St. Louis singer, songwriter and musician Gloria Attoun has attended concerts at the Focal Point since she was a teenager. After the nonprofit moved into its current location in Maplewood in 2000, Attoun took the stage herself. She said the 100-seat listening room is her favorite place to perform in the region.
“It is exactly the right size for being able to really connect with the audience in a personal way. It feels very unifying,” she said. “Also, the volunteer staff are so passionate and reliable.”
The Focal Point was founded in 1975 by Bill and Janet Boyer. Since then — with the help of Judy and Eric Stein and many volunteers — the nonprofit has played a critical role in promoting and shaping St. Louis’ folk, roots, jazz, blues and world music scene.
“A lot of people learned about [traditional] music that they heard at Focal Point and then started playing music inspired by it,” said St. Louis music writer Steve Pick, who said local bands including Rough Shop and Palaver came to a stronger appreciation for such music after attending shows there.
The venue is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a yearlong series of special concerts, including Irish Uilleann piper Paddy Keenan on May 24 and Japanese guitarist and composer Hiroya Tsukamoto on June 20.
Artistic director David Stein works to bring in international musicians to play intimate, mainly acoustic sets for St. Louis audiences that otherwise wouldn’t have access to world music performances. Stein said including more world music was an intentional evolution for the venue and the result of a diverse volunteer staff.
“We have purposely stacked our board of directors with teachers, librarians and folk musicians — [people involved in] the Irish, bluegrass, old time blues, old jazz, Eastern European, African, and South American traditional music scenes,” he said. “Our board is made up of people in the industry more than it is business people and lawyers — and it works.”
The nonprofit is also passionate about providing an affordable gathering place for other nonprofit art groups in town, said Judy Stein, a former director of the Focal Point and co-founder of the annual Irish arts and culture festival, St. Louis Tionól.
“We're not a business; we're a community organization,” she said. “We went through at least 20 years of church basements and other people's housing, and now we've got enough space to open our building to other organizations who would otherwise be in a church basement. That means a good deal to us.”
To learn more about the Focal Point’s history and this year’s events lineup, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
Related Event
What: Focal Point’s 50th Anniversary Celebration
When: Concerts scheduled throughout 2025
Where: The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63143
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
