Skip to content
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will present its third annual free community Juneteenth concert at 2 p.m. Monday, June 19, 2023, in collaboration with IN UNISON Chorus partner First Baptist Church of Chesterfield (FBCC).
No tickets are required for this community celebration; RSVPs are requested at slso.org. Doors open at 1 p.m. and seating is first-come, first-served.
SLSO musicians and vocalists from the SLSO’s IN UNISON Chorus and IN UNISON Scholars program will perform works by Black artists including John Carter, Rollo Dilworth, Robert Gibson, Florence Price, Andre Thomas, and William Grant Still.
Throughout the program, FBCC Pastor Rev. Christopher L. Rogers and IN UNISON Chorus members will discuss the importance of Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans, through spoken word and poetry.
The SLSO is also partnering with St Louis County Parks to offer additional activities recognizing Juneteenth. Tours of African Schoolhouse No. 4—a one-room schoolhouse that educated Black children in Chesterfield that was restored in Faust Park and dedicated earlier this year – will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Following the concert from 3:15 to 4:15pm, the FBCC memorial slave cemetery at the southeast corner of Wild Horse Creek Road and Chesterfield Parkway will be open to visitors. First Baptist Church of Chesterfield members and descendants of those memorialized at the cemetery will be on site to share the history of the cemetery.
“We own, and we preserve that site,” Rev. Rogers said during the church’s 175th anniversary celebration in 2021.
“It’s really a memorial garden. We maintain it, in terms of the landscaping, making sure that we preserve it for those families…who may still be here, who want to pay homage, or just pay respect to their loved ones.
“We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us…it is our duty to honor them. The ones who fought, labored, and toiled…who had to deal with so much strife for us. We don’t want their labor to be in vain, so for us, it’s an honor to maintain their dignity. We owe it to them to ensure that we pick up that mantle and continue to move forward with it.”
First Baptist Church of Chesterfield traces its history back to the 1840s, when a group of enslaved people and their owners attended worship services together in what is now Chesterfield valley.
They were granted the land, which they couldn’t even legally own at the time, by Missouri slaveholder Maria Long.
Housed in several buildings over the next 150 years, the church’s current location on Wild Horse Creek Road was completed in 1996.
The SLSO’s IN UNISON Program began in 1992 as a partnership between the institution and predominantly Black churches in the St. Louis area. In the 30 years since its founding, IN UNISON has grown to become the SLSO’s flagship of community engagement, including:
-Partnerships with more than 30 churches throughout the region.
-The acclaimed IN UNISON Chorus, a resident chorus that specializes in the performance and preservation of music from African American and African expression. The chorus performs with the SLSO several times each season.
-The IN UNISON Academy, a series of academic support programs that include mentorships, scholarships, fellowships, and Young Artist opportunities with the IN UNISON Chorus.
The late Robert Ray, who passed away in December 2022, founded the St. Louis Symphony’s IN UNISON Chorus in 1994 and served as director until 2010.
Ray worked with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, as both St. Louis Symphony Chorus assistant, and later as IN UNISON director, for a total of 25 years.
Previous SLSO Juneteenth concerts have taken place at partner churches Washington Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church and Greater Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, both in St. Louis.
