The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is returning to the Mary M. Danos Theater for the third time tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.
At 6:45 p.m., the conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and the CEO James Boyd will host a lecture and a question and answer session in room 255 of Talbot Hall. The session will be free to students and the public.
The ticket price to see the orchestra perform sections from Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 and “Homage to Federico Garcia Lorca” by Silvestre Revueltas, will be $20 to the public, but students can get in free if they call 448-4600 to get a password that will let them in at the door. Students can also go to Talbot 240 to get the password.
Getting the longest standing orchestra here at Nicholls will not only get more people to visit Nicholls’ campus, but according to Dr. Carol Britt, head of the music department, the proceeds will fund the renovations of the Mary M. Danos Theatre in Talbot hall.
The seventy-member orchestra was formed in 1991 and is based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. The orchestra is not only the longest standing musician- governed and operated ones in the United States, but it is also the only full time professional orchestra in the Gulf South.
The orchestra went through some disasters in in time, from going bankrupt to rejoining their career and having an amazing 2004-2005 season. Then Hurricane Katrina destroyed their hall, some of the musicians’ homes and their instruments, forcing a hiatus until more were purchased.
In 2009 the orchestra played for the first time since Hurricane Katrina at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre along with New York dancers and San Francisco ballet. Though its real home Orpheum Theatre was still ruined by the hurricane, it played in churches, universities and other venues around New Orleans.
The orchestra is now steadily performing thirty-six weeks out of the year around Louisiana and other neighboring states, conducting over 120 performances.