St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director leads two-week exploration of Mozart’s music, highlighting November concert offerings

(September 26, 2024, St. Louis, MO) – Today, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra announced details of its November 2024 concerts, anchored by two weeks of programming exploring facets of W.A. Mozart’s vast musical output, plus performances of Disney/Pixar’s Coco, a free community concert, and the first Live at the Pulitzer concert of the season, spotlighting composers of today.

Tickets start at $20 for classical concerts, $25 for Live at the Pulitzer, and $47 for Coco, and are on sale now. Tickets may be purchased at slso.org or by calling the Box Office at 314-534-1700.  A full concert calendar is available at slso.org or on the SLSO’s mobile app available for iOS or Android. Audiences can attend a Pre-Concert Conversation, an engaging discussion about the music and artists on the program, one hour prior to each classical concert. 

While the transformational expansion and renovation of Powell Hall continues, the SLSO will perform November concerts at Stifel Theatre (November 2-3, 9-10), the Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis (November 15-16, 22, and 24), and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (November 12). Shuttle service will be available for all classical concerts starting at $15 per seat. Shuttles for performances at the Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL will depart from Plaza Frontenac and free parking is available on the UMSL campus.  Shuttles for the Stifel Theatre will depart from Plaza Frontenac and St. Louis Community College–Forest Park.

Coco in Concert
Saturday, November 2, 7:00pm CDT
Sunday, November 3, 2:00pm CST
Stifel Theatre
1400 Market Street, St. Louis, MO 63103

Caleb Young, conductor (SLSO debut)

Michael Giacchino              Coco

Celebrate the ageless power of music with Disney/Pixar’s Coco on the big screen as the SLSO performs the movie’s magical score live. Inspired by the Mexican holiday Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, the film follows 12-year-old Miguel as he enters the Land of the Dead to find his great-great-grandfather, a legendary singer, and confront his family’s ancestral ban on music. With the Coco score by Academy Award winter Michael Giacchino, the orchestra performs its second of six film performances of the 24/25 season. Future films include The Muppet Christmas Carol, How to Train Your Dragon, Casino Royale, and Batman.

Mozart’s Requiem: Joy and Sorrow
Saturday, November 9, 7:30pm CST
Sunday, November 10, 3:00pm CST
Stifel Theatre
1400 Market Street, St. Louis, MO 63103

Stéphane Denève, conductor
Joélle Harvey, soprano
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
Josh Lovell, tenor (SLSO debut)
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone
St. Louis Symphony Chorus | Erin Freeman, director

W.A. Mozart Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K. 546
Detlev Glanert Four Preludes and Serious Songs
W.A. Mozart Requiem, K. 626

Kelley O’Connor’s performances are supported by the Sarah Bryan Miller Fund.

The SLSO’s two-week celebration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart begins at the end of the prolific composer’s life. The circumstances surrounding Mozart’s unfinished Requiem are shrouded in mystery, but the music’s sorrow and beauty speak across the centuries. A quartet of soloists join the orchestra and St. Louis Symphony Chorus for this profound piece of music, one of the most popular choral-orchestral works ever created. Soprano Joélle Harvey, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, and baritone Dashon Burton make their returns to the SLSO; tenor Josh Lovell makes his SLSO debut. The Chorus will perform for the first time under the direction of Erin Freeman, who was appointed Director of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus in July 2024. The Adagio and Fugue, another late work, is a dark and almost mystical vision. Burton returns to the SLSO in Detlev Glanert’s arrangement of Johannes Brahms’ final song cycle, the Four Serious Songs.

SLSO Community Concert: Veterans Day Brass Performance
Monday, November 11, 7:00pm CST
Lord of Life Lutheran Church
15750 Baxter Road, Chesterfield, MO 63017

Steven Franklin, trumpet
George Goad, trumpet
Blaine Dodson, horn
Jonathan Reycraft, trombone
Jason Sato, bass trombone

SLSO Principal Trumpet Steven Franklin leads a powerful brass quintet program to honor veterans and the Veterans Day holiday. This hourlong event is free, and RSVPs are requested at slso.org. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis.

