This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Interesting visitors came to St. Louis in 1966. Then-Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicated the Gateway Arch. Major League Baseball hosted its All-Star game at the newly opened Busch Memorial Stadium. (The temperature on that July day hit 105. And when a Globe-Democrat reporter asked legendary National League manager Casey Stengel what he thought of the new stadium, Stengel said, “Well, I'll tell ya, young fella, it sure seems to hold the heat real good.")
Another event in St. Louis that summer drew a little less attention but was a milestone for the St. Louis Symphony. It hosted the annual conference of the League of American Orchestras, an organization that now includes more than 800 orchestras in North America, including major symphonies as well as community music groups and student ensembles.
This coming week (June 16-20), the SLSO will once again host the league’s annual convention – the organization’s 68th. The event will bring approximately 900 delegates to St. Louis, including conductors and presidents of symphonies from New York to San Francisco; representatives from orchestras in Canada, Australia, Brazil, Austria, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom, as well as other classical ensembles, festivals, and music industry professionals. Speakers will focus on the theme of “Imagining 2023.”
Hosting such a prestigious music conference is certainly an honor for the SLSO. But it also presents a major challenge in planning, preparation and organizing events.
According to SLSO president and CEO Fred Bronstein, it’s a challenge that the Symphony is excited about – and well prepared to meet.
“It’s certainly a complicated event to handle,” Bronstein says during a phone conversation last week squeezed among a hectic schedule of meetings. “It’s long overdue for the League to return to St. Louis for its conference, and we’re really looking forward to the chance to showcase our wonderful orchestra right here in Powell Hall. Most of the delegates attending have never had the opportunity to hear the Symphony – especially at Powell.”
Bronstein started working to get the Conference back to St. Louis almost as soon as he accepted the position of president of the SLSO in March 2008. He came here from the same position at the Dallas symphony.
“When I started in St. Louis, I was very surprised to learn that the League Conference had last been here back in 1966,” he says. “I heard there were thoughts of an attempt to get the Conference here in the early 2000s, but that didn’t happen. So one of the first things I did was to start discussions about hosting the League Conference, because I knew they booked the event three to four years in advance.”
Bronstein’s prep work turned out well in several regards, says Jesse Rosen, during a phone interview last week. Rosen became president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras also in 2008, and he viewed a return of the conference to St. Louis in a favorable light – for several reasons.
“When we look at potential host cities for the Conference, we definitely don’t say yes to everyone,” Rosen says. “We look at orchestras that are on the move. And we also look at activities the organization is doing that would serve as templates for the other orchestras and ensembles that attend the conference. It became very clear that the St. Louis Symphony had not only become a very talented musical force under David Robertson; there were other programs and practices that were clearly worth showcasing.”
Rosen noted the SLSO’s community outreach, innovative programming initiatives designed to build the Symphony’s audience, as well as the collaborative approach to collective bargaining with SLSO musicians on contracts.
“For example, I’ve been especially impressed by the Symphony’s “In Unison” project,” says Rosen. “And their collective bargaining agreements with their musicians are certainly an example of an approach that could be adapted and replicated by many other orchestras.
“And David Robertson musical leadership has been so special and unique for St. Louis. He has helped create a fresh way of not only understanding music from earlier eras – he’s also brought interesting newer works into the repertoire.”
“We certainly have come a long way since David Robertson arrived in 2005,” adds Bronstein. He also points to the labor-management pluses, saying, “one of the sessions we’ll be doing at the conference is called ‘The Saint Louis Symphony: A Culture of Collaboration.’ We’re proud of the work we’ve done to build that type of cooperative relationship with the organization and the musicians.”
Although the conference is packed with seminars, workshops and presentations on a wide range of topics including after-school programs, cross-cultural competency, fund-raising, trends in digital media, forging creative alliances and audience development initiatives, both the SLSO and the Symphony’s Youth Orchestra will be showcased in concert on stage at Powell Hall. The Youth Orchestra concert will be for delegates only, but the SLSO concert on Tuesday, June 18 at Powell Hall will be a public performance with tickets available through the SLSO website: www.slso.org.
And in addition to presenting the SLSO at concerts and other conference events, Bronstein is looking forward to delegates discovering the St. Louis area.
“Frankly, this is a great opportunity to show these delegates – many who likely have never been to St. Louis – what a wonderful place it is – both as a cultural community and a place to live,” says Bronstein. “We’ve had tremendous assistance from a grant from the Sinquefield Foundation to help fund this effort, and a wonderful response from volunteers as well. We’re definitely looking forward to a great conference!”
For additional information about the League of American Orchestras and the upcoming conference, go to: www.americanorchestras.org.