St. Louis Symphony Orchestra announces new creative partner and staff appointments
Grammy winning flutist, teachers, joins SLSO
(August 15, 2018, St. Louis, MO) – Today, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra President and CEO Marie-Hélène Bernard announced triple-Grammy-winning flutist, speaker, writer, and teacher Tim Munro as SLSO Creative Partner beginning with the 2018/2019 season. Bernard also announced several other key appointments to the SLSO’s Philanthropy, Artistic and Operations, and Communications teams.
Munro began working with the SLSO in January 2018 as co-host of the Saturday evening radio broadcasts on St. Louis Public Radio. As Creative Partner, Munro will continue to co-host the broadcasts with St. Louis Public Radio’s Robert Peterson. Munro also will help curate the acclaimed St. Louis Symphony Live at the Pulitzer, a four-concert series in partnership with the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. This adventurous collaboration, which launched in 2004, offers rich and diverse programming showcasing soloists and chamber ensembles performing works from the 20th and 21st centuries. The programming for each Pulitzer concert complements current exhibits at the Tadao Ando-designed Pulitzer building. Over the past 14 years, Live at the Pulitzer has become a highlight of the St. Louis concert scene, with capacity audiences at every performance. The 18/19 St. Louis Symphony Live at the Pulitzer programs will be announced soon. During the 18/19 season, Munro will also host select pre-concert conversations prior to SLSO classical concerts and will serve as editor and program annotator for SLSO program books.
Bernard said, “On behalf of Stéphane Denève and our entire SLSO family, I am thrilled to welcome Tim Munro to the SLSO team. Tim has already established himself as a trusted voice on our broadcasts. I’m confident his goal of drawing audiences into an engrossing and whimsical musical world aligns with our mission of enriching lives through the power of music.”
Additionally, Molly Salky, Valerie Petrov, and Eric Dundon have joined the SLSO as Associate Vice President, Philanthropy; Orchestra Personnel Manager; and Public Relations Manager respectively. And Ian Kivler has been promoted to Artistic Administrator. Salky is responsible for the annual institutional giving programs. She will also work with the SLSO’s philanthropy team to play a lead role in the SLSO’s next campaign. Salky brings expertise from corporate investor relations at companies such as Build-A-Bear Workshop and The Earthgrains Company, as well as fundraising experience from organizations such as Girls, Inc. of St. Louis and Food Bank of the Southern Tier (Elmira, NY). Most recently, Salky was the Director of Development, Capacity Building Campaign, at the Nine Network of Public Media and successfully completed Nine’s $50 million Igniting the Spirit of Possibility campaign.
Petrov comes to the SLSO after 10 years at the New York Philharmonic, including more than four years in the orchestra personnel department, where she most recently held the position of Assistant Personnel Manager. Petrov has strong SLSO connections, having been hired and mentored in New York by the late Carl Schiebler, former SLSO personnel manager and 2nd horn player.
As Artistic Administrator, Kivler is responsible for the implementation of artistic planning for current and future classical seasons, with an emphasis on concert planning, contracting guest artists, and artist relations. Kivler joined the SLSO in October 2016 as Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager and, as a trumpet player, has been a regular substitute musician with the SLSO since September 2015.
Dundon joins the SLSO Communications team as Public Relations Manager with a background in journalism. Most recently, he served as Managing Editor of the Hannibal Courier-Post since 2015. Dundon also has a classical music background, having served as the principal French horn player for the University of Missouri Wind Symphony.
“We welcome Molly, Valerie, and Eric to the SLSO. And we congratulate Ian on his promotion. They bring a wealth of experience and energy, and our Artistic and Operations, Philanthropy, and Communications teams are strengthened by their partnership. I look forward to all that we will accomplish together,” said Bernard.
About Tim Munro
Chicago-based, triple-Grammy-winning musician Tim Munro’s varied work as a flutist, speaker, writer, and teacher is united by a single goal: to draw audiences into an engrossing and whimsical musical world.
The Chicago Tribune called Munro’s April 2018 performance on the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series “a virtuosic tour de force if there ever was one.” Munro’s solo performances have been called “captivating”, “bravura”, and “charismatic” by The New York Times.
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Munro was the flutist and co-artistic director of the chamber ensemble eighth blackbird from 2006 until 2015. As a member of eighth blackbird, Munro performed at major concert venues in 40 U.S. states and premiered more than 100 works. Munro won his third Grammy Award as a member of eighth blackbird in 2016 for the Cedille Records album “Filament.”
In January 2018, Munro became the co-host of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s live broadcasts on St. Louis Public Radio. He also premiered Amy Beth Kirsten’s Savior on the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNow series, performed George Crumb’s Vox Balanae at Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, joined Newspeak for Fargo Moorhead Opera’s production of David Little’s Soldier Songs, and was a soloist in David Rakowski’s Sesso e violenza at Oberlin College.
In 2017, Tim was co-music director for Crowd Out Chicago, a project co-presented by Illinois Humanities and the Chicago Humanities Festival, in which more than 1000 participants, drawn from all over the city, came together to perform David Lang’s work crowd out.
An energetic teacher, Munro provokes students to use their instruments to tell tales with emotional honesty. As a member of eighth blackbird, he held faculty positions at the Curtis Institute of Music, University of Chicago, and University of Richmond, and taught at more than 50 music schools.
Munro is a passionate writer and speaker about music, inviting audiences into his beloved musical worlds with intelligence and humor. He is principal flute of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra in Santa Cruz.
