About the LMI

The Louis Moreau Institute is a non-profit arts organization formed, in part, to honor Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the 19th century New Orleans composer who bridged cultural and musical worlds himself. Directed by Morris Rosenzweig—composer, conductor, and New Orleans native who is a professor at the University of Utah—the LMI combines love of the city and music into an exciting series of musical events.
For some 200 years, New Orleans has been widely identified as a vital center of musical life. It has invented, encouraged and sustained a number of genres that have influenced musical thinking and practice worldwide. To date, forward-leaning New Music has not enjoyed the prominence or identity of the opera, rags, multicultural concert music, jazz, blues, and funk conventionally associated with the city's rich cultural heritage. The Louis Moreau Institute is poised to do so, adding to the vitality and diversity of the city's musical life, do so in a unique way, and give the future of music a desitively rite place to grow and prosper. The Louis Moreau Institute also supports emerging, young performing artists from around the country, giving them the opportunity to perform challenging repertoire in non-traditional venues and to providing them with media from these performances to boost their early career development.
The Louis Moreau Institute presented its first one-week season of performances in 2015, with performing a collection of new works from the last 100 years, including compositions by regional composers, and improvisations, utilizing nontraditional techniques, based upon a foundation of traditional regional material. The inaugural and second season featured a dynamic group of performing musicians including flautist Laura Cocks , violist Arnaud Ghillebaert, violinist Marina Kifferstein, pianist Richard Valitutto, clarinetist Tiffany Valvo, and cellist Liam Veuve. The 2016 season additionally featured an original composition by the New Orleans-based composer Ray Evanoff, winner of that year’s Louis Moreau Institute Composition Competition.
The Institute introduced a new group of institutional artists, or Louies, for the 2017 season. The season featured a new instrumentation (string quartet, paino, and Horn in F) from the previous seaons that allowed the festival to explore literature centered on the piano quintet. The Ulysses String Quartet, featuring Christina Bouey, Rhiannon Banerdt, Colin Brookes, and Grace Ho, formed the cornerstone of the 2017 season, and they were joined by Adrian Blanco on piano for the next three seasons, through 2019. Russell Rybicki, Horin in F, was also featured as an institutional artist for the 2017 season and bass-baritone Jonathan Harris was a featured as a guest performer during the 2019 season.
For its current season the Louis Moreau Institute is excited to return to the instrumentation from our first season and has invited cellist Georgia Bourderionnet, clarinetist Nicholas Davies, pianist Wesley Ducote, flautist Francesca Ferrara, and violinist Lena Vidulich. The ensemble will be joined by guest performer Stephen Montalvo and will once again feature soloist Jonathan Harris in the Louisiana premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ monodrama, 8 Songs for a Mad King.
The Louis Moreau Institute is grateful for support from the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and our private donors!
For some 200 years, New Orleans has been widely identified as a vital center of musical life. It has invented, encouraged and sustained a number of genres that have influenced musical thinking and practice worldwide. To date, forward-leaning New Music has not enjoyed the prominence or identity of the opera, rags, multicultural concert music, jazz, blues, and funk conventionally associated with the city's rich cultural heritage. The Louis Moreau Institute is poised to do so, adding to the vitality and diversity of the city's musical life, do so in a unique way, and give the future of music a desitively rite place to grow and prosper. The Louis Moreau Institute also supports emerging, young performing artists from around the country, giving them the opportunity to perform challenging repertoire in non-traditional venues and to providing them with media from these performances to boost their early career development.
The Louis Moreau Institute presented its first one-week season of performances in 2015, with performing a collection of new works from the last 100 years, including compositions by regional composers, and improvisations, utilizing nontraditional techniques, based upon a foundation of traditional regional material. The inaugural and second season featured a dynamic group of performing musicians including flautist Laura Cocks , violist Arnaud Ghillebaert, violinist Marina Kifferstein, pianist Richard Valitutto, clarinetist Tiffany Valvo, and cellist Liam Veuve. The 2016 season additionally featured an original composition by the New Orleans-based composer Ray Evanoff, winner of that year’s Louis Moreau Institute Composition Competition.
The Institute introduced a new group of institutional artists, or Louies, for the 2017 season. The season featured a new instrumentation (string quartet, paino, and Horn in F) from the previous seaons that allowed the festival to explore literature centered on the piano quintet. The Ulysses String Quartet, featuring Christina Bouey, Rhiannon Banerdt, Colin Brookes, and Grace Ho, formed the cornerstone of the 2017 season, and they were joined by Adrian Blanco on piano for the next three seasons, through 2019. Russell Rybicki, Horin in F, was also featured as an institutional artist for the 2017 season and bass-baritone Jonathan Harris was a featured as a guest performer during the 2019 season.
For its current season the Louis Moreau Institute is excited to return to the instrumentation from our first season and has invited cellist Georgia Bourderionnet, clarinetist Nicholas Davies, pianist Wesley Ducote, flautist Francesca Ferrara, and violinist Lena Vidulich. The ensemble will be joined by guest performer Stephen Montalvo and will once again feature soloist Jonathan Harris in the Louisiana premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ monodrama, 8 Songs for a Mad King.
The Louis Moreau Institute is grateful for support from the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and our private donors!
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Morris Rosenzweig, Director Alan Gerson, Associate Director Mary Jane Ciccarello, Secretary Seth Harris, Treasurer Darlene Castro Lawrence Dutton Roger Dickerson Dale Fleishmann Julie Schwam Harris Seth Harris Devin Maxwell Mary Beth Meyer Dennis Miller Eric Murrell Mimi Stafford Raymond Tymas-Jones Robert Yekovich |