Jerzy Semkow,
Music Director 1975-1979

Polish conductor Jerzy Semkow was named to replace Walter Susskind as Music Director in 1975. As musicians and individuals the two maestros were quite opposite. While Susskind was congenial and talkative, Semkow was focused and all about discipline. He demanded perfection from himself and his orchestra. Semkow was obsessive in his preparation, strict and exacting in rehearsal, polished in performance, and even instigated post concert reviews with the musicians of their performance. His programming was considered conservative, but he made up for this in his exacting musical standards.

Trained in Russia under Mravinsky, Semkow had held positions in Russia with the Leningrad Philharmonic, State Opera, and the Bolshoi Theater. In his native Poland he served as Director and Conductor of the National Opera of Warsaw. Jerzy Semkow's Music Directorship saw the addition of a new summer pops series at Queeny Park in west St. Louis county and the appointment of Thomas Peck as Chorus Director and founding of the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus. The Queeny Pops were a highlight of St. Louis summers for over 25 years and Thomas Peck brought the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus to the level of the premier orchestral choral ensemble in the country.

Ultimately, Jerzy Semkow was never comfortable with the role of Music Director of a major American orchestra and felt more at home in Europe. In 1978 he announced he would be leaving St. Louis to take a position with the Radio Orchestra of Rome.