Flip through the extensive "cabaret" listings in newspapers and magazines in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Have you checked that section in the Pittsburgh events listings?

Sorry, trick question. Pittsburgh listings don't include cabaret artists because, well, with a few exceptions there aren't any.

In this case, "cabaret" doesn't mean hours of nonstop variety entertainment in smoky, decadent cafes like the one in that Liza Minnelli movie. As a musical genre, contemporary cabaret is generally represented in theater-style concerts in which the emphasis is placed on the songs, which can include lounge tunes, standards from the American song book, musical theater hits and European love songs delivered in their native romance languages or translated to English. Cabaret artists talk about the songs in long verbal segues, often affect a sophisticated, intimate ambience, and sing with minimal, slightly jazzy musical accompaniment.

A few Pittsburgh jazz singers and solo pianists do it, particularly at the Friday and Saturday "Late Night Cabaret" shows at the Cabaret at Theater Square. Daphne Alderson has a great thing going with artistically and financially successful shows that spotlight her personal charisma and beautifully rendered translations of French love songs at infrequent Heinz Chapel concerts.

To bring such a wonderful old musical genre to new life in Pittsburgh, it would take ... what? A high-profile concert series spotlighting national cabaret artists? A behind-the-scenes insider pulling the right nonprofit strings? Someone with a head for organization and a heart for sophisticated art? The answer to all of the above is "yes." It would take Stephanie Riso.

A co-founder of Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, Riso promoted a few cabaret shows in 2000 to help raise money for the theater company. In 2004, Cabaret Pittsburgh was launched as a PICT spinoff offering showcases at a small coffeehouse and promoting national-level cabaret singers in a ballroom of the luxurious Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel. This year, with co-founder Tony Richards, Riso landed the underwriting of theater booster Richard Rauh, set up ticketing through ProArts, and booked a four-concert series of nationally recognized cabaret artists. She lobbied artists to offer master classes in the art of cabaret, orchestrated an overnight hotel package with the Renaissance, and established a premium subscription series that includes prime seats to the concerts, e-mail updates and monthly copies of "Cabaret Scenes" magazine. Find out more at www.cabaretpgh.org.

"There used to be cabaret in Pittsburgh," says Riso. "There was a heyday when lots of clubs had this type of music in town. What cabaret artists are known for is their patter -- what they say between the songs. From my view, it's an intimate musical experience."

Cabaret Pittsburgh's Riverview Series starts Friday with two shows by Mary Cleere Haran, a New York City cabaret star whose forte is screen and stage songs from a bygone era.

The series continues July 14 with the Sinatra-style lounge crooning of Tony DeSare; singer-songwriter Craig Carnelia on Sept. 8; and jazz, pop and show tunes by sisters Ann Hampton Callaway & Liz Callaway on Nov. 10.

Auditions begin this month for master classes hosted by Carnelia and the Callaways for emerging Pittsburgh cabaret singers, wherever they are.

"Daphne [Alderson's] really is the only one doing it now," says Riso. "Where are the rest of the people who are serious about this? I want to see more Daphnes around. Part of the reason for this series is just getting the word out and raising the profile. With so many performing arts schools around, I think there are performers who'd love to do cabaret, but they need more opportunity. If these shows [by national artists] do well and people are open to it, I'm open to including local artists, opening additional [performances] or partnering with someone in town who could make that happen."