Since 2010, St. Louis Public Radio has hosted and produced live broadcasts of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts. The productions, often weeks in the planning, are a gateway to the Grammy® Award-winning St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, available for free to everyone in the St. Louis listening area, and to global listeners at stlpr.org.
Each program begins with a thoughtful introduction to the night’s performance, written, produced, and announced by STLPR staff, broadcasting from the newly renovated Powell Hall at the Jack C. Taylor Music Center.
This year, St. Louis Public Radio invested in new technology for the live broadcasts from the studios at Powell. Inside STLPR recently visited the symphony for a behind-the-scenes look at the production.
Running the show
Hours before the symphony begins, STLPR Executive Producer Mary Edwards arrives to pass out scripts and rehearse with the team.
At the front of the studio, a giant monitor displays the empty stage, just before sound check. Soon musicians will begin filing in.
Edwards spends weeks preparing scripts for each symphony broadcast, sets the pace for the show’s intermission interviews with conductors and musicians, and handles the sound board and technical aspects of the show as the broadcast engineer.
For this particular performance, “We have three four-and-a-half minute interviews,” Edwards announced to the team.
Live from Powell Hall: meet the hosts
The rest of the station’s symphony team includes STLPR On-Air Announcer Rod Milam and Lauren Eldridge Stewart, assistant professor of ethnomusicology at Washington University. Back at the station, STLPR Mid-Day Host Greg Munteanu is the announcer during the show. He assists with technical aspects of the broadcast, assuring the broadcast feed and sound levels are good, and coordinating with the Powell Hall team on the timing of station announcements.
“You don't know who's tuning in,” Milam said. “I always assume a range of listeners,” he said. He likes to consider those beyond the hardcore classical music fan discovering an incredible symphony for the first time. “I find that inspiring.”
Introductions to the SLSO run more smoothly with the expertise of local ethnomusicologist Lauren Eldridge Stewart. Stewart provides helpful historical touchpoints for each piece before the performance, and the orchestral color commentary afterward — letting the audience know when a piece was particularly moving within the hall, or if a solo or performance was particularly virtuosic.
“Mary and Rod have taught me so much about the world of radio,” Stewart said. “As a music professor, I'm used to a smaller classroom of students that I can see, but participating in the broadcast has given me a new perspective on both how we share information about music, and the orchestral experience itself.”
Meeting maestros
Besides the thrill of capturing the SLSO performances as they happen, one of the best parts of the SLSO gig happens at intermission, when the conductor and visiting artists run into the studio for interviews.
Milam, a band kid from days at University City High, loves to talk music with musicians. He’s often fascinated by the wide variety of musical influences among visiting artists.
“I don't think most people, pardon the pun, are one-note individuals,” he said. “I don't approach any of the interviews like that.” Milam relishes the chance to explore musical tastes with some of the world’s finest musicians, and finds the conversations are often wild, ranging from far-flung musical niches, to hard rock, to Prince.
“We typically have four-and-a-half minutes,” he said. But on rare occasions, interviews are pre-recorded to accommodate a tricky transition from the stage to studio. Those are fun, Milam said. He gets to dig a little deeper.
Insider’s tip — though these full interviews rarely make the live show, they are often available with the program notes at the SLSO main page at stlpr.org.
Showtime
This evening, Edwards is passing out updates to the 20-page script to reflect changes she’s noticed in the physical set up for this performance.
“They put an extension on the front of the stage, and there's actually a little chamber orchestra on the front right,” she said. “I thought we should tell people about that neat little addition.”
This particular concert will be complex. At various points the stage will hold the SLSO, the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, three feature artists, and that additional chamber orchestra, stage left. The St. Louis Children’s Concert Choir will sing offstage at a balcony.
Scripts in hand, Edwards gives the signal to start. For Edwards and team, this is the culmination of weeks of research, writing, and preparation. Thanks to her careful work, listeners can follow along effortlessly, no matter their familiarity or fluency with orchestral music.
Symphony meets world
As he prepares to introduce the night’s music, Milam is mindful of reducing the stigma of “not knowing” for people unfamiliar with the symphony. “This is music, man, you gotta just calm down,” he said. He hates that people often feel they don’t know enough to enjoy the experience. If you think you need to study-up to appreciate the symphony, you are mistaken, he said. “It's an artificial barrier. It is not true.”
For one, many people have more familiarity with classical music than they assume, from exposure through movies, ads, even TikTok where classical music is experiencing a mini-resurgence with young audiences.
More importantly, that’s precisely why this crew spends so much time in preparation and rehearsal for each show. “What we do ahead of each one of these pieces is tell you a little bit about how it was written, the time in which it was written, and the purpose for which it was written,” he said. From there, all you have to do is listen and enjoy.
And you should enjoy your SLSO, Milam said. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second-oldest in the country and is widely considered one of the leading American orchestras.
“This is a world class orchestra with a world class brand new building,” Milam said. “I think missing it, or just not realizing that it's there, or not taking advantage of it, would be such a mistake.”
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Broadcasts
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Broadcast is produced by Mary Edwards with audio engineering by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s Kyle Pyke. Additional assistance is provided by Greg Munteanu, Eric Dundon, Maggie Baily, Gino Balossi, Madalyn Painter, and Alex Rice.
When:
- Select Saturday nights at 7:30 PM; New Year's Eve at 7 p.m.
Where to listen live:
- On your radio at 90.7 FM (St. Louis Public Radio)
- Online at stlpr.org or on the St. Louis Public Radio app
If you missed it:
- STLPR audio recordings of each performance are available for a limited time at slso.org
