- [Bruce Ryder] Sarah Bryan Miller, or Bryan, as she was known to her friends, was the classical music critic of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for more than 20 years, until her death in November 2020.

- [Bryan] I just always sang.

I am told that I conducted a classical radio station KXTR in Kansas City in my playpen.

- [Mike Bush] Did you go from actually performing to writing about it?

- [Bryan] I turned to the dark side.

(audience laughing) (classical music) - [Bruce Ryder] In this film, artistic leaders, colleagues, and friends from throughout the country pay tribute to Bryan and they also emphasize the importance of a classical music reviewer in the cultural life of our country, particularly today.

Bryan's editor at the Post-Dispatch had asked that Bryan write a final retrospective column about her career.

Bryan had planned to title the column, "The Places Music Has Taken Me."

Bryan died before she could write that column.

- [Louisa] She got her name, "Bryan," because it was a family name.

She had lots of female family members named Bryan.

It was their middle name as a tradition in my family.

She was always very proud of that aspect.

- [Bryan] And I would say that St. Louis symphony orchestra is one of the top 10 orchestras in this country.

Opera theater of St. Louis, opera festivals in this country.

They and a host of smaller groups, the Bach Society, the St. Louis chamber chorus, the St. Louis classical guitar all deserve coverage.

- St. Louis has of course, a world famous symphony orchestra.

It was a tremendous gift to Opera theater to have the long association with the St. Louis symphony and, you know, opera theater in itself has an extraordinary reputation in the world of classical music.

Look at the total range of music available in St. Louis, you know, wonderful coral music, chamber music, there's excellent theater available in St. Louis - St. Louis, I knew I'd love coming to work at opera theater.

I knew how much I admired from afar and as a spectator the opera theater experience and the quality of opera theaters productions, but I had no idea how extraordinary the breath was of the St. Louis Arts community, and it's been a thrill to learn about that and to become part of that.

(classical music) - The job of the music critic is very solitary.

He or she sits alone taking in the music, watching the stage and passing along thoughts and comments to all of us.

No one was better at sharing her thoughts than Sarah Bryan Miller right here in St. Louis.

- [Leonard Slatkin] The respect she was held at in the field was always very, very strong, in particular, her wide ranging knowledge of the operatic field but she always wrote with a degree of professionalism but also with the real sense of personality.

You felt her love for the music she was writing about.

- Due to the nature of her job, Bryan commented on all of us, but the question is "what did we think of her?"

- I had the great, greatest admiration for her because she was someone of extraordinary work ethics and professionalism.

She was a fabulous writer, and knew of the importance of writing her work.

She also had an extensive knowledge of music being a singer herself, and also having a thirst for learning in an extraordinary ear.

So I think our relationship was one that was really anchored in informing the reader, also in giving us as an institution, really great feedback.

- I mean, she was not only a top notch critic with, you know, the highest level of integrity.

She cares so deeply about the art form and the people involved in the art form.

- As a music critic, wouldn't just, do performances, but, you know, the news that would happen in the classical music world and something I remember happening, unfortunately in 2010 was the previous classical music station KFUO was sold by the Lutheran university and so, that was really big news classical music was at peril here in St. Louis and so she wrote about that.

- This was someone who had spent a lifetime first as an opera singer, as knowledgeable scholar of music and as a trained writer and so she brought all of that depth of knowledge with her to every interview and to every story and you felt that.

- She was extraordinarily fair-minded and really took her role seriously as a member of the arts ecosystem, as a proponent for the ultimate ends of art and she did it with a set of principles that were crystal clear - She was a trailblazer.

She was a woman who covered classical music and also, I think it's important to know she wrote for readers.

Not all readers knew all the different inside facts and backgrounds of some of the composers and the music and the history and the legacy and she would bring it home to people, to help educate people who may may not be as well versed in some of these issues.

So St. Louis, as we all know, has a jewel in the St. Louis symphony.

