The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Bids January Adieu and Opens February's Curtain with Nine Sublime Concerts
by Grayling Holmes / Photos and videos courtesy of The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
As we bid adieu to January, and February makes its debut, one of St. Louis’ grandest institutions is once again opening its crimson velvet curtains for you. With the soothing sounds of violins and cellos, the roar of percussion horns, the rapturously sweet sounds of the flute and clarinet, and the thunderous, heart-stopping clash of the cymbal, throughout 2024 concert halls dotting the landscape of the St. Louis area will be filled with mellifluous tones. One can almost hear the hearbeat of anticipation of audiences hungry for music. As Stéphane Denève, and others, direct world-class musicians, allowing them to emit thrilling, auditory delights for rapt listeners in the audience, it’s time to get ready for an acoustical experience that dates back for ages. The soundwaves emanating and reverberating around town, in fact, around the world, for almost a century-and-a-half, the sublime tones of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra are ready to greet your ears once more.
While the symphony’s 98-year old Grand Boulevard concert venue is being expanded and revitalized, concerts at six sublime venues throughout the region will make your 2024 come alive with the sound of the orchestra’s music. Concerts for late January include classical and choral favorites, acclaimed guest artists, chamber music concerts, celebrations of Lunar New Year and Black History Month, and a concert tailored for children and their families.
The SLSO will perform concerts will take place at:
Stifel Theatre in downtown St. Louis
The Pulitzer Arts Foundation in Grand Center
Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis
The Sheldon in Grand Center
The J. Scheidegger Center for Performing Arts at Lindenwood University
Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in the Central West End
One can enjoy the same notes, chords, and melodies from today’s most exciting and enduring orchestras at these alternate venues. As you may know, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second-oldest orchestra in the country, marking its 144th year with the 2024 season and its fifth with Stéphane Denève, The Joseph and Emily Rauh Pulitzer Music Director.
Widely considered one of the leading American orchestras, the Grammy® Award-winning SLSO maintains its commitment to artistic excellence, educational impact, and community collaborations—all in service to its mission of enriching lives through the power of music.
We highly encourage you to get out and partake of the melodious and oftentimes breathtaking tones from this St. Louis institution in exodus from Powell Hall. By 2025, after its 100-million dollar expansion and renovation, the new facility will welcome you back to its warm embrace. In the meantime, let the music play!
Let the music play throughout the St. Louis region and the world until the SLSO returns to Powell Hall in 2025.
Musical Fables with Animation and Film
Saturday, January 27, 7:30pm
Sunday, January 28, 3:00pm
Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market Street, St. Louis, MO, 63103
Music Director Stéphane Denève leads the SLSO in a feast for the ears and eyes in a program that combines aural and visual art. French animator Grégoire Pont conjures an entire visual world with animation projected during the first SLSO performances of Albert Roussel’s The Spider’s Feast. Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf is accompanied by the Academy Award-winning short film in a new reimagination of a concert hall staple. St. Louis native and Broadway veteran Ken Page narrates.
A few things to know:
Grégoire Pont aims to make classical music more accessible. “My wish is to use animation as a living thing,” says Pont. “With music and motion playing together, sound is brought to life, particularly for younger audiences.” The Spider’s Feast is the first collaboration between the SLSO and award-winning French animator.
Stéphane Denève does not believe that “some pieces are for adults, and some pieces are for children. Great art has the power to speak to all parts of our life.” He adores Peter and the Wolf. “I conducted it first at the age of fourteen,” Stéphane says. “The piece is very special to me.”
The 2006 stop-motion animation Peter & the Wolf film was a British-Norwegian-Polish co-production, directed by Suzie Templeton. The film has no narrator but relies on music and images to tell the story. Classic FM Magazine called it “a masterpiece.”
The Spider’s Feast by French composer Albert Roussel began life as a ballet. It explores a garden’s cycle of life: insects are trapped, then a spider prepares to eat them before being stopped by a praying mantis. A funeral procession ends the work.
