IN UNISON Chorus

The newly renovated Powell Hall, complete with extensive expansion, opens to the public with a weekend of concerts.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra offered business and arts leaders a sneak peek at its expanded home, the Jack C. Taylor Music Center. The Grand Center facility includes a renovated Powell Hall and opens to the public for a weekend of concerts beginning Sept. 26.

A June 29 benefit concert and an associated online campaign netted $350,000 to support the Urban League’s tornado relief efforts in north St. Louis, with another $150,000 in pledged donations expected. The Fabulous Fox Theatre donated its space for the event.

A tornado benefit concert at the Fabulous Fox Theatre on Sunday will feature the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Chorus and the IN UNISON Chorus. The May 16 tornado damaged the churches and homes of many IN UNISON singers.

Leaders of the IN UNISON Chorus signed a contract with Fenton-based MorningStar Music Publishers to publish and distribute original music and arrangements around the world.

For 30 years, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s IN UNISON Chorus has taken the music of the Black church to the symphony hall. On Friday, it celebrates its anniversary at the Stifel Theatre with gospel singer BeBe Winans. The chorus has covered a large part of the Black experience through gospel and spiritual music.

The grant funds a commission by composer Nathalie Joachim for a May concert. Orchestra leaders say it’s a new way to showcase its IN UNISON chorus, which showcases African American composers.

The money will help fund the In Unison Chorus, which focuses on works by African American composers, and various music education programs for Black students in St. Louis.

St. Louis Symphony formed IN UNISON Chorus for a 1994 concert meant to help bridge the black church and the overwhelmingly white world of classical music.…