St. Louis Symphony - History

History

The St Louis Choral Society performed in the auditorium of the St. Louis Mercantile Library at Locust and Broadway in Downtown St. Louis. During the 1881–82 season the 80-member chorus was joined by an orchestra of 31 members. A disbanded Musical Union joined the group. In 1893 the St. Louis Choral-Symphony was formally incorporated. It remained largely a choral organization through its performances at the 1904 World's Fair under Alfred Ernst when it expanded to a 200-member chorus and an orchestra of 55. Under Max Zach's tenure (1907 to 1921), it changed its name to the St Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Before moving to its current home in Powell Hall, it performed for many years at the Kiel Opera House. The orchestra has given concerts regularly at Carnegie Hall and has made overseas tours to Europe and to Japan. The St. Louis Symphony has recorded for the Columbia, RCA Victor, Red Seal, Telarc, Vox/Turnabout and Angel EMI labels. It has also issued CD recordings on its own label, Arch Media, and has received six Grammy Awards and fifty-six nominations. For Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the St. Louis Symphony has been the resident orchestra since 1978, divided into two ensembles, each performing two of the operas in the season.

The symphony has an extensive education and community outreach program, known as the Community Partnership Program. St. Louis Symphony musicians give several hundred free performances a year of chamber music in schools, churches and other venues, such as community centers. The symphony has a partnership with IN UNISON, an association of 36 local African-American churches. The IN UNISON Chorus, drawn from IN UNISON churches and area residents, performs with the symphony as well as on its own programs. Also associated with the symphony is the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus, which was founded in 1977. Its first director was Thomas Peck, and its current director is Amy Kaiser. The Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra was established in 1970 by Leonard Slatkin.

The national prestige of the St. Louis Symphony grew most prominently during the music directorship of Leonard Slatkin, from 1979 to 1996. During his tenure, the symphony made many recordings for the EMI and RCA Victor labels, and toured to Europe and the Far East, as well as concerts at Carnegie Hall. However, this growth in prestige was not matched by stabilization of long-term finances. As of 2000, the St. Louis Symphony endowment stood at US$28 million. In 2000, the executive director and President of the Symphony at the time, Don Roth, had secured a US$40 million challenge grant from the Taylor family to help the SLSO money situation. However, in that same year, he revealed the situation of severe financial problems with the St. Louis Symphony finances, which nearly led to the orchestra's bankruptcy in 2001. Roth resigned his position in July 2001, and was succeeded by Randy Adams, a retired St. Louis bank executive. Adams embarked on extensive fund-raising efforts in the following years, seeking to enlarge the endowment of the St. Louis Symphony in the process. As part of the budget cuts and cost-saving measures, the musicians agreed to salary cuts over that time, and also a reduction of their 52-week contract to 42 weeks.

In January 2005, a labor dispute related to salaries led to a cancellation of concerts for two months. While the musicians considered themselves to be locked out, and the management considered this action to be an illegal strike, the action was ruled in the courts to be an illegal strike. In March 2005, the musicians and Adams agreed to a new contract.

Since September 2005, the American conductor David Robertson is the Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony, having been named to that position in December 2003.

The post of Resident Conductor (formerly Assistant Conductor), who also acts as music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, is currently held by Ward Stare, from the beginning of the 2008–2009 season. Past St. Louis Symphony Assistant Conductors have included Slatkin, Gerhardt Zimmermann, David Loebel, David Amado, and Scott Parkman.

In February 2007, the St. Louis Symphony announced the resignation of Adams from positions as its President and Executive Director, as of June 2007. In December 2007, the St. Louis Symphony announced the appointment of Fred Bronstein as the orchestra's new president and executive director. Bronstein took up the post in March 2008. Faced with declining ticket sales and deficits, Bronstein immediately launched an aggressive new revenue plan with audience development at the core of its actions. Bronstein has also taken steps to broaden and diversify the symphony's programming through now series such as "Live at Powell Hall" or "Casual Classics", popularly-oriented programming that has resulted in more than 96,000 seats being sold since its inception. Because of new programming and marketing strategies, over a three-year period ticket revenues have grown 36% in the 2011 fiscal year, the highest revenues in a decade, while seats sold grew by 17% and more than 22,000 new people were added to the customer base, reversing five years of decline. Because of successful audience development initiatives at the core of the plan as well as other revenue progress and strong management of expenses, the structural deficit (whose gaps are funded by additional contributions) has declined 18% from $3.4m in 2007 to $2.8m in 2011, dipping as low as $2.62m in 2010.

A rebranding process was undertaken in 2010, with the adoption of a new logo and a new “look”, changing its name from the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) to St. Louis Symphony. That same year, the Symphony takes part in a 5-concert, 4-city tour in California, its first in 10 years, receiving great critical acclaim. In its review, the Los Angeles Times noted, “Now when people speak about the handful of exciting American orchestras, St. Louis is one of them.”

Since the fall of 2010, due to the sale of KFUO, the St. Louis Symphony has partnered with St. Louis Public Radio to broadcast its subscription concerts live every Saturday night during its regular season. Since the launch of these radio broadcasts in September 2010, Arbitron ratings for the timeslot now filled by the St. Louis Symphony have nearly doubled.