Stéphane Denève, conductor
Grégoire Pont, illustrator and animator
Ken Page, narrator
Peter and the Wolf, the 2008 Oscar® Winner for Best Animated Short Film, directed by Suzie Templeton
The January 27th concert is Jewish Community Night. Sponsored by Michael Staenberg and the Staenberg Family Foundation. This performance is underwritten in part by a generous gift in memory of Sanford and Rosalind Neuman*.
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra: Live at the Pulitzer
Material and Memory
Tuesday, January 30, 7:30pm
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri, 63108
Inspired by St. Louis’ past and present, the second St. Louis Symphony Orchestra: Live at the Pulitzer concert of the 20th anniversary season features the first SLSO performances of five works, programmed in response to the art on display at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. The program invites engagement with the spirit of the city echoed through the sonic worlds of St. Louis-born Olly Wilson and current resident Christopher Stark, the curator of the 23/24 Live at the Pulitzer concerts. Allison Loggins-Hull prompts reflection, while Laurence Crane and Cassie Wieland create gentle spaces for continued contemplation.
A few things to know:
This program was principally inspired by the Urban Archaeology: Lost Buildings of St. Louis exhibition at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra: Live at the Pulitzer series began in spring 2004 and is celebrating its 20th anniversary season. Since the series’ inception, music by more than 70 composers have been introduced to St. Louis audiences for the first time.
The Pulitzer Arts Foundation presents the art of today and works from the past within a global context. Its home is an architectural landmark designed by celebrated architect Tadao Ando.
Andrea Kaplan, flute
Tzuying Huang, clarinet
Andrea Jarrett, violin
Bjorn Ranheim, cello
Peter Henderson | organ, keyboard, and piano
Barber and Price
Friday, February 2, 10:30am
Friday, February 2, 7:30pm
Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, 1 Touhill Circle, St. Louis, Missouri, 63121
A call for unity. Florence Price was a pioneer, a key figure in the Black Chicago Renaissance, championed by America’s finest performers. Price’s Third Symphony, written during the height of the Great Depression, combines deep passion with an ear for great tunes and danceable rhythms. Valerie Coleman’s Umoja seeks a union for family, community, nation, and race. Violinist Augustin Hadelich, an international sensation and a St. Louis favorite, plays Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto.
A few things to know:
Florence Price was born in Little Rock, educated in Boston, and active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. Price wanted to be a doctor, but there were so few women doctors at the time—instead, she became the first regularly performed Black woman composer. For a while her style fell out of favor, and much of her music was almost lost. In 2009, a large collection of her music was found in an abandoned summer house.
At age 9, American composer Samuel Barber handed his mother a letter. “I have written to tell you a worrying secret. I was not meant to be an athlete. I was meant to be a composer.” The Violin Concerto was Barber’s first significant commission. Barber wrote much of the concerto in Europe, threatened by the imminent danger of war.
Valerie Coleman is a Grammy-nominated flutist, composer, and teacher. She is the founding flutist of the Imani Winds, a wind quintet represented in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. “Umoja” is the Swahili word for unity. It is also the first of seven Principles of Kwanzaa. One Kwanzaa website asks people “to strive for unity in the family, community, nation, and race.” Coleman’s preface in the score includes the following words: “Listen my people, children of ALL, it’s time for Unity, hear the Winds call.”
Stéphane Denève, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Family Concert | Tiny Tunes: The Lion and the Mouse
Saturday, February 3, 11:30am
The Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Ave., St. Louis, Missouri, 63108
Tiny Tunes is a 30-minute concert created especially for children ages 3-6, introducing families to the orchestra through storytelling and movement. In this program, two unlikely friends—the mighty lion and the little mouse—take audiences on an adventure that proves even the smallest acts of kindness can make a big difference. Familiar tunes from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt bring the story to life as students dance and make music along with SLSO musicians. Arrive early for pre-concert activities for the whole family.
Kevin McBeth, conductor
Michelle Byrd, narrator
With music by Edvard Grieg and W.A. Mozart, arrangements by Adam Maness.
SLSO education programs are presented by Steward Family Foundation and World Wide Technology.