So it's having that combination with Bryan was tremendous.

- She was very conscientious and that didn't mean just spouting critical hosannas, you know, because she believed as I did, in honest reportage letting the chips fall where they may and praising where it's called for and criticizing when it's also called for.

- She was able to make a connection between in her professional life in music, that music was part of the story within the community.

How that is phrased, how that's presented, I think you have to always bear in mind what it is.

The audience is ready to receive.

- So she had the background of walking the walk, in addition to, you know, being able to be a critic as well and I think, you know, sometimes she mentioned something and I go, "yeah, I, I did kind of notice that" and she, would heap praise on people that played well but she wasn't afraid to say when somebody didn't play well.

- She was incredibly passionate about the things that she loved and that, you know, of course was music and of course was travel and her family and her cats and so she, there are just things that she really loved and she was passionate about it.

She was also of course, a great writer.

She was very meticulous.

She was difficult in the way that good writers can be and I loved that about her.

- Reviewing, she always said that she would air on the side of charity.

She was eminently fair, rather than skewer someone, she would just say, "well, that person was not in the best voice or was, you know, not in the best form."

- She was always such an unbelievable force for good.

She was somebody that wasn't looking to pick a part a performance.

She was looking for the good and what was moving in the performance and she could always see very clearly if there were any hindrances, but overall she was someone that took in the entire experience.

- There's so much research that goes into it before they even go to a performance.

I would imagine at the height of her career, she was probably out every night at some venue, hearing a performance.

- [Bruce Ryder] In 2001, the St. Louis symphony was confronting a financial crisis that put its continuing existence in doubt.

Bryan extensively reported on this crisis and her coverage motivated the Taylor family, owners of enterprise "Rent A Car" to pledge $40 million as a matching gift challenge.

The $80 million that was raised, put the symphony on a path to financial stability.

- Bryan is the gold standard for a music critic.

Andy Taylor from enterprise leasing was sort of the star of the game with Bryan Miller's pen that kept the orchestra in the game.

I mean he may have saved the game with this extraordinary gift.

I believe with the power of her pen, she really contributed to the financial comeback for the orchestra.

She took her job beyond the theater, beyond the walls of a concert hall and she became, in my opinion, I think cultural guardian of St. Louis (violin music) - Most of us got to know Bryan, when she was in the phase of her life that she was covering music for the post dispatch.

Other people got to know her before then.

- I have sung all my life and I have written all my life and my original plan was to become a journalist after college but I needed a need a little time off auditioned for the lyric opera chorus and got in and then I found out I enjoyed it and I was good at it and I got into the, what it was called, "The opera setter" which is the training ground for young artists, during the off season.

So I started writing for a weekly paper and then I was asked to write for the New York times and it turned out to be the lead story in the art section that week and all of a sudden everyone wanted me to write about music.

- [Bruce Ryder] The opera critic for the wall street journals said, "Bryan was a tough but fair critic.

She also took very seriously her role as a pivotal figure in the cultural life of St. Louis.

Home of so many important musical institutions.

Reporting, commenting, reviewing and doing her part to help the arts flourish.

- Almost everyone who came in contact with Bryan has a story to tell, and here are a few of them.

- We evolved into a friendship and yet she would never you know, the lines were very clear.

So if she was reviewing a concert, she was in critic mode and she would not show her cards.

She would stay in character and her level of integrity, I would say she just didn't compromise.

- I have many memories of reading reviews of hers that, you know, some of the reviews, I would have to take a a day or two to recover from and then some of the reviews of some of the most significant work that we did at Opera theater during my time there, her reviews were so wholehearted in their support of the new commission.

So deeply valuable to the company.

- She was always even-handed and fair in her reviews even if, as I say, she had certain preferences and she was very, very particular about things like military uniforms, flags, and ecclesiastical guard.

- She had a great sense of humor.

She was witty.

May not always come through in the writing to people, but she had a great sense of humor and she was, you know, intense about her work.

