Pittsburgh’s ‘singing detective’ makes appearance for benefit concert this week

The sounds of “A Celtic Holiday Celebration” will soon fill the air in Edinboro, and it’s all for a good cause.

The second-annual benefit concert will take place at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 8 in the Louis C. Cole Auditorium and will be free of charge. The concert is co-sponsored by the university’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), Department of Criminal Justice, Anthropology and Forensic Studies, and Center for Branding and Strategic Communication.

The concert is headlined by Ricky Manning, while featuring Elizabeth Etter, a pianist and faculty member in Edinboro’s Department of Music and Theatre. 

Dubbed “Pittsburgh’s Singing Detective” by late maestro Marvin Hamlisch, Manning is a detective sergeant with the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Department.

Manning, a multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, bagpipes and percussion, also heads up the Pittsburgh-based Donnie Irish Band. Pulling double duty, Manning will join the band for an 8 p.m. performance at Fat Willie’s Wing House that night in Edinboro after the concert.

He only recently got his start in concert performance, first at the 2011 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Highmark Holiday Pops concert under the direction of Hamlisch. Since then, he has been back to perform multiple times with both the Pittsburgh Symphony and Pittsburgh’s River City Brass Band.

Manning, according to tradition and his background in law enforcement, will dedicate his performances at both the Cole Auditorium and Fat Willie’s Wing House to the military, law enforcement and other first responders. Accordingly, all first responders in attendance will be recognized, and donations will be accepted at the concert to benefit the Ryan Cappelletty Scholarship Fund.

The scholarship fund was set up to honor Ryan Cappelletty, a graduate of Edinboro in criminal justice. Cappelletty was shot and killed in the line of duty during his first year of service as a police officer in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

Some of Cappelletty’s colleagues from Chesterfield County Police Department will be attending, while more than 100 regional police and fire departments have been invited to attend the benefit.

“A Celtic Holiday Celebration” will celebrate not only the holidays, but also the spirit of a life given in service to local communities.

Nathan Brennan can be reached at edinboro.spectator@gmail.com.

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