Opening Weekend: Fanfare for Powell Hall

Item details

Date

Sunday, Sep 28, 2025 3:00PM

Name

Opening Weekend - Fanfare for Powell Hall

Description

📍 This concert takes place at Powell Hall
🕒 2 hours (including intermission)

Stéphane Denève, conductor
Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano (SLSO debut)
Members of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus | Erin Freeman, director

Aaron Copland Fanfare for the Common Man
Joan Tower Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1 (First SLSO performances)
James Lee III Fanfare for Universal Hope (World Premiere/SLSO commission)
Kevin Puts House of Tomorrow (World Premiere/SLSO commission)
Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben

Celebrations commence as Music Director Stéphane Denève and the SLSO usher in an exhilarating season of reuniting and reveling in the beautifully renovated Powell Hall. The season opens with a trio of fanfares reflecting past, present, and future. Multiple Grammy Award-winning artist Joyce DiDonato and members of the St. Louis Symphony Chorus join the orchestra for the world premiere of a song cycle by composer-in-residence Kevin Puts. And with the thundering roar of percussion and brass, Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben tells a triumphant tale of adventure and accomplishment.

A few things to know:

• Joyce DiDonato is one of the world’s most accomplished vocalists today, known for her dynamic work on the Metropolitan Opera stage and her award-winning recordings. She is also an activist for arts and arts education access on a global level.
• Celebrating a remarkable 20-year friendship, we welcome American composer Kevin Puts back to St. Louis as the SLSO’s composer in residence. His music appears on many programs in the months ahead. “I want audiences to be held in the moment, and be taken to the next moment,” says composer Kevin Puts of Virelai, a work that the SLSO commissioned and premiered from Puts in 2019.
• Already the recipient of a 2023 Grammy Award and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in music, Kevin Puts was also recently named Musical America’s Composer of the Year for 2024.
• Each program in this exceptional opening weekend will be accompanied by the chance to celebrate further with special ticketed events.

Kevin Puts' House of Tomorrow was commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for the reopening of Powell Hall at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center (September 2025, Music Director Stéphane Denève) is made possible through the generous support of Joseph and Bettie Hirsch, Jeffrey and Deborah Pierce, Antonia Gordon, and Carol Kaganov.

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