Classical Music

Patricia Racette, a soprano and stage director with a long resume, will be the next artistic director for Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Racette is currently artistic director of Opera Theatre’s programs for young artists.

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is collaborating with adapter Bill Barclay on a reimagined take on Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 play “Peer Gynt” and composer Edvard Grieg’s iconic score, which includes some of the most well-known music in the world.

Jazz bandleader Donny McCaslin reunited other veterans of David Bowie’s final album for an orchestral adaptation he says is moving the artistry of “Blackstar” forward.

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra collaborated with the Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum on a school curriculum that teaches middle and high school students about the Holocaust through the music of Pavel Haas. Haas was a Jewish composer killed in a Nazi death camp.

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Conductor Laureate Leonard Slatkin will celebrate his birthday with concerts that showcase his support for contemporary composers and up-and-coming musicians.

St. Louis Symphony’s Jack C. Taylor Music Center will encompass a renovated Powell Hall plus new facilities including an education center and rehearsal spaces. SLSO will resume concerts at its longtime home in September 2025.

Erin Freeman, a choral director and conductor based in Washington, D.C., will become the third-ever leader of St. Louis Symphony Chorus. Predecessor Amy Kaiser retired in 2022 after 27 years at the helm.

Lyric Green started playing the bass at 12 years old. A year later, the rising high school freshman is spending part of her summer at the Juilliard School in New York.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has reached the midpoint of a more than $100 million renovation of Powell Hall, which is expected to reopen in 2025. Orchestra officials also have raised more than $145 million to fund the project and other priorities, including an outreach program.

St. Louis-based artist Damon Davis worked with the experimental classical ensemble Alarm Will Sound to create “Ligeia Mare,” an opera based in Black musical forms. They’ll perform a 20-minute excerpt tonight in a program that also includes new music by seven other composers.