The SLSO’s Free Forest Park Concert Returns September 16 with Music, Fireworks, and Community Fun
By Eric Dundon
Long before the orchestra takes the stage, Art Hill begins to fill.
Children race across the grass with glow sticks in hand. Friends unfold lawn chairs they’ve carried to the same spot for years. Families spread picnic blankets as the late-summer sun settles behind the trees, while the scent of barbecue and kettle corn drifts through the crowd. By the time twilight arrives, thousands of St. Louisans have gathered—not inside a concert hall, but in one of the city’s favorite public spaces—to share an evening that has become a much-beloved civic tradition.
For 58 years, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s annual Forest Park Concert has marked the unofficial beginning of a new cultural season. On September 16, Music Director Stéphane Denève once again leads the free community performance on Art Hill, opening the SLSO’s 147th season with a program that reflects both the orchestra’s history and the broad musical tastes of the city it serves.
The evening’s repertoire is intentionally familiar, moving comfortably between orchestral classics, Broadway, film music, and patriotic favorites. Ludwig van Beethoven, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Ottorino Respighi, Carl Orff, John Williams, and John Philip Sousa all make appearances, creating a program that feels less like a formal concert and more like a shared soundtrack for a St. Louis evening.
This year’s concert also points toward the season ahead. Selections from Respighi’s Pines of Rome foreshadow the orchestra’s opening classical concerts later in September, while several works by John Williams hint at a season that includes live performances of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets™, Hook, and Star Wars: A New Hope. At the same time, the program recognizes the 50th anniversary season of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, with members of both the Symphony Chorus and the St. Louis Symphony IN UNISON Chorus joining the orchestra throughout the evening, ranging from the powerful and recognizable O Fortuna to music from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
Around the music, the atmosphere remains local, with more than a dozen food trucks lining the top of Art Hill before the performance begins, and the SLSO’s Education and Community Partnerships team leading hands-on musical activities for children. The night is one big neighborhood gathering where the orchestra provides the soundtrack.
The concert concludes as it always has: with Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever followed by fireworks reflected across the Grand Basin. The concert is a tradition that has endured since 1968, when the orchestra first brought its music outdoors for the city to enjoy together. Presented in memory of longtime SLSO supporter Mary Ann Lee and endowed by the MacCarthy Foundation, the Forest Park Concert remains a community event where all are invited, no tickets required, to celebrate the unifying power of music.
Eric Dundon is the SLSO’s Public Relations Director.
