Please join us at the Louis Moreau Institute in welcoming our two newest board members, Violist Lois Martin and Charles Taylor, Director of the School of the Arts at the University of New Orleans!

Lois Martin, a native of York, Penna., began her viola studies with Arthur Lewis at the Peabody Preparatory School. She completed her undergraduate work at the Eastman School of Music where she was a scholarship student of Francis Tursi. During this time, she was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. She continued her graduate studies at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Lillian Fuchs.

Ms. Martin is a founding member of the Atlantic String Quartet, which is dedicated to the performance of newly written compositions. Her continuing commitment to contemporary music includes performances with the Group for Contemporary Music, ISCM Chamber Players, Ensemble Sospeso, Ensemble 21, New York New Music Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, Composersʻ Guild, Da Capo Chamber Players, Composers Forum and Steve Reich and Musicians.

On the Jazz and Popular circuit, she has performed with artists including Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Chris Potter, Ornette Coleman, Esperanza Spalding, String Fever, Shirley Bassey, Elton John, Paul Simon, Tyne Daley, Gil Goldstein, Don Alias, Richard Bona, and Mike Mainieri.

Currently, Ms. Martin is Principal Violist for the Stamford Symphony, OK Mozart Festival and The Little Orchestra Society. She is a member of the Orchestra of St. Lukeʼs, American Chamber Ensemble, and frequently appears with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and New York City Ballet Orchestra. Ms. Martin is also on the faculty of the Composersʼ Conference at Wellesley College and has taught at Princeton University.

Including her recording of the “Viola Variations”- her commission by Charles Wuorinen- Ms. Martin has recorded the works of over 50 contemporary composers She premiered the “Viola Variations” at Merkin Hall in New York in the fall of 2008 and also had the opportunity to play it at the Library of Congress in 2009 for Wuorinenʼs 70th birthday celebration.

Recent highlights include a world tour with Grammy Award recipient Esperanza Spalding.

 
Dr. Charles Taylor is Professor of Music and Director of the School of the Arts. Dr. Taylor holds the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Music Education and Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He studied conducting with Rodney Winther and Terence Milligan and clarinet with Carmine Campione and Emil Schmactenberg. Prior to his appointment at the University of New Orleans, Dr. Taylor taught middle school and high school instrumental music in Ohio. Dr. Taylor also serves as the conductor of the New Orleans Concert Band and the New Orleans Civic Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Taylor has been a guest conductor throughout the United States and Canada and a guest clinician at the Mid-West Clinic, the International Conference of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the Southern Division Conference of the College Band Directors National Association, and the Louisiana Music Educators Association. Under his direction, the New Orleans Concert Band performed at the National Convention of the Association of Concert Bands in Houston, Texas and the University of New Orleans Wind Ensemble performed at the Louisiana Music Educators Association State Conference. As an advocate for new music, Dr. Taylor has premiered over 50 works in various media and has worked collaboratively with many composers and performers, including Michael Torke, Steven Bryant, John Mackey, James Syler, Lisa Kaplan, Brad Garner, Mark Babbitt, and Helen Kim.

At UNO, Dr. Taylor teaches graduate and undergraduate theory and conducting; he additionally serves as the conductor of the New Orleans Civic Symphony Orchestra, the New Orleans Concert Band, and several new ensembles. He has presented sessions at the Mid-West Clinic, Southern Division Conference of the College Band Directors National Association, and the Louisiana Music Education Association.

Under his direction, the New Orleans Concert Band performed at the National Convention of the Association of Concert bands in Houston, Texas. He has served as guest conductor for ensembles in Louisiana, Ohio, Michigan, and New York. During the 2010-11 year, Dr. Taylor also served as Visiting Associate Professor at Louisiana State University, where he conducted the Wind Ensemble.
 

We are excited to have both Lois and Charles joining the Institute's board and look forward to their contributions to the organization moving forward.

If you missed Morris and Jonathan's conversation with Diane Mack on WWNO 89.9's Inside the Arts, you can listen to an archived recording of the episode here.

Please join us at the Louis Moreau Institute in welcoming our two newest board members, violist Lawrence Dutton and composer Darlene Castro!

Lawrence Dutton, violist of the nine-time Grammy winning Emerson String Quartet, has collaborated with many of the world’s great performing artists, including Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Oscar Shumsky, Leon Fleisher, Sir Paul McCartney, Renee Fleming, Sir James Galway, Andre Previn, Menahem Pressler, Walter Trampler, Rudolf Firkusny, Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Lynn Harrell, Joseph Kalichstein, Misha Dichter, Jan DeGaetani, Edgar Meyer, Joshua Bell, and Elmar Oliveira, among others. He has also performed as guest artist with numerous chamber music ensembles such as the Juilliard and Guarneri Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Since 2001, Mr. Dutton has been the Artistic Advisor of the Hoch Chamber Music Series, presenting three concerts at Concordia College in Bronxville, NY. He has been featured on three albums with the Grammy winning jazz bassist John Patitucci on the Concord Jazz label and with the Beaux Arts Trio recorded the Shostakovich Piano Quintet, Op. 57, and the Fauré G minor Piano Quartet, Op. 45, on the Philips label. His Aspen Music Festival recording with Jan DeGaetani for Bridge records was nominated for a Grammy award. Mr. Dutton has appeared as soloist with many American and European orchestras including those of Germany, Belