Seventh Annual Concert with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra
“Envisioning Louisiana”
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 • 7:30 p.m.
St. Louis Cathedral, Jackson Square
Free and open to the public

On Wednesday, January 23, The Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra will present “Envisioning Louisiana,” the seventh installment of Musical Louisiana: America’s Cultural Heritage. Each year, the popular series examines an aspect of the state’s contributions to classical music with a concert and educational programming. In addition, live streaming of year’s concert—provided by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation—will be expanded to more venues around the state, bringing this beautiful concert to the widest audience yet.

This year’s program is part of a slate of programming exploring Louisiana’s natural history, along with The Collection’s exhibition Seeking the Unknown: Natural History Observations in Louisiana, 1698–1840 and the 18th annual Williams Research Center Symposium, Seeking the Unknown: Perspectives on Louisiana’s Natural History. Selections for the concert will explore how composers have depicted the state and its people through music, from Europeans’ earliest encounters with the strange land to modern musical depictions.

This project is sponsored in part by the Arts Council of New Orleans, AT&T, the City of New Orleans, the Keller Family Foundation, the Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Live Internet streaming of this concert on www.LPOmusic.com is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in partnership with Louisiana State University’s College of Music and Dramatic Arts.

In 2007 The Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra introduced a program to highlight Louisiana’s classical musical legacy. Musical Louisiana: America’s Cultural Heritage is both an educational experience for elementary students and a concert for music lovers.

In addition to the performance, the series also provides educational packets to more than 2,000 fifth- and eighth-grade teachers in Louisiana's public schools. The packets, which consist of a CD, DVD, classroom activities, and lesson plans, are also distributed to members of the Louisiana Association of Symphony Orchestras in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Shreveport, and Monroe.

Since the program's inception, the project has garnered both local and national recognition. In 2007 the presentation "A New Orleanian in Paris: Ernest Guiraud, Friends, and Students" was nominated for a Big Easy Award. In 2007 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation selected the project for the New Strategies Lab, a program to foster strategic innovation in U.S. orchestras. The 2008 presentation, "Music of the Mississippi," won the 2008 Big Easy Awards for Arts Education. The 2009 and 2010 concerts received grants from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities for support of the printing of the concert program. In 2010 a National Endowment for the "Arts Access to Artistic Excellence" was received. The 2011 program, "Identity, History, Legacy: The Free People of Color" was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts "American Masterpieces" grant.