Live at The Sheldon: Ravel and Dvořak
Wednesday, February 7, 7:30pm
The Sheldon Concert Hall, 3648 Washington Ave., St. Louis, Missouri, 63108
The performance of Robyne Sieh’s work is presented in partnership with the Mizzou New Music Initiative. SLSO Concertmaster David Halen and Principal Second Violinist Alison Harney lead the third Live at The Sheldon concert, a celebration of chamber music selected by musicians. The program showcases the lush sounds of Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet and Antonín Dvorák’s masterpiece Piano Quintet in A major, featuring SLSO Principal Keyboard Peter Henderson. A quartet gives the world premiere of a new work by Robyne Sieh, a University of Missouri student and rising composer.
David Halen, curator and violin
Alison Harney, curator and violin
Beth Guterman Chu, viola
Melissa Brooks, cello
Peter Henderson, piano
Florence Price Andante Cantabile from String Quartet No. X in A Minor
Robyne Sieh New Work (World premiere)
Maurice Ravel String Quartet in F Major
Antonin Dvořak Piano Quintet in A major
Lunar New Year
Saturday, February 10, 7:30pm
J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts at Lindenwood University, 2300 W. Clay St., St. Charles, Missouri, 63301
Welcome the Year of the Dragon with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at Lindenwood University in St. Charles. Conductor Norman Huynh leads this hour-long musical Lunar New Year celebration featuring guest erhu soloist Rulin Olivia Zhang plus an exciting appearance by the Chinese Education and Culture Center dragon dance team and the Thunder Drum team.
Norman Huynh, conductor
Rulin Olivia Zhang, erhu
CECC dragon dance team
Thunder Drum team
Li Huanzhi Spring Festival Overture
Dai Wei The Dancing Moonlight (First SLSO performance)
Tan Dun Internet Symphony, “Eroica” (First SLSO performance)
Maurice Ravel “Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas” from Mother Goose Suite
G.F. Handel Overture to Music for the Royal Fireworks
He Zhanhao The Butterfly Lovers (Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai) (First SLSO performance) Igor Stravinsky
Selections from The Firebird Suite (1919 version) Presented in partnership with the Chinese Education and Culture Center in St. Louis and the Asian American Chamber of Commerce St. Louis.
Carmina Burana
Saturday, February 17, 7:30pm
Sunday, February 18, 3:00pm
Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri, 63103
Right from its famous opening notes, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana shakes Stifel Theatre to its foundation. Orff’s work charts the course of fate with songs of joy, love, and celebration, featuring a trio of soloists and the St. Louis Symphony Chorus. Music Director Stéphane Denève crafts a first half trilogy of loss and fateful farewell. In Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, pure sounds fill the auditorium, then Lera Auerbach brings the heat of the sun in Icarus. The love-death from Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde ends with a salute to eternal love.
A few things to know:
From Disney movies to Superbowl commercials, from Wrestlemania to beer ads, Carmina Burana has seeped into every nook and cranny of our culture. But its source material is obscure, a 13th-century collection of songs and poems that was lost for six centuries. Carl Orff was confident in the work, writing to his publisher, “Everything I have written to date can be destroyed. With Carmina Burana my collected works begin.”
Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde is a tale of forbidden love. Isolde is an Irish princess. She is being taken by Tristan, against her will, to Cornwall. There she will marry his uncle, King Marke. On the way, Isolde tries to poison them both. Instead, a love potion causes them to fall in love. In the “Liebestod” (“love-death”), Isolde laments the death of Tristan, gradually engulfed by love and by her own death.
Russian-born Lera Auerbach is a very modern creator: conductor, pianist, composer, poet, and visual artist. “I have long been fascinated by the story of Icarus,” she writes. “Exhilarated by freedom, by his own youth, by the feeling of light, Icarus soared higher and higher until the wax on his wings melted and he fell into the ocean. Oh, gravity!”
