Photograph by Dilip Vishwanat
Until she took her post with the symphony on July 1, Marie-Hélène Bernard was flying between here and Boston, where she was winding up her duties as executive director of the 200-year-old Handel and Haydn Society. There, she not only increased the society’s endowment by $4 million but also doubled the percentage of under-40s in the audience. It’s no wonder the St. Louis Symphony came knocking after Fred Bronstein departed earlier this year.
“It’s the same leadership role,” she says of the symphony and her previous job. “The difference is just in the size and scope.”
A native of Quebec, Bernard has an extensive background in classical music; she’s worked with the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras, as well as the Canton Symphony Orchestra. She’s also a musician, a trained viola da gamba player. (She claims to be a not-great singer, so you won’t catch her onstage at any of SLSO’s choral events.)
She says that part of reaching younger or underserved audiences lies in how we talk about classical music—too often it’s presented as stiff, or as something that only AARP members or symphony nerds could love. Sometimes, Bernard says, it’s enough to just help people realize they are constantly hearing classical music in commercials, movies, and of course old Bugs Bunny cartoons. Often, after a trip to the symphony, people realize they know more than they thought.
Though the 2015–16 concerts were set when she arrived, Bernard has been talking with conductor David Robertson about future seasons. Under his tenure, SLSO has played a lot of contemporary classical music, but Bernard sees other opportunities to “continue programming that really excites people but continues to challenge them,” she says. “And it doesn’t mean necessarily all new music. There’s a lot of music by Haydn, by Mozart, and composers that are not as well known.”
She also has much praise for existing educational programs, which are already robust but can grow. “It doesn’t matter how much you know about the music, how wealthy you are, how educated you are,” Bernard says. “Let music speak to everyone, and then everyone is actually welcome.”
St. Louis Symphony, Powell Hall, 718 N. Grand, 314-533-2500, stlsymphony.org
