Ferguson protesters halt symphony
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Banners dropped down from balcony inside Powell Symphony Hall to pay tribute to the late Mike Brown. (Inbox) Orchestra members sit and listen to the protestors' singing during intermission of their performance.
People protesting the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown peacefully disrupted a performance of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a demonstration.
Several dozen protesters began singing the song “What Side Are You On,” as the orchestra was preparing to launch into a piece. The demonstrators unfurled three banners related to the incident, reports said.
The song, written in 1931 as a protest song for the United Mine Workers, featured revised lyrics reflecting the teenager’s death.
As the group sang the song several times, some audience members applauded, while others ignored them.
According to a news report, the song was broadcast on KWMU-FM, a public radio station streaming the concert live. Conductor Markus Stenz waited patiently for the singing to finish so the orchestra could begin playing Johann Brahms’ "Requiem."
Protest organizer Sarah Griesbach said she chose the concert because demonstrators “wanted to make a statement in the white community of St. Louis where people don’t have to face the segregation that is so systemic.” Griesbach, an art educator, said she believed the audience might be “receptive.”
She also chose the orchestra’s Saturday performance because she believed the theme of “Requiem” reflected their message well.
Griesbach said the protesters bought 20 tickets so they could place banners at the edge of the balcony, some of which read “Requiem for Mike Brown 1996-2014” and “RACISM LIVES HERE” with an arrow pointing at an image of Gateway Arch, a St. Louis attraction.
She said her group left the hall “elated” and “felt for one moment that there’s hope.”
Darren Wilson, a white policeman, shot Mike Brown, 18, six times in early August after the teenager allegedly robbed a convenience store minutes earlier.