Live at the Pulitzer: Outside In
Tuesday, November 12, 7:30pm CST
Pulitzer Arts Foundation
3716 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 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)

Chamber music curated by composer Christopher Stark in response to exhibitions on view at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Artists announced later.

Strings and percussion unite to bring the outside world into the Pulitzer Arts Foundation galleries for the first Live at the Pulitzer concert of the 24/25 season. 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 Pulitzer Prize winner John Luther Adams. Samuel Adams, an American composer whose music weaves acoustic and digital sound into “mesmerizing” (The New York Times) orchestrations, juxtaposes light and shadow in new quintet for strings and percussion. Recognized for its exceptional programming, Live at the Pulitzer concerts serve as a conversation between music and visual art, with music selected in response to exhibitions on display at the museum. 

Mozart’s Journey: From London to Vienna
Friday, November 15, 7:30pm CST
Saturday, November 16, 7:30pm CST
Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis 
1 Touhill Circle, St. Louis, MO 63121 

Stéphane Denève, conductor
Behzod Abduraimov, piano

W.A. Mozart Symphony No. 1, K.16
W.A. Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466
W.A. Mozart Overture to Mitridate, rè di Ponto, K. 87 (First SLSO performances)
Anna Clyne Within Her Arms
W.A. Mozart Symphony No. 31, K. 297, “Paris”

The second program of the SLSO’s Mozart celebration captures a composer on the move throughout his European life. Opening the concert, Mozart is an eight-year-old prodigy, his First Symphony composed in London demonstrating his raw genius. The SLSO plays Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 for the first time in more than ten years. At home in Vienna later in his life, Mozart wrote the Piano Concerto No. 20, a darker work in stark contrast to the buoyant First Symphony. Pianist Behzod Abduraimov returns for his second appearance with the SLSO, following his acclaimed debut with the SLSO in September 2018. Then, Mozart is in Italy, writing the opera Mitridate, rè di Ponto. While in France, Mozart wrote the “Paris” Symphony while searching for a job in the French capital. Mozart’s mother died while he was in Paris, reflected in the SLSO’s performance of Within Her Arms, written by composer Anna Clyne following the death of her own mother. The SLSO, Denève, and Abduraimov take this program to the Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa on November 17.

Sibelius’ Fifth: Edge of Heaven
Friday, November 22, 10:30am CST*
Sunday, November 24, 3:00pm CST
Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis 
1 Touhill Circle, St. Louis, MO 63121 

Jonathon Heyward, conductor
Yeol Eum Son, piano (SLSO debut)

William Grant StillThrenody: In Memory of Jean Sibelius (First SLSO performances)
Sergei Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2
Jean Sibelius  Symphony No. 5

Presented by the Whitaker Foundation.
*Refreshments provided by Kaldi’s Coffee and Eddie’s Southtown Donuts.

Finnish composer Jean Sibelius takes the spotlight in these concerts, led by conductor Jonathan Heyward, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Music Director and one of Time Magazine’s “Next Generation Leaders,” making his second appearance with the SLSO. He conducts Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony. Writing the work, Sibelius felt possessed, as if “God was throwing pieces of mosaic from the edge of heaven.” The concert opens with a rumination on Sibelius’ life and music by American composer William Grant Still in the first SLSO performances of Threnody: In Memory of Jean Sibelius. Grant Still, a deep South native who composed more than 200 works for orchestra, counted Sibelius among his strongest musical influences. Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son has cultivated a huge following since her prize-winning performances in the 1997 International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians and the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition. She brings reserves of stamina to Sergei Prokofiev’s virtuoso powerhouse, the Second Piano Concerto—considered among the most demanding concertos in the piano repertoire.

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