This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: July 8, 2008 - It's something like an announcement of the engagement of two distant cousins, this news of Wachovia Securities' financial support of the St. Louis Symphony.
Both parties enjoy prominent positions in the St. Louis commercial, cultural and social scenes. Their ancestors established deep and consequential roots in the life of the community and have added, in various ways, to the wealth and well-being of the region.
Their pedigrees are strong. The brokerage firm of A.G. Edwards & Sons, purchased last year for close to $7 billion by Wachovia Securities, dates from 1887, the year Gen. Albert Gallatin Edwards established his brokerage here. Since then, A.G. Edwards grew and prospered, and its influence spread world wide. Its acquisition by Wachovia produced a company with $1.1 trillion in assets.
The orchestra, like A.G. Edwards, was born in the 1880s also – sort of. Joseph Otten formed the St. Louis Choral Society in 1880, and it grew steadily. A few decades later the choral society became the Symphony Society. From those beginnings the orchestra, like the brokerage house, achieved international attention and respect.
The orchestra, however, has struggled financially for years and like many performing arts organizations needs financial help in an era of rising costs and declining audiences. Wachovia, eager to be recognized as a consequential player in St. Louis civic and cultural ensembles, has resources it's willing, even eager, to share.
So for three years anyway – the 2008-09, the 2009-10 and the 2010-11 orchestra series – Wachovia is helping to pay the bills as sponsor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's three orchestral seasons.
As is true in many courtships, engagements and marriages involving "nice" or prominent families, money plays a major tune, and the amounts of dowries, inheritances and so forth are discussed ppp, which is piano pianissimo, which is very, very quietly. Arrangements such as that – in old families especially – are often as predictable as Wagner's subdued "Bridal Chorus" from "Lohengrin" for the procession into the hitching-up ceremony, and Mendelssohn's jubliant incidental music for "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" for the marching out into the future. Thus, spokespersons for Wachovia and the Symphony Society were mum on the amount of money to change hands.
"No specifics is part of our agreement,"a Symphony Society spokesperson said. Six figures – is it six for one year or six for all three? – have been mentioned, but, as noted, no one is talking specifics.
Wachovia headquarters in St. Louis is the old A.G. Edwards' campus between Olive and Market streets at Jefferson Avenue. Its corporate offices are a hop, skip and a jump from the Symphony Society's home base, Powell Symphony Hall in Grand Center, at Delmar and Grand boulevards.
The financial infusion, while certainly neighborly, is also enormously important to the orchestra. In a press release Tuesday, Fred Bronstein, president and executive director of the Symphony Society said, "We are so pleased to welcome Wachovia Securities as our new partner. ... Powell Hall and the SLSO represent a true destination location and the place to be for music-lovers in our City, while Wachovia Securities' commitment to St. Louis and its thriving cultural climate demonstrates again that great cities demand great arts and great arts demand great corporate-cultural alliances."