One of the greatest divas for the past three decades is winging her way to New Orleans to perform with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). Bernadette Peters, who has played such iconic roles as Mama Rose in Gypsy, Mabel Normand in Mack and Mabel and Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun will be singing many of the fabled songs that established her as one of the greatest luminaries of the …more…
Arts America Blog
Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra announces new season, Part 1
July 3, 2012 by
The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) continues to offer top ranked performances and guest artists to enthrall local classical music devotees. The dashing figure of artistic director and maestro Carlos Miguel Prieto, Jr. will continue to lead the LPO with authority and a keen sense of intuition as to what fits for today’s audiences.
LPO maestro and artistic director Carlos Miguel Prieto, Jr.
It all kicks off on Saturday, September 22 with pianist …more…
LPO’s song remains the same; sells out Zeppelin show
May 21, 2012 by
As expected the weekend at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts turned out to be a bonanza for music fans of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). It is true that the crowd that experienced a breathtaking evening of choral work from Johannes Brahms (Shicksalied or “Song of Destiny”) and a magnificent reading of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 on Saturday night was vastly different than the rockers that …more…
LPO has second big weekend planned
May 15, 2012 by
Last weekend the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra carried off a busy schedule. This included a double bill with superb renditions of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 and the Shostakovich Symphony No 15 as well as a well-attended free public concert at Champions Square adjacent to the Mercedez Benz Superdome featuring jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins.
Maestro Carlos Miguel Prieto picks up his baton this Saturday night (©Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra)
Artistic director and maestro …more…
N.O. Opera pairs ‘Pagliacci,’ ‘Carmina Burana’
April 26, 2012 by
While thousands of visitors to the city may be looking to hear the sounds of traditional and contemporary jazz, rock, blues or gospel in the tents of the annual Jazz Fest, there is a dedicated coterie of opera fans who will be heading this weekend to the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts. They will be taking in the mounting of an opera and a special production of a …more…
Two New Orleans Opera events today
April 18, 2012 by
Mark Rucker, a celebrated baritone and longtime operatic star with the New Orleans Opera Association, is slated to be honored later today. Rucker, who started his New Orleans career in 1993 with the role of Tonio in Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci,” will be honored at a late morning reception at the African American Resource Center in the main branch of the New Orleans Public Library. The reception, which is free to …more…
Mozart ‘Requiem’ to bow here Thursday
April 17, 2012 by
The Louisiana Philharmonic Orcherstra (LPO) returns with a true classical program this Thursday in New Orleans and Friday on the Northshore, April 19-20, with an ambitious night featuring the Wolfgang Mozart Requiem in D Minor, K 626, and the Ludwig von Beethoven Symphony No. 2. in D Major, Opus 36.
Soloists for the Mozart Requiem include two principals named Lattimore, who are not related. Grammy nominated soprano Jonita Lattimore will be …more…
Joshua Bell to play Brahms with LPO
March 29, 2012 by
One of the world’s leading violin virtuosos, Joshua Bell, will perform with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) on Friday and Saturday nights in New Orleans. An Avery Fisher Prize Winner and Instrumental Musician of the Year recipient from 2010, Bell was recently named the music director of The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
Classical superstar Joshua Bell, who performs Friday and Saturday night with the LPO.
In most instances …more…
LPO busy with two nights of concerts
March 23, 2012 by
Just prior to next weekend’s major Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) concerts with renowned violinist Joshua Bell, the nation’s only major musician-run symphony orchestra presents two very different performances in as many nights.
Tonight’s “March Madness” performance features the return to the podium of artistic director Carlos Miguel Prieto. It has been nearly a month since he put the LPO through its musical paces with a program of Russian music.
As its title …more…
Literary Festival to feature highlights from ‘Streetcar’
March 22, 2012 by
Portions of Andre Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” will get a rare public hearing from a historic balcony on Friday evening and it’s all part of the ongoing Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival that kicks off tonight.
Previn’s modern opera made its debut in San Francisco in 1998 and was given its second outing in New Orleans later that year a month before Houston Grand Opera’s slated performances. Both of …more…
Grieg Piano Concerto to be heard three nights in a row
March 15, 2012 by
Fresh off last week’s concert featuring Igor Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella Suite” and the Beethoven Symphony No. 2, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) prepares for three consecutive nights under the baton of Eri Klas featuring music from Scandinavia. ...more...
The Russians Are Coming! (To LPO)
February 15, 2012 by
It’s a good thing that McCarthyism went out of fashion in the 1950s because conspiracy theorists might be on the alert for the series of Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) concerts being held at month’s end.
Sergei Prokoviev, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Rachmaninov will be the stars front and center on Saturday night, February 26 in a post Mardi Gras celebration of post romantic and modern Russian music conducted by maestro and …more…
Big Easy 2012 Classical Arts Awards
February 10, 2012 by
Each year the Foundation for Entertainment Development and Education, known colloquially as the “Big Easy Entertainment Awards foundation,” honors the musicians, dancers, conductors and singers who contribute to the classical arts of opera, ballet and dance and music.