She defended what she did and we will continue to cover the symphony.

It won't be quite the same without Bryan, there's no doubt.

She had an international reputation.

People around the world knew her in music world, which for any kind of a writer of any type that is significant and the reputation of SLSO here, it really created a great symbiotic relationship for putting St. Louis on the map.

- It always appears that the people involved in music have no other passions.

We don't cook.

We don't go to the movies.

We just concentrate on music.

That's not true and the same holds for Bryan.

- And I don't even know when we started this or how it started but Bryan liked to play "Words" with friends.

I'm just gonna say playing words with friends with Bryan, was I felt like a kindergartner with a graduate student.

- Bryan and I both shared a love of the St. Louis Cardinals, anything St. Louis.

I mean, I'm a diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan and Bryan and I talk baseball all the time and I remember we were able to work out a date for Marie-Helene Bernard.

My boss at the time, the President of the St. Louis Symphony orchestra to throw out the first pitch.

It was I think, a dream for her to be able to go out onto the field and then we went back to the seats.

I think she was able to check that off of her bucket list.

- What makes someone want to become a critic?

Perhaps it's best to hear from the critic herself?

- Well, you need a wide range of knowledge.

You have to be able to review everything from medieval chat to something that came off the computer last week.

You had to know the, the repertoire and stylistic things, but there's also a lot that's subjective and so I try to error on the side of charity.

We all make mistakes, but, and at worst I try to be diplomatic.

It's very easy to write a glowing review and it's very easy to eviscerate someone, what's tough is this great gray mass in the middle.

- A music critic has a responsibility to report on what happened at a particular event but they also tell us stories.

- The role of storyteller is such an important one.

Especially in music today and her own legacy and how she will inspire others to pursue that profession, it's a unique art in itself.

So I think that's why the importance of the language, of the writing is truly what made her unique voice.

- Bryan actually wrote many reviews including my concert since 2003 for me and so I have really the feeling that she accompanied all my history with the orchestra and when we went from guest conductor, to a music director designate, and then music director it was fantastic to see how she knew everything about my history and how she accompanied that with her very enthusiastic article and I always felt supported by not only her love for music but also her vision for the future that at some point included myself.

- I think a music critic is there to tell the reader what happened.

It's a relationship or it's a job which puts the critic squarely in the middle.

So I think that what a music critic does, is report on what happened to an audience in a way that that audience can appreciate.

- As long as the art form is with us, we need people writing about it in an informed, interesting way, because it means that they have to really refine their writing and perception in a meaningful way.

- The necessity, at least in the viewpoint of the newspapers and print journalism, seems to be not as important.

As musicians though, we count on them, not to like what we do, but to report on what we do.

- In November of 2010, Bryan learned that she had developed a very aggressive form of inflammatory breast cancer that had already spread to her lymph nodes.

She was told that even with chemotherapy and radiation treatment, she had less than a 50% chance to live another five years.

She found strength, by immersing herself in her work and supporting the music that she loved and by the fall of 2018, she was told that she must use a wheelchair to reduce her risk of falling.

Even after learning that the cancer had spread further into her liver, Bryan continued to work - Well, some of selfish as it gives me, you know it gives me a focus.

I'm halftime now.

My little joke is, you know, I'm halftime in medical care and halftime at the Post-Dispatch, but the bigger thing is that I feel an obligation to the organizations I cover.

Professionally, I've had so much support from so many people as well.

- [Bruce Ryder] In 2019, the St. Louis press club recognized Bryan's 20 years of service as a critic of and advocate for classical music by naming her as one of its media persons of the year.

- I think she really wanted to be recognized for her efforts and I think she was rewarded for that very well.

I think she was very happy and I think she made her mark.

She made her impression.

I think she was very pleased with that and I think that night, both in May and in November, she you know, she enjoyed herself and I'm glad it happened in 2019, rather than 2020.

- She is in the middle of all this.

She didn't miss deadlines.

