St Louis Symphony Tickets

St Louis Symphony
St Louis Symphony Orchestra was originally founded as St. Louis Choral Society in 1880 by Joseph Otten in St. Louis, Missouri. After its formation, St. Louis Choral Society Started performing in St. Louis Mercantile Library"s Auditorium at Locust, and also on Broadway in Downtown St. Louis.

During it"s initially season, it comprised of 80 member chorus that was accompanied by Orchestra comprising of 31 members. It further expanded to a chorus comprising of 200 members and an orchestra comprising of 55 members as it remained a choral organization under the tenure of Alfred Ernest.

The named St. Louis Society was changed to St Louis Symphony Orchestra during the tenure of Max Zach that remained from 1907 till 1921.

The St Louis Symphony Orchestra also performs concerts, frequently at Carnegie Hall and in addition to that it has also been on the tour of Japan and UK. The SLSO is currently homed in Powell Symphony Hall and performs their, but prior to its movement to Powell Symphony Hall, it resided in Kiel Opera House for several years.

The orchestra also released its studio albums on the labels including Angel EMI Records, Red Seal, Columbia and RCA Victor along with the released on its own record label, Arch Media. The orchestra has also been a resident orchestra in the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis since 1978, and performed at two operas in the season after being divided into two ensembles.

Leonard Edward Slatkin who is currently the music director at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, worked as a music director of St Louis Symphony Orchestra from 1979 till 1996. Under Slatkin"s tenure orchestra saw prominent growth and also toured several countries in Europe and Far East.

In addition to that, orchestra also recorded for EMI and RCA Victor and frequently performed concerts at Carnegie Hall, under his tenure. Symphony Orchestra was hit by a financial crisis in 2000, when at that time"s executive director and President of the Orchestra, Don Roth, secured $40 Million grant for Orchestra"s endowment, but later it was revealed that orchestra is suffering from major financial crisis, severity of which almost led the orchestra to bankruptcy in the following year.

Also in the same year, Don Roth put forward his resignation from the position and his place was then filled in by Randy Adams. Prior to taking the charge as the executive director and President of the orchestra, Adams was a St. Louis Bank executive.

Soon after taking the charge of his position, Adams devoted all of his efforts on the orchestra"s basic need for survival, which were finances through fund raising. During that financial crisis, musicians narrowed down their 52 weeks contract to 42 weeks contract and agreed upon salary cuts.

St Louis Symphony Orchestra also administers Community Partnership Program, which is a community education and out reach program. Orchestra is also partners with an association of 36 local African American churches known as IN UNISON, and gives a large number of free performances annually at local churches, schools and community centers.

In association with IN UNISON, symphony out reaches in churches and local areas, to form up a chorus that performs with the Symphony Orchestra.

In early 2005 Symphony"s concerts for next two months were canceled out due to a dispute that was raised due to some salary issues. All the musicians of the Symphony went on strike, which accordance to the administration was illegal, was also proved illegal when the matter was put forward in the court of law. After the matter was resolved all the musicians signed a new contract in the march of same year.

Conductor David Robertson is the current music director of the symphony. Robertson was born on July 19, 1958 in Santa Monica, California, where he was raised as well.

He was appointed resident conductor of Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in 1985, and before taking the charge as the Music director of SLSO in 2005, he was appointed the Music Director of Orchestre National de Lyon in 2000.

Robertson was named the Music Director of the Symphony back in 2003; however he took over his position in 2005. The following year his contract with symphony was extended till 2010.

Before Robertson, Itzhak Perlman served as the music advisor of the symphony orchestra and remained on that position from 2002 till 2004. Currently he is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Westchester Philharmonic.