The SLSO Crafted Series: Grab a beer, eat some chips, sit back and see an orchestra

With the Crafted series, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra takes aim at the notion that a night with the orchestra at Powell Hall is an exclusionary, “black-tie only” event.

The evening began with a rather delicious appetizer from St. Louis-based Pretzel Pretzel,who gave out 600 cups of their pretzel nuggets and tangy yellow dijon mustard in just 45 minutes according to their Facebook page, served under the sparkling chandeliers of the main lobby. Urban Chestnut Brewing Company was serving a few of their top selling beers to wash down the salty snacks. Upstairs, The Met Bar room was filled with smiling concertgoers who were eagerly awaiting their chance to snag some crab rangoons and mini-egg rolls from Mai Lee or a small glass of wine from Breakthru Beverage.

The finger foods and drinks were included with the price of a ticket, but after acquiring said concessions it was difficult to enjoy them with the lack of tables or places to sit outside of the concert hall itself. A lucky few found the couple chairs stationed around the second floor, others leaned against a railing or one of the bars that was not in service, but most of the hungry audience were standing and tried not to fumble their hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages or were forced to sit on the stairs of the Jay and Carolyn Henges Grand Staircase. Free food and drinks are always appreciated (one of the many lessons from college I hold near and dear to my heart), but a few more small cocktail rounds set up around the lobby area could have made all the difference.

The food and drinks were wonderful, but they were just a bonus feature of the Crafted evening. What made this event so special was the SLSO’s dedication to destroying the image of orchestra concerts are only for classical music lovers. The official dress code policy from the organization is “Come as you are! We want you to wear what you feel most comfortable in. You will see a wide variety of attire at Powell Hall, including khakis, jeans, suits, and skirts,” but there is still a widely held belief that suits and dresses are the proper attire for the occasion.

Sure, it can be fun to get dressed up and head out for a cocktail or a show, but during this pandemic I find myself craving comfort over formal attire. Comfort was the ultimate winner on this special Crafted night. Some members elected for a more business casual look, but relaxed and fun was the general norm—including one fantastic pink Oxford-style shirt with cat faces on it. The relaxed aesthetic even made it up to the stage when the energetic Norman Huynh took the conductor’s podium sporting an untucked black shirt, black jeans, and low-rise black and red Nike Air Jordans.

After Huynh took the podium, he immediately grabbed a microphone and in an enthusiastic, young tenor voice described his interpretation of the first selection on the concert Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring.” With America fighting on two fronts, dancer and choreographer Martha Graham commissioned Copland to write what would be his third ballet—“Billy the Kid” was his first in 1938 and “Rodeo” premiered in 1942. Two years later in 1944, Copland finished his ballet for thirteen instruments meeting her wishes for the piece to be on “an American theme.” Graham suggested the work should be titled “Appalachian Spring,” based on a line from a Hart Crane poem, and premiered the work at the Library of Congress. Graham’s script to Copland was a story of a young couple on their wedding day in 19th century rural Pennsylvania.  Later Copland reorchestrated the ballet into an eight-part suite, which is the version that was heard on Powell’s stage.

The SLSO is notorious for its ability to tackle the most difficult and emotionally taxing repertoire in the orchestral canon (the day after the Crafted concert they played John Corgliano’s Symphony No. 1, which is the composer’s response to his grief during the HIV/AIDS crisis). The Copland is the opposite of taxing but rather emotionally uplifting or at the very least whimsical. It brought something rarely seen on an orchestral stage, smiles and gentle seat-dancing to the music as they played. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as was Huynh, who at times was bobbing up with glee as he conducted the ensemble with grace and precision, and they were met a well-earned raucous applause on the final cut-off.

Foregoing an intermission, singer-songwriting Gabriel Kahane sat down at the piano and launched directly into his 2022 song “To Be American” detailing his thoughts on the state of the nation in the Fall of 2020 accompanied by the SLSO. Kahane’s voice, like many in the indie songwriter genre, is a smooth folky sound with many moments of breathiness. His appearance, like his voice, was laidback and thoughtless but he gracefully switched between playing piano and guitar while communicating with Huynh on the few songs that involved the orchestra. Billed as a “master storyteller” by the SLSO, Kahane did not disappoint in his ability to convey emotions through poetry and song. His lyrics were raw and personal. The selections for the event were a mixed set of Kahane’s 2018 album “Book of Travelers”, which is the creative result of his 9000-mile journey on 14 different Amtrak trains talking to many different people along the way in the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election, his newest release “Magnificent Bird” from this year, and a sprinkle of crowd favorites like his 2016 hit “The Ambassador” from the album of the same title.

The titles on “Magnificent Bird”— the opener “To Be American” is the fourth track—is from Kahane’s last month of a year-long internet hiatus. As Kahane told the audience, he set his email to automatic reply, put his iPhone in a drawer in November of 2019, and quit his self-diagnosed screen addiction cold turkey. Of course, he could never have predicted the start of the pandemic that would force the rest of the world to lean even more into a reliance on technology and the internet, but Kahane stuck to his boycott, except for a Zoom funeral for his grandmother with his family, and in October of 2020 wrote a song every day only 10 of which were greenlighted for the final cut of the album. The album from Nonesuch records can be heard on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.

The evening concluded with a happy hour back in the lobby of Powell where audience and orchestra members could mingle and Kahane sold merch and signed autographs. With beer flowing and more modern musical offerings the Crafted: Kahane and Copland’s Appalachian Spring was a successful attempt by the SLSO to bring in people of all ages and backgrounds into the hall.

There are two more Crafted series performances this season. SLSO Music Director Stephane Denéve offers a night of music from his home country of France with Crafted: Debussy and Ravel on February 17, 2023 and Stephanie Childress, Assistant Conductor and Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, conducts Sir Edward Elgar’s musical sketches of his friends and family on April 14, 2023 with the SLSO’s Crafted: Elgar’s Enigma Variations.

Next at Powell Hall: Stéphane Denève returns to lead the orchestra, chorus, and soprano soloist Jeanine de Bique in program of music by Poulenc, Florent Schmitt, and contemporary American composer Reena Esmail. Performances are Friday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 8 pm, October 21 and 22.  The Saturday concert will be broadcast live, as usual, on St. Louis Public Radio and Classic 107.3.