Bethel Park musical couple’s performances include Hekima Place benefit

Pick an instrument, any instrument. Except for drums.
Because of so many youngsters’ preference for percussion, especially among boys, music educators often try to steer them toward other selections. That was the case for Stephen McGough, who as a fifth-grader heard his drumming aspirations summarily dismissed and reviewed the alternatives.
“I looked over, and I was interested in the shiny brass thing with the long slide,” he recalled. “I pointed at the trombone and said, ‘I’ll play the trumpet.'”
The case of mistaken identity ended up leading him on a path that today has him serving as Peters Township School District’s orchestra director while finding time to practice and perform with the River City Brass Band and volunteer as a firefighter in Bethel Park, where he and his wife, Julie, live.
She juggles a similarly busy schedule, conducting private flute lessons for about 20 students while teaching advanced courses on the instrument at Carnegie Mellon University and giving her own woodwind performances.

Harry Funk / The Almanac
Harry Funk / The Almanac
Stephen and Julie McGough
The latest will be at the seventh annual Advent and Christmas Concert to benefit Hekima Place, a home for vulnerable girls in Kenya founded by former South Hills resident Kate Fletcher. The freewill-offering event is at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9 at St. Thomas More Church in Bethel Park.
Stephen has played trumpet for the concert in the past, but this year he has another gig for a good cause the same evening. He is backing the North Hills vocal ensemble Belle Voci in its “Beautiful Voices at Christmas” concert to raise money for Bethlehem Haven, a transitional housing program for women who have been abused and lost their homes.
Parents of three daughters, the McGoughs became involved with the Hekima Place benefit several years ago while attending St. Thomas More, where concert director Kathy English of Mt. Lebanon asked if they’d like to participate.
“I knew about the organization because Kate Fletcher would come to church and talk about it. So I was happy to help out,” Julie said.
A native of suburban Chicago, she came to Pittsburgh to study flute performance at Carnegie Mellon. That’s where she met Stephen, while the two were playing in the orchestra pit for the university school of drama’s production of “A Little Night Music.”
Unlike her husband, Julie didn’t try to go the drum route as a youngster.
“In third grade, we were allowed to try out three different instruments. I tried the flute, the oboe and the clarinet, and I only liked the flute,” she said. “That summer, we had a two-week course, and I finished the entire beginner book by the end of that two weeks.”
By the time she was in high school, she was teaching flute to classmates. These days, she serves as executive director of a series of advanced classes at Carnegie Mellon called the Consummate Flutist, which she instructs along with giving lessons to youngsters at home.
“As we’re performing, we’re constantly giving to the audience,” she said. “But you also enjoy teaching and sharing music with younger kids. So I think it’s a natural thing that comes out of performing.”
Unsurprisingly, the younger McGoughs are pursuing music, too. Oldest daughter Clara plays violin and shares her vocal talents, most recently in Little Lake Theatre Company’s “Yes, Virginia: The Musical” and “Junie B. Jones: The Musical.”
Sister Holly takes after Mom in playing flute, and youngest daughter Evelyn has a variety of mini-instruments to get acclimated with while she grows up and becomes ready to choose.
She definitely will know the difference between a trombone and a trumpet.
For more information about the Hekima Place benefit, visit www.hekimaplace.org/event/advent-christmas-concert.