Bowling, jambalaya and music by 27 Lights and Wizmar to benefit the Uganda Education Project

by Sheila Stroup

When Melissa Cochran and Zach Stewart went to Uganda as volunteers in June 2008, they had no idea what they'd find there.

"Before we left, people told us, 'Don't drink the water,' but there was no water," Stewart, 19, says. "We took special electric plugs, but there was no electricity."

The two friends, who graduated from Ben Franklin High School last year, got a different kind of education when they spent part of their last two summer vacations at the Nansana School in south central Uganda.

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Harry Connick Jr. collaborated with Clive Davis on forthcoming album of standards

Harry Connick Jr. joined forces with a record industry legend to shape his upcoming "Your Songs" release.

Clive Davis, the mogul who built Arista Records into a hit machine and is now the chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment, selected most songs for "Your Songs," due Aug. 25 on vinyl and Sept. 22 on CD.

They include Elvis Presley's "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You," Nat King Cole's "Mona Lisa," Tony Bennett's "Who Can I Turn To?," Frank Sinatra's "All The Way," Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are," the Beatles' "And I Love Her" and an uptempto version of Elton John's "Your Song."

More here.

Jazz Fest accepting band applications for 2010

From The Times-Picayune
Jazz Fest accepting band applications for 2010

by Keith Spera

Jazz Fest producers are accepting applications for performers for the 2010 event, scheduled for April 23-May 2.

Upwards of 80 percent of the hundreds of acts featured each year at Jazz Fest are Louisiana-based. Bands interested in performing should submit a recording, bio, photo, press clippings, contact information and an email address.


Send the materials to

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell
Attn: Music Production
336 Camp Street, Suite 250
New Orleans, LA, 70130.

Applications are available online at the Jazz Fest Web site.

Submission deadline is October 10.

Brooklyn cemetery commissions new sculpture to honor New Orleans composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk

From The Times-Picayune

by Chris Waddington
One of New Orleans' greatest musicians got a boost in New York this month, but he couldn't join in the celebratory announcement. That's because Louis Moreau Gottschalk was laid to rest in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery in 1869.

On July 6, the historic cemetery announced another step in its $200,000 campaign to restore the marble Angel of Music marker atop the world-touring pianist and composer's gravesite, which disappeared under hazy circumstances a half-century ago.

Green-Wood has selected four sculptors to submit models of their designs: Myra C. Weisgold of University Park, Fla.; Kirsten Kokkin of Loveland, Colo.; Tuck Langland of Granger, Ind.; and the team of Jill Burkee and Giancarlo Biagi of New York City.

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Broussard begins second career in music

From The American Press.
Ben Broussard, the only Cowboy baseball player to ever have his number retired, is already considered the greatest slugger to come out of McNeese State. Now, he’s on a quest to become one of the greatest strummers produced by McNeese.
After 10 years of playing professional baseball, “Big Ben” has traded in his bat for a guitar, hoping to turn what was once a part-time hobby into a full-blown vocation. Just a few months after hanging up his cleats for the last time, Broussard has released his second full-length CD, “Renovated.”
“I’m trying to get around people that are about music and having fun with it, and being able to connect with other people through music,” Broussard said.
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Ben Broussard’s new album, Renovated, can be purchased at: www.benbroussard.com

Sean Yeh wins New Orleans International Piano Competition for Young Artists

From The Times-Picayune
by Chris Waddington, Contributing writer, The Times-Picayune

Pianist Sean Yeh won first place and a $5,000 prize in the New Orleans International Piano Competition for Young Artists on Sunday, giving concertgoers a taste of the skills that have already earned the Illinois teen concert engagements with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the South Carolina Philharmonic.
Yeh led a field of strong players who advanced to Sunday's final round at Loyola University's Roussel Hall. They had emerged from a week of juried performances at Loyola in which 12 semifinalists each got a chance to perform twice. The dozen competitors ranged in age from 15 to 18.