Stéphane Denève, conductor
Ying Fang, soprano (SLSO debut)
Sunnyboy Dladla, tenor (SLSO debut)
Thomas Lehman, baritone
St. Louis Symphony Chorus | Andrew Whitfield, guest director
St. Louis Children’s Choirs | Alyson Moore, artistic director
Arvo Part Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
Lera Auerbach Icarus (First SLSO performances)
Richard Wagner “Liebestod” from Tristan and Isolde
Carl Orff Carmina Burana
Lift Every Voice: Celebrating Black History Month
Friday, February 23, 7:30pm
Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri, 63103
The SLSO and its inimitable IN UNISON Chorus — marking its 30th year in 2024 —continue a decades-long tradition in a one-of-a-kind celebration of Black History Month. The IN UNISON Chorus is made up of singers across St. Louis from all walks of life, from doctors and nurses to students and teachers, and is dedicated to the performance and preservation of music from the African diaspora. Soulful singer BeBe Winans joins the chorus and orchestra for this celebration.
Kevin McBeth, conductor
BeBe Winans, vocals (SLSO debut)
St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus | Kevin McBeth, Director
Presented by the Steward Family Foundation
Supported by Bayer Fund
Brahms X Radiohead
Saturday, February 24, 7:30pm
Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market Street, St. Louis, Missouri, 63103
Join conductor Steve Hackman and your SLSO for Brahms X Radiohead—an epic symphonic synthesis of two landmark pieces of music: Radiohead’s album OK Computer and Johannes Brahms’ First Symphony. Composed for full symphony orchestra and three solo vocalists, Brahms X Radiohead offers a reimagined experience of each work by seeing it through the lens of the other, exploring the explosive tension and deep pathos they have in common.
Throughout this 80-minute fusion performance, Radiohead’s off-kilter, rock melodies weave in and out of Brahms’ 19th-century orchestral sound palette. Immerse yourself in Brahms’ symphony with Radiohead’s themes and lyrics superimposed and the music of Radiohead filtered through the counterpoint and harmonies of Brahms. As the music moves seamlessly from one to the other, we’re left wondering which is which and how the combinations are possible.
A few things to know:
After the premiere of Brahms’ First Symphony in 1876, a critic called it “one of the most individual and magnificent works of the symphonic literature.” It had taken him almost 20 years to complete, in part, because of his anxiety about following in the footsteps of Beethoven. Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 launched the composer into international fame, however, leaving a profound impact on the art form, with many calling him Beethoven’s heir.
OK Computer—with its depiction of a dystopian future fraught with consumerism, alienation, and isolation and its experimental and densely layered sound—is often cited as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. When Radiohead released the album in 1997, the five-member English band was propelled from indie-rock fame to being named band of the year by both Rolling Stone and Spin magazines. OK Computer, Radiohead’s third album, was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Alternative Music Album at the 1998 Grammy Awards.
Steve Hackman is among a generation of classical musicians seeking to redefine the genre. He is the creator of a production concept called FUSE, which synthesizes classical and popular music. He has conducted these fusion productions with numerous orchestras and has worked with some of today’s biggest pop stars—including Kanye West, Doja Cat, and Andrew Bird—to add a classical dimension to their work. He was trained at the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School.
Steve Hackman, conductor
Fauré's Requiem at the Cathedral Basilica
Wednesday, February 28, 8:00pm
Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, 4431 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri, 63108
Voices soar to the rafters of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in a program led by Music Director Stéphane Denève. Opera stars Brenda Rae and Davóne Tines join the St. Louis Symphony Chorus in Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, reflecting on eternal rest and consolation. Two tranquil pavanes by Fauré and Maurice Ravel invite introspection, accompanied by reverent selections by Charles Koechlin and Lili Boulanger.
Stéphane Denève, conductor
Brenda Rae, soprano (SLSO debut)
Davóne Tines, baritone (SLSO debut)
St. Louis Symphony Chorus | Erin Freeman, guest director
Gabriel Faure Pavane
Charles Koechlin Choral sur le nom de Fauré (First SLSO performance)
Lili Boulanger Pie Jesu (First SLSO performance)
Maurice Ravel Pavane for a Dead Princess
Gabriel Faure Requiem
Presented by BSI Constructors.
The SLSO’s performance at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis is part of the Cathedral Concerts series. Tickets for this performance are available at cathedralconcerts.org or call 314-533-7662.
For tickets to ALL OTHER performances, go to SLSO.org.
By 2025, look for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to return to the renovated and revitalized Powell Symphony Hall.