“Sergei, Pyotr, Igor, Aleksandr, and Galina—as in Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Aleksandr Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky, and Galina Ustvolskaya—are known quantities at Powell Symphony Hall, where their music is performed frequently,” writes Sarah Bryan Miller in Friday’s (6/26) St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “The Sergei, Pyotr, Igor, Aleksandr, and Galina who showed up at Powell on the afternoon of June 25, however, were not composers, but fluffy black-and-white kittens…. Heidi Kehler, a cat ‘foster parent’ for Tenth Life Cat Rescue of St. Louis, was at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on April 18, when the mother cat she was sheltering gave birth to five feline infants. Since music by Rachmaninoff and Scriabin was featured on the program, that made the choice of names an easy one. The kittens are now almost ready to be adopted, which means it was time to get their glamour shots done. SLSO flutist Jennifer Nitchman, who’s on the board of Tenth Life, arranged with vice president for external affairs Adam Crane to do the shoot at the hall. She and three other instrumentalists—violinists Angie Smart and Asako Kuboki and principal trumpet Karin Bliznik—showed up in concert black to pose with them. Others from the SLSO staff showed up to get in on the fun as well.”
Posted June 29, 2015
