It was not hard for Marie-Hélène Bernard, who is coming up on 11 years as president and CEO of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, to fall in love with St. Louis. A native of Quebec, Bernard was living in Boston when she flew into St. Louis for a very big job interview with the SLSO. Fortunately for everyone trying to close the deal, it was October. “Fall in St. Louis is gorgeous,” Bernard recalls. “I thought, This city is remarkable.”
Ironically, it was one of the city’s crown jewels that drew a more critical response. Bernard recalls making on that trip her first visit to Powell Hall, the 1925 movie theater that had been the symphony’s home since 1968. She saw a line of men waiting for their turn in the bathroom. She saw the meager backstage area for the musicians. “My memory of it is that the hall looked fatigued,” she says.
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As Bernard discusses in a new episode of The 314 Podcast, those observations helped galvanize a $140-million renovation of Powell Hall, one that has been a major focus throughout Bernard’s entire St. Louis tenure. Tomorrow, Bernard will help to cut the ceremonial ribbon on the refurbished and expanded building, the Jack C. Taylor Music Center, which includes both Powell Hall and an additional 64,000 square feet. And on September 27, the symphony makes its triumphant return, trumpets sounding (literally: The evening’s program, Fanfare for Powell Hall, will include not just Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” but Joan Tower’s musical rebuttal “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1,” two world premieres, and Richard Strauss). Bernard is proud of the fact that the symphony was able to bring the project in on time and on budget, crediting Anna Leavey, the project manager she brought in to manage the construction. ”I knew I could not rely on my very limited expertise and that no one on my team had the experience,” she says.
With the project done, Bernard should have a bit more time for something else she sees as critical to the symphony’s future: elevating St. Louis on the national and global stage. She sees reversing the region’s population declines as critical to not just supporting the place she has grown to love, but also ensuring the symphony’s future.
Bernard is pleased that the symphony blew past its $155-million goal for the renovation project, with $173 million raised to date. The extra funds on top of the building’s cost will shore up the symphony’s endowment.
“A third of our budget cover is covered by the draw from the endowment,” she says. “So we do have a large endowment, but we need it. Because I don’t have the population of L.A. and New York, I need an endowment to sustain philanthropically the portion of revenue that I will not be able to generate, especially if the population of St. Louis continues to decline.” She refers to the region’s fortunes as “the only element we don’t control” with regard to the symphony’s future success.
She sees part of her job as helping people understand that St. Louis is a destination, not just to visit, but to live—and very happily. Her own story is proof. She believes that local leaders, across the arts scene and in business and government, need to “lead with courage and confidence.” With that, she feels hopeful that the region can change its trajectory.
”There’s all these elements that come together that really help us think about, How do we need to behave differently and how do we need to think about that future?” she says.
Bernard raves about St. Louis’ strengths to anyone who will listen, and with Powell Hall’s reopening, she says the symphony will be inviting the world to come check them out for itself. ”We’re going to invite reporters from around the world, from leading publications in music, but also in other sectors,” she says. “And it is our job as we work with Greater St. Louis Inc. and Explore St. Louis and other arts institutions to really make sure that the talk about St. Louis goes to a different level.”
For Bernard, her interest in the region’s success is not just strategic, but personal. “I’m coming on 11 years, and I don’t think I would want to live anywhere else, or invest anywhere else,” she says.
Hear more from Bernard on The 314 Podcast and Fast Forward STL.