She was always on time.

- She was stubborn.

She was not going to let it get her.

She just always battled the odds and fought and I just, I found it amazing that she was still reviewing concerts in the wheelchair and, you know, finals stages of her life, she still had a job to do.

- Upon learning of Bryan's illness, renowned British composer Judith Bingham made a suggestion to Philip Barnes, Music director of the St. Louis chamber chorus.

- That was really Bryan's favorite psalm, I think.

That was finished in the summer.

Let's get serious.

Can we bring this together and so we can have a private concert performance just for Bryan Miller?

- [Bruce Ryder] Bryan was able to attend the February 2020 performance of Judith Bingham setting of Psalm 1:21.

- After the concert, then there was a sort of receiving line that had formed in front of Bryan Miller.

I just got in that line and as I got closer to Bryan finally our eyes met.

She looked up at me, her eyes widened.

It wasn't because she was happy to see me.

The first thing she said to me was "Eric, did you get the soloist names?"

And I looked at her and I smiled and she says, "go now and get the soloist names."

And she was not interested in, you know hearing anything I had to say to her.

She was just the advocate.

- Music, as well as the whole world have gone through incredible changes.

Many do to the global pandemic.

How have we coped with it?

What have we done?

Have we changed?

- Think about the adaptations that we have found across the course of this last year.

The way that we've pivoted to digital experiences.

The way that we have found new ways to make music, new ways to engage audiences, new ways to share our love for these art forms.

- Experience singing in the parking garage.

- It was a phone call that came and said, "would you consider?"

Then I said, "absolutely, when are we doing it?"

And they said, "well, do you wanna know more?"

And I said, "no, I don't care."

The fact that someone was willing to try to do something live, in October of 2020 that spoke so incredibly strongly to me.

People were crying and it reminded me the power of the arts.

It reminded me the power that comes with the connection.

- [Bruce Ryder] John Huxhold, St. Louis Music Critic has said, "surviving this pandemic has been challenging for most businesses throughout the world, but especially for arts organizations and even more, especially for classical music.

There is a visceral pleasure in attending a live concert, whether of a symphony orchestra or a small chamber group.

The presence of an audience, the pressure of not being able to do re-takes for a recording and the opportunity to see brilliant artists up close and personal, all make it a unique experience.

Bryan finally succumbed to her cancer on November 28th, 2020.

Noemi Neidorf, Chairman Emerita of Opera theater of St. Louis paid this tribute to Bryan.

Bryan would not allow cancer to get in her way.

She fought the dreadful disease through many years, with great courage and determination.

Always challenging herself to accomplish more.

Bryan's love for her profession, for great music, for opera, new no bounds and she remains an inspiration to all of us who had the good fortune to know her.

- Bryan was a remarkable force and she's very much missed already.

Her impact will be strong and her name will always be spoken of with reverence and love in this city.

- They reserve parking spaces for me now.

(both laugh) But no, it's just, I'm deeply blessed.

- What was very exceptional for Bryan is that she would not review a concert, just trying to find the mistakes or kind of showing what she knew better.

She was just always trying to find what was meaningful in the music and if she was inspired by indeed the conductors, the orchestra, the music itself, for this really special emotional rapport that music can create between people.

- St. Louis continues to lead the way in the arts, whether it's opera, theater, symphony orchestra all of these areas and so much more, make this a great community, and someone needs to tell everyone about it.

At least in music, we were grateful to have Sarah Bryan Miller as our link between the arts and everyone else.

(orchestral music) - [Bruce Ryder] Although she did not financially support the organization she reviewed during her lifetime to avoid any conflict of interest.

She left substantial gifts after her death to the St. Louis symphony orchestra, Opera theater of St. Louis and the St. Louis chamber chorus.

The Sarah Bryan Miller's scholarship was established in 2018 by the St. Louis press club.

It will go to a communication student who is also studying music and aspiring to a career combining the two disciplines.

(opera music)