St. Louis Symphony Live at the Pulitzer | 2024-25 Season

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), in partnership with the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, announced the details for its 2024/2025 Live at the Pulitzer concerts—the 21st season since the series’ inception in 2004. A convergence of aural and visual storytelling, Live at the Pulitzer concerts present bold and adventurous chamber music by composers of today, performed at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in Grand Center. The concerts add to the SLSO’s musical offerings for the season, the 145th of the orchestra and sixth with Stéphane Denève, The Joseph and Emily Rauh Pulitzer Music Director.

Recognized for its exceptional programming, the 24/25 Live at the Pulitzer concerts were curated in collaboration with Christopher Stark—composer and Associate Professor of Composition at Washington University in St. Louis. The concerts serve as a conversation between music and visual art, with music selected in response to exhibitions on display at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. The 24/25 concerts were planned in conjunction with a remarkable group of exhibitions: Scott Burton: Shape Shift and Veronica Ryan. The series has become a highlight of the St. Louis concert scene, and enjoys deeply engaged, capacity audiences. 

This season, the Live at the Pulitzer series marks the first SLSO performance of ten works: music from a diverse lineup of artists including John Luther Adams, Samuel Adams, Andy Akiho, Eleanor Alberga, Wang Lu, Elizabeth Ogonek, John Fitz Rogers, Kaija Saariaho, Anthony Vine, and Errollyn Wallen.
At the Live at the Pulitzer concerts, the Tadao Ando-designed building–one of the finest examples of contemporary architecture in the United States–provides an intimate setting for the innovative works, all played by small ensembles of SLSO musicians within the museum galleries.

Kaija Saariaho Six Japanese Gardens
John Luther Adams Selections from The Wind in High Places
Samuel Adams Sundial 

Strings and percussion unite to bring the outside world into the Pulitzer Arts Foundation galleries. Kaija Saariaho invokes the Japanese gardens of Kyoto with field recordings of nature and ritual singing. Windy, high-altitude string harmonics soar in music by John Luther Adams, and Samuel Adams’ new quintet for strings and percussion radiates with light and shadow. 

Anthony Vine Devotions (First SLSO performance)
Elizabeth Ogonek  all streams reach the sea at last
Andy Akiho 21

An eclectic combination of works progresses from inner serenity and calm to outer joy and exuberance. Anthony Vine enchants and soothes with a unique pairing of strings and harmonium. Elizabeth Ogonek’s water-inspired septet delves into a world filled with dynamism and contrasts, while Andy Akiho reimagines music by Bach for percussion and cello in a rhythmic and thrilling reconception. 

Outside In
Tue, Apr 8, 7:30pm

Errollyn Wallen Dervish
Wang Lu Rates of Extinction
Eleanor Alberga No-Man’s-Land Lullaby
John Fitz Rogers Come Closer

SLSO soloists take center stage in this program featuring an international roster of composers from Belize, China, Jamaica, and the United States revolving around themes of interconnectedness. Eleanor Alberga muses on the lullaby’s generational transmission, while Errollyn Wallen composes trance-like dance rhythms and melodies. Wang Lu contemplates our relationship with the planet and other species; and finally, John Fitz Rogers’ virtuosic work shows off the bassoon in rapid patterns.