The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and hundreds of community musicians in conjunction with the New Orleans Airlift will debut composer Yotam Haber’s “New Water Music” on April 8, 2017. The music will be performed partially from the water by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra along with a choreographed visual presentation, which is being conceived and executed by New Orleans Airlift.
“New Water Music” needs your help ushering audience members, helping artists and musicians, decorating, and more. Volunteers will be provided costumes so that you truly become part of the show! Learn more and sign up here.
The new hour-long work for hundreds of musicians fuses new and traditional music, procession, water culture, and pageantry while galvanizing listeners to save Louisiana’s coast. As the sun begins its descent on April 8, the musicians will take positions on water-bound staging for the grand event against the incredible backdrop of Lake Pontchartrain.
Conducting with naval semaphore flags and in occasional Morse Code, Haber’s score will flow across the water, paying tribute to traditional Louisiana music including Cajun accordion and African-American spirituals. In the regatta beyond, a procession of fishing boats and vessels will unfold under the artistic direction of Airlift’s Delaney Martin.
“New Water Music” takes inspiration from Handel’s “Water Music,” famously performed on the River Thames for King George I in 1717, but also for the wider city that watched from shore and from boats since public concerts did not enter the musical tradition until the late 18th century.
This is going to be one heck of a spectacle and it’s free and open to the public. The New Orleans Airlift is an arts collective founded in 2008 whose mission is to inspire wonder, connect communities, and foster opportunities through arts education and the creation of experimental public artworks. They are best known for radically collaborative projects like The Music Box.
