FREE SYMPHONY CONCERT PACKS THE HOUSE

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Melba Myers sat thinking of rock 'n' roll as members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra readied themselves to play Saturday evening at the A.C. Brase Arena Building.

Actually Myers, a retired Cape Girardeau teacher, thought about the lack of rock 'n' roll.

Myers was one of the 2,300 people who packed the house to hear the free concert.

Sitting in the audience before the concert started, Myers said she saw a lot of children in the crowd.

"I think it's great. They can hear some good symphony something other than rock 'n' roll," she said.

"Rock 'n' roll's fine," she added, "but I think they should be able to hear a variety of things."

But rock 'n' roll wasn't even on the mind of 13-year-old Josh LaMar, of Cape Girardeau. LaMar is an eighth grader at Cape Central Junior High School who plays the trumpet.

"It's an experience," he said, standing next to 14-year-old Brian Little, also of Cape Girardeau, whose mother brought the two to the symphony. "It seems exciting to see professionals."

He said he had attended a concert by the Nashville Orchestra when it came to Cape Girardeau. Yet LaMar said he had never been to a concert by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Saturday evening's event was part of a special month-long series of concerts, known as "America's Musical Spirit: Concerts for Missouri," which are being offered by the orchestra at various locations across the state. The series was developed after a European tour by the orchestra was canceled because of the Persian Gulf war, said Lee Anna Knox, assistant director of public relations for the orchestra. The concerts are free.

The series wound up being a good opportunity for the orchestra, Knox said, explaining that the sponsors of the European trip permitted the orchestra to keep the money to put on the free concerts.

She said the series started in Jefferson City on Tuesday, when the orchestra played in the rotunda of the state Capitol Building. And Friday night, she said, the orchestra played its fifth concert at Fort Leonard Wood, which was attended by family members of servicemen, as well as by some servicemen remaining on the base.

"It was a very intense situation; real touching," said Knox. "I think we did some good out there; made some people feel good.

"We've had packed houses everywhere we've gone," she said.

The orchestra is scheduled to play in Hannibal today and will play Wednesday in Belleville, Ill. Knox said a lot of people from Scott Air Force Base in Illinois would attend the latter concert.

The concert series serves many purposes, said Knox, and one is in relation to the war.

With the war being a "tentative time," she said, it's important for orchestra members to be home with their families. That feeling of family is being extended to the entire state by keeping the orchestra's music at home, she explained.

"It gives people kind of a chance to join together. It's a community-type feeling. "We've seen by the response we've gotten, they (Missourians) wanted this," she said.

Another reason for the concert series is to make symphony music more accessible to people, with the hope that they'll come back for more, Knox said.

The orchestra, she said, was unable to play at the Show Me Center because of this weekend's Longhorn World Championship Rodeo and because the concert series had come about so quickly.

Rosie Gottlieb, recreation coordinator for the Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation Department, said 2,300 tickets had been distributed for the concert. Gottlieb said the concert tickets were made available starting at 8 a.m. Monday, and were gone by Tuesday.