusiastic about welcoming Symphony Splendor visitors.

“I’ve been on quite a few house tours, myself, because I like to see other people’s spaces. It inspires you to get ideas for your own,” she said. “It’s something I find to be very pleasurable, and I like to inspire people to give them ideas of their own.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Harry Funk / The Almanac

The McClellands’ kitchen

The tour is presented by the Pittsburgh Symphony Association, which has raised $500,000 during the event’s first four years on behalf of the orchestra. Tickets for Nov. 18 can be purchased in advance for $55 at www.psa75.org or by calling 412-392-3303.

A ticket booth will be set up the day of the event in the lobby of Upper St. Clair High School, 1825 McLaughlin Run Road, where purchase receipts can be exchanged for programs containing a map and addresses of the homes.

Tickets can be purchased there for $65 cash on the day of the tour. None will be available at the homes, themselves.

“The homeowners have been so cooperative,” Trombetta said. “They want to support the symphony. And it’s asking a lot to have them open their homes before Thanksgiving and be totally decorated, but they’re just so excited about it.”

Harry Funk / The Almanac

Previous owners installed an indoor pool, which also features holiday decorations.

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