JEFFERSON CITY, MO — Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder will narrate the St. Louis Symphony’s performance of American Composer Aaron Copland’s musical tribute to Abraham Lincoln, entitled Lincoln Portrait. Lt. Gov. Kinder, at the invitation of St. Louis Symphony President and Executive Director Randy Adams, will join Conductor David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony in Columbia, at Jesse Hall on the University of Missouri Campus, as part of the University Concert Series on Wednesday April 13 at 7:30pm. The second performance will be held at Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis on Thursday April 14 th at 8pm.

“I am honored to join the St. Louis Symphony for their performance of Lincoln Portrait” said Kinder. He added, “The St. Louis Symphony is one of the finest Symphony Orchestras in the world today, and I hope to help bring Aaron Copland’s musical tribute to Abraham Lincoln to life for the audience.”

Copland wrote Lincoln Portrait shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, hoping that the piece would help to boost patriotic pride and morale at a time when the nation’s fortunes seemed at low ebb. In paying tribute to the 16th president, he decided to use Lincoln’s own words and to have these spoken against a background of evocative orchestral music that would “draw a simple but impressive frame around the words of Lincoln,” as the composer put it.

For more information, contact the St. Louis Symphony at 314-533-2500 or go online at www.slso.org.