The affair a luncheon held at the Hotel Monteleone is an opportunity to honor these artists, patrons and teachers who contribute to the classical arts in significant ways and enrich the culture of …more…
Beethoven Sym. 7 to get LPO treatment tonight
February 9, 2012 by
For the past two weeks the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) has been busy serving up two divergent programs – the first, a night of Russian-oriented works and a the second, a lighter serving of “Spring” serenades. Tonight, under the solid work of maestro Carlos Miguel Prieto, Jr., the members will return to their classical foundation with a program that features the rarely-performed, but sprightly Beethoven Symphony No. 7.
With the possible …more…
Spring Is Here, or at least musically
February 4, 2012 by
Conductor Mary Woodmansee Green
The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) gets ready to take on the challenge of Spring tonight without worrying about hay fever or the possibility of “spring fever” in a concert at the Kenner First Baptist Church at 7:30 p.m.
Set to conduct the LPO this evening is talented and beautiful conductor Mary Woodmansee Green, a 24-year-veteran as music director and conductor of the Kennett Symphony of Chester County. …more…
Pacifica Quartet thrills Friends of Music audience
January 27, 2012 by
The Pacifica Quartet, considered one of the finest ensembles in all of classical music today, offered a night of virtuosity on January 25 at Tulane’s Dixon Hall as part of the New Orleans Friends of Music series. The quartet members, who serve as quartet-in-residence and on the faculty of the University of Chicago have an extensive touring schedule in the Americas and Asia and also have been selected as the quartet-in-residence for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ...more...
LPO to play at St. Louis Cathedral tonight
January 26, 2012 by
For the past five years the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) has put on a free concert in conjunction with the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC). The idea is to make the music of the historical periods catalogued by the HNOC come to life and give meaning to them in a way that books, maps and historic documents can never do. The LPO for its part gets to play some very …more…
Faubourg Quartet to play Dankner, Beethoven
January 20, 2012 by
One of the great losses to the New Orleans classical music world in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was the move of composer Stephen Dankner to a northern clime. Dankner was chairman of the music department of the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA) and was also a member of the faculty at Loyola University’s Department of Musicprior to the devastation that wreaked havoc on the city from …more…
‘Live and Let Die’ at LPO tonight
January 7, 2012 by
This week George Martin, better known as “the Fifth Beatle,” a record producer with long ties and associations with the classical and opera world, celebrated his 86th birthday. That may be especially appropriate because the classical and pop worlds will collide in a good way – much as it did when Martin became the Fab Four’s producer for some of their best known work such as “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s …more…
Suzaune McKamey to appear at J. W. Marriott
December 28, 2011 by
Suzaune McKamey is one of those local performers who could probably succeed as a major star in any other small town. That she chooses to live in New Orleans with its limited offerings for a strong cabaret and nightclub performer is unfortunate. She could no doubt do much better elsewhere, but dang it all, she loves her hometown and won’t hear anything of moving elsewhere. ...more...
New Orleans Museum of Art turns 100 with a party
December 15, 2011 by
In most any other major North American city an art museum would commemorate an anniversary with a dry, stuffy affair consisting of a string quartet quietly playing Haydn or Brahms while hor d’oeuvres would be passed along to attendees by a wait staff in thick-starched black and white uniforms.
New Orleans Museum of Art (Photo courtesy of NOCVB)
But this is New Orleans and when the New Orleans Museum of Art …more…
Holiday classics are here
December 13, 2011 by
What would the Christmas season be without Handel’s “Messiah” or a solid work by Johann Sebastian Bach? As always, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra(LPO) is standing ready with a holiday program that has always proven to be one of its most popular offerings. For the first of two successive nights this Thursday and Friday, the LPO will present a program consisting of the Bach “Magnificat” (BWV 243) as well as two …more…
Michael Wolff proves you can come home again
November 22, 2011 by
Unlike legendary New Orleans jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, who left their hometown to achieve fame and rarely ever came back home, pianist and composer Michael Wolff has proven to be an exception. Raised as a youngster in New Orleans, he has returned to what he regards as his hometown yearly and has camped out at Snug Harbor, the city’s premiere jazz club, for most of the past five …more…
Verdi’s ‘Un Ballo’ a stunner for New Orleans
November 19, 2011 by
When Giuseppe Verdi composed “Un Ballo in Maschera,” the political climate was rife with Italian nationalism and those in the various provinces made calls for Victor Emmanuel II, the king of Sardinia, to be named the first king of a united Italy. Indeed, the composer’s very name was used as an acrostic by the angry mobs chanting “V.E.R.D.I.!” The acrostic stood for “Victor Emmanuel, Rei di Italia, or Victor Emmanuel, …more…
Verdi’s ‘A Masked Ball’ reset at Mardi Gras
November 16, 2011 by
Giuseppe Verdi never made it to the New Orleans Mardi Gras in his lifetime, but thanks to the efforts of New Orleans Opera Association (NOOA) artistic director Robert Lyall, his music will make the trip and opera enthusiasts cannot long endure the wait. Maestro Lyall will be on hand leading his orchestra this weekend as the NOOA reimagines Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball), a Verdi thriller of intrigue loosely based on the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden. ...more...
