CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo., Aug. 26, 2015 – The St. Louis Symphony will kick off the 2015-2016 Symphony Series at Southeast Missouri State University with a performance Sept. 9 at Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus.
The concert, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall, is expected to be a stunning entrée to this season’s series.
This marks the 136th season since the founding of the St. Louis Symphony, making it the second oldest orchestra in the United States. It also marks the fifth time the Symphony has taken the stage in the acoustic excellence of the Bedell Performance Hall.
Under the direction of Francesco Lecce-Chong, the Symphony will open the program with Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 8 in F major, op. 93 (1812).” The second half of the program will feature Georges Bizet’s “Selections from L’Arlesienne (1872)” and Pyotr Il’YichTchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture (1880).”
“We are so thrilled to welcome the St. Louis Symphony to the River Campus for another memorable performance at the Donald C. Bedell Performance Hall,” said Dr. Sara Edgerton, professor of music and artistic director of the Southeast Missouri Symphony. “The program they will present on Sept. 9 will be very intriguing and inspiring. Beethoven’s ‘Eighth Symphony,’ for instance, is a late work by the great composer, and is light-hearted, genial and very accessible. The second half of the concert will feature the beautiful ‘L’Arlesienne Suite’ by French composer Georges Bizet, full of lively rhythms and memorable melodies. And, they will close out the concert with one of the all-time great works for symphony orchestra: Tchaikovsky’s glorious ‘Romeo and Juliet Overture.’ This is definitely a tremendously appealing concert, performed by one of the great American orchestras. Be sure to attend this exciting opening concert of the Symphony Series at the River Campus.”
Founded in 1880, the St. Louis Symphony is widely considered one of the world’s finest. In September 2005, internationally acclaimed conductor David Robertson became the 12th music director and second American-born conductor in the orchestra’s history. In its 136th season, the St. Louis Symphony continues to strive for artistic excellence, fiscal responsibility and community connection. In addition to its regular concert performances at Powell Hall, the Symphony is an integral part of the St. Louis community, presenting free education and community programs throughout the region each year.
In February 2015, the St. Louis Symphony received a Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for its recording of John Adams’s “City Noir” and Saxophone Concerto, on Nonesuch. This was the Symphony’s sixth Grammy, as well as its 57th nomination. The “City Noir” recording follows the 2009 Nonesuch release of the Symphony’s performances of Adams’s “Doctor Atomic” Symphony and “Guide to Strange Places,” which reached No. 2 on the Billboard rankings for classical music, and was named “Best CD of the Decade” by the Times of London.
In 2013-2014, David Robertson led the St. Louis Symphony in a Carnegie Hall performance of Britten’s “Peter Grimes” on the Britten centennial, which Anthony Tommasini, in the New York Times, selected as one of the most memorable concerts of the year. Recent tours have included the St. Louis Symphony’s first European tour with Music Director David Robertson, in 2012, with performances at the BBC Proms, the Lucerne Festival, Paris’s Salle Playel and Musikfest Berlin. In 2013, the Symphony completed its second successful California tour with Robertson, which included a three-day residency at the University of California-Davis.
Tickets
Tickets may be purchased by contacting the River Campus Box Office, located in the Cultural Arts Center, 518 S. Fountain St., weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., by calling (573) 651-2265, or online at RiverCampusEvents.com.