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Grammy recording deadline nears

From The Baton Rouge Advocate:

By John Wirt

The deadline for submitting recordings for Grammy awards consideration is July 31. Music industry professionals who are members of the Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences, the organization that presents the Grammy awards, may submit recordings and vote during the nomination and award process.

Louisiana is part of the Recording Academy’s Memphis Chapter, which also covers Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri and western Tennessee. The Recording Academy has 20,000 members, 12,500 of whom are voting members.

“We’ve really grown our membership across Louisiana in the last few years,” Reid Wick, senior project coordinator for the Memphis Chapter, said this week from his New Orleans office.

“We’ve also seen record numbers of nominations for Louisiana artists,” Wick said. “The ultimate benefit in increased Louisiana membership in the Recording Academy is being able to get Grammy nominations and wins.”

Eleven of the 30 Louisiana-connected recordings nominated last year for Grammys won awards, Reid said.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/entertainment/music/51502257.html

New Orleans Opera refuses to sing the blues over tough economy

From The Times-Picayune

New Orleans Opera refuses to sing the blues over tough economy by Ted Mahne

As the New Orleans Opera Association prepares for its upcoming season, in which a concert of Verdi's Requiem Mass will replace the usual fourth full-scale opera production, the company assures patrons that the move does not signal an impending death knell for the company.

"It is an economic issue," said Robert Lyall, general director of the New Orleans Opera. "However, it also is an artistic decision."

Originally, "at the height of optimism," the new season was to include new productions of "Aida" and "Porgy and Bess," two operas demanding massive productions to stage successfully.

"Meanwhile, across the country, companies saw a real slowdown in ticket sales," Lyall said. "Contributions also have slowed."

While ticket sales have remained steady and strong in New Orleans, Lyall noted that the fiscal crystal ball was still cloudy, with significant state funding for all the arts placed on the chopping block by the governor earlier in the year.

"When faced with having to make financial cuts, I've always been in favor of tightening screws at every corner," Lyall said, rather than entirely slashing a particular program or merely shortening the season altogether.

The decision was made to present Verdi's Requiem instead of a fully staged opera.

"We could've gone with a smaller chamber opera that audiences would find too esoteric," Lyall said, or staged an inexpensive production such as "Hansel and Gretel" and gotten away with calling it a "family opera."

"But we still wanted to do something grand. The Requiem, in fact, has been called one of Verdi's greatest operas, it is so theatrical and dramatic," Lyall said.

Because the company will be saving significantly on production costs, it is able to bring in singers for the concert that the New Orleans Opera otherwise couldn't afford for a full-blown production and the required weeks of rehearsal time.

"Our principal singers for the Requiem are in demand by opera companies all over the world," Lyall said. The massive work demands a massive chorus. "We will have more than 200 voices in the chorus, including our own New Orleans Opera Chorus." Supplementing those ranks will be the New Orleans Vocal Arts Chorale and choirs from both Loyola and Tulane universities.

The alteration to the traditional season also is as much about the company's long-term future as it is the immediate season.

"I'm a risk-taker, but a prudent one," Lyall said. Indeed, having shepherded the company through its recovery and vibrant comeback after Hurricane Katrina, Lyall laughed at the notion that a national recession could do them in.

"This is the best accommodation for us now," he said. It is because of the company's prudent fiscal management that "we're now in the position to ensure that the artistic decisions remain the driving force."

One such decision was shifting from the previously scheduled "Aida," also by Verdi, to Puccini's "Tosca," which will open the season.

"We landed happily on our feet" through the schedule changes, Lyall said, noting for example that although the principal singers for "Tosca" originally were contracted for "Aida," the vocal types and ranges for each opera match up well, and the members of the cast include both operas in their various repertoires.

In addition, ticket sales and renewals for the season already are off to a strong start, at a time when the New Orleans Opera Association and all arts organizations are still measuring the depth of the performing arts audience.

"When we returned this spring to the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, I didn't know if the audience would be there or not," Lyall said. Planning two large-scale but ever-popular operas -- "Carmen" and "La Traviata" -- worked. All performances sold out.

"I knew where they were on those nights," Lyall said.

http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2009/07/new_orleans_opera_refuses_to_s.html