St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Pulitzer Arts Foundation announce programming for 21st season of Live at the Pulitzer, celebrating music of today

(September 23, 2024, St. Louis, MO) – The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), in partnership with the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, announced the details for its 2024/2025 Live at the Pulitzer concerts—the 21st season since the series’ inception in 2004. A convergence of aural and visual storytelling, Live at the Pulitzer concerts present bold and adventurous chamber music by composers of today, performed at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in Grand Center. The concerts add to the SLSO’s musical offerings for the season, the 145th of the orchestra and sixth with Stéphane Denève, The Joseph and Emily Rauh Pulitzer Music Director.

Recognized for its exceptional programming, the 24/25 Live at the Pulitzer concerts were curated in collaboration with Christopher Stark—composer and Associate Professor of Composition at Washington University in St. Louis. The concerts serve as a conversation between music and visual art, with music selected in response to exhibitions on display at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. The 24/25 concerts were planned in conjunction with a remarkable group of exhibitions: Scott Burton: Shape Shift and Veronica Ryan. The series has become a highlight of the St. Louis concert scene, and enjoys deeply engaged, capacity audiences. 

This season, the Live at the Pulitzer series marks the first SLSO performance of ten works: music from a diverse lineup of artists including John Luther Adams, Samuel Adams, Andy Akiho, Eleanor Alberga, Wang Lu, Elizabeth Ogonek, John Fitz Rogers, Kaija Saariaho, Anthony Vine, and Errollyn Wallen.
At the Live at the Pulitzer concerts, the Tadao Ando-designed building–one of the finest examples of contemporary architecture in the United States–provides an intimate setting for the innovative works, all played by small ensembles of SLSO musicians within the museum galleries.

Concerts take place at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd. Tickets start at $25 for each concert and are on sale now.

In addition to these concerts, the SLSO performs a full season of orchestral programs under the leadership of Denève and renowned guest conductors alongside some of the world’s greatest visiting artists. Programming includes orchestral performances featuring timeless masterpieces to exciting collaborations; a variety of holiday concerts, film concerts, and concerts with popular artists; Concerts for Kids, part of a portfolio of education programming that and serves more than 400,000 teachers and students annually; and a variety of community concerts.

While the SLSO continues the transformational expansion and renovation of its historic home, the orchestra will expand its presence throughout the St. Louis region, with programming that showcases the magical sound of the SLSO and the vitality of St. Louis’ artists and cultural institutions. Primary concerts venues are the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and Stifel Theatre.

2024/2025 LIVE AT THE PULITZER CONCERTS

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra: Live at the Pulitzer| Outside In
Tuesday, November 12, 7:30pm CST  
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri, 63108    

Kaija Saariaho Six Japanese Gardens (First SLSO performance)  
John Luther Adams Selections from The Wind in High Places (First SLSO performance)  
Samuel Adams Sundial (First SLSO performance)  

Artists announced later.

Strings and percussion unite to bring the outside world into the Pulitzer Arts Foundation galleries. Kaija Saariaho invokes the Japanese gardens of Kyoto with field recordings of nature and ritual singing. Windy, high-altitude string harmonics soar in music by John Luther Adams, and Samuel Adams’ new quintet for strings and percussion radiates with light and shadow. 

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra: Live at the Pulitzer| Inside Out 
Tuesday, January 28, 7:30pm CST  
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri, 63108 

Anthony Vine Devotions (First SLSO performance)  
Elizabeth Ogonek  all streams reach the sea at last (First SLSO performance)  
Andy Akiho 21 (First SLSO performance)  

Artists announced later.

An eclectic combination of works progresses from inner serenity and calm to outer joy and exuberance. Anthony Vine enchants and soothes with a unique pairing of strings and harmonium. Elizabeth Ogonek’s water-inspired septet delves into a world filled with dynamism and contrasts, while Andy Akiho reimagines music by Bach for percussion and cello in a rhythmic and thrilling reconception. 

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra: Live at the Pulitzer| Come Closer 
Tuesday, April 8, 7:30pm CDT  
Pulitzer Arts Foundation, 3716 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri, 63108 

Errollyn Wallen Dervish (First SLSO performance)  
Wang Lu Rates of Extinction (First SLSO performance)  
Eleanor Alberga No-Man’s-Land Lullaby (First SLSO performance)  
John Fitz Rogers Come Closer (First SLSO performance)  

Artists announced later.

SLSO soloists take center stage in this program featuring an international roster of composers from Belize, China, Jamaica, and the United States revolving around themes of interconnectedness. Eleanor Alberga muses on the lullaby’s generational transmission, while Errollyn Wallen composes trance-like dance rhythms and melodies. Wang Lu contemplates our relationship with the planet and other species; and finally, John Fitz Rogers’ virtuosic work shows off the bassoon in rapid patterns. 

ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONS

Scott Burton: Shape Shift—On display from September 6, 2024, through February 2, 2025
Pulitzer Arts Foundation presents the most comprehensive exhibition ever mounted in this country on the art of Scott Burton (1939–1989), who referred to his work as “sculpture in love with furniture.” Scott Burton: Shape Shift assembles 40 sculptural furniture pieces alongside never-before-exhibited documentation of Burton’s performances and a career-spanning array of archival materials on loan from the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The exhibition traces Burton’s career, beginning with notes, scores, and photos of his early performance work; highlighting his shift to sculpture with an array of his iconic chairs in a variety of materials and forms—vernacular and of the artist’s own invention; and culminating with Burton’s design of numerous “public art environments” that carefully integrated seating into land and cityscapes with the goal of making artwork available and accessible to the general public. By the time of his untimely death at the age of 50 from an AIDS-related illness, Burton had devised a multidisciplinary practice that toggled between high and low and incorporated performance, conceptual art, sculpture, functional design, proxemics, and public art, and anticipated queer theory—while also making a name for himself through art criticism and curatorial work. To consider his career today is to marvel at how prescient were his preoccupations and how newly relevant they are within the contemporary discourse.   

Veronica Ryan—On display from March 7 through July 27, 2025
This spring, the Pulitzer presents the first overview of work by Veronica Ryan, a Montserrat-born, British artist who lives between the UK and New York. The exhibition considers multiple and shifting references in Ryan’s formally rigorous work that bring together personal memories, global histories, and a sense of wonder and concern for the environment. Across more than four decades of sculpture and drawing, Ryan has combined lush and evocative materials such as cast bronze, crocheted fibers, sewn fabric, organic matter, and repurposed objects to explore relationships between containment, protection, healing, and repair.

About the Pulitzer Arts Foundation
Located in the heart of St. Louis, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation presents art from around the world in its celebrated Tadao Ando-designed building and surrounding neighborhood. Exhibitions include both contemporary and historic art and are complemented by a wide range of free public programs, including music, literary arts, dance, wellness, and cultural discussions. Founded in 2001, the Pulitzer is a place where ideas are freely explored, new art exhibited, and historic work reimagined. In addition to the museum, the Pulitzer has several outdoor spaces, including Park-Like–a native plant rain garden, the Spring Church–an open-air pavilion and beloved landmark, and the Tree Grove–a shady picnic spot. The museum is open Thursday through Sunday, 10am–5pm, with evening hours until 8pm on Friday. The outdoor campus is open daily, sunrise to sunset. Admission is free. For more information, visit pulitzerarts.org or on social media @pulitzerarts.  

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