Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra

Although I'm a lover of "classical" music (and a former music major), I hadn't been to Powell Hall for many decades. However, our children bought my wife tickets so we made a visit on a night where the symphony played a series of their encore numbers that they use throughout their travels. It was an enjoyable potpourri of works by many composers. Everything was perfect.

I was afraid about the seating as I am fairly tall and have recently had a knee operation for which I'm unable to bend my leg very much. However, I found the legroom to be quite adequate. Also, although it is theater style seating, each person does have their own, independent armrest. So the seating was quite comfortable.

As for the dress code, most older gentlemen wore coat and ties. Women were wearing evening cocktail fare. Their website recommends business casual but most people were more dressy than that. I saw one couple wearing nice jeans and they were not turned away.

Before the musical presentation, there was a long lobby bar selling wine and beer. They also sold bottled water which you are allowed to take to your seat.

We parked on the parking lot just north of Powell Hall for $10. That worked great. One thing I learned is that they open a back gate to that parking lot after the evening presentation is over and that is the best way to get out and away from the traffic jams at that time. My recommendation is to get out that back way and avoid Grand Avenue at all costs. We didn't do that and ended up waiting in traffic for about 20 minutes to exit the area.

That said, we had a great evening and look forward to visiting again. I'm sure that out-of-town visitors would enjoy a visit to our symphony as well.