Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra & Leonard Slatkin & Marianna Christos

Like Cincinnati, St. Louis benefited from an influx of German immigrants after 1848, who brought an appetite for Old World musical culture that took the form of the Sängerbund, supplemented after 1865 by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra's annual tour concerts. As Cincinnati's May Festivals became a regular port of call for Thomas until his death in 1905, Saint Louis created a Musical Union Orchestra in 1879, and two years later a Choral Society. These merged in 1893 and performed together until 1907, when the Saint Louis Symphony Society was formed. A violist from the Boston Symp...