RONALD ARNATT

Ronald Arnatt, who died in 2018 at the age of 88, was born in London, England, where he was a boy chorister at Westminster Abbey. Surviving the Nazi Blitz, he and his family emigrated in 1945, and after his formal education (including a degree from Durham University in the UK), he was appointed Organist & Choirmaster at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis. During his 20+ years here, Ronald held several significant appointments in addition to the Cathedral: he directed the Bach Society and taught at UMSL, and he devised a syndicated radio program focusing on organ repertoire. However, of primary importance to us, Ronald saw a need for a small, agile group of musicians who might introduce St. Louis audiences to major works outside the scope of the city’s existing ensembles. So, in 1956, he founded the St. Louis Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, and with them performed landmark works by a range of composers from Bach to Stravinsky. On occasion, he also wrote music for his colleagues, and he gradually built a large body of compositions, many of which remain in print today. Even after he left St. Louis in the late 1970s for positions in the greater Boston area, he still composed two works for the Chamber Chorus, Music and Ceremonies and Celebration. Following his resignation, he was succeeded by Allen Carl Larson, a faculty member of Webster University, and then, some years later, by Stephen Curtis, who taught at the St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. By that time, the organization no longer presented orchestral works, so the working title was revised as simply “The Saint Louis Chamber Chorus.”