Thursday, February 10, 2011, 7:30 pm
St. Louis Cathedral
Identity, History, Legacy: Free People of Color in Louisiana
La Société Philarmonique
Thomas Wilkins, conductor

"Musical Louisiana: America's Cultural Heritage," jointly produced by The Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, is a series dedicated to the study of Louisiana's contributions to the world of music.

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.

This project is supported in part by an award from the