Photos: Inaugural SLSO Composer Workshop Community Concert

By Eric Dundon

Launched in January 2022, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's Composer Workshop is a yearly, multi-day immersive residency for composers pursuing post-graduate studies.

The residency includes readings of composers’ pieces by the SLSO; guidance and feedback from an annually appointed workshop mentor; seminars with mentors and SLSO administration, musicians, and librarians; and attendance at SLSO rehearsals and concerts. The residency culminates in a free community concert by the SLSO of the composers' works at Powell Hall.

Additionally, the SLSO has committed to ongoing relationships with participating composers, whose works will be programmed on a future St. Louis Symphony: Live at the Pulitzer concert. The composers in the inaugural workshop included Aiyana Braun, Christian Quiñones, Peter S. Shin, and Nicky Sohn.

The workshop complements the SLSO’s ongoing commitment to music and composers of today; in the 2021/2022 season, the orchestra performs 48 pieces for the first time, including 39 pieces by 32 composers of today.

Here are more photos from the inaugural Composer Workshop community concert, held January 30, 2022, at Powell Hall and led by SLSO Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress.

John Adams, the celebrated composer, led the 2022 workshop, providing mentorship to the emerging composers and introducing the performances of their works.

Childress leads Peter S. Shin’s Relapse, a reflection on the composer’s upbringing as a Korean American.

SLSO Assistant Conductor Stephanie Childress leads Nicky Sohn’s Moon Bunny at Powell Hall on January 30, 2022.

Nicky Sohn introduces her piece, Moon Bunny, which she wrote in 2020 as a gift to her sister.

The SLSO performs at Powell Hall on January 30, 2022.

SLSO Composer Workshop participants, seated in the foreground, spent four days with the orchestra in an immersive residency.

Christian Quiñones introduces his piece, Switch-Up, which draws inspiration from Reggaeton, a popular music genre of his native Puerto Rico.

Childress leads Aiyana Braun’s Refractions, a piece that drew inspiration from the composer’s parents’ careers as artists.

Eric Dundon is the SLSO’s Public Relations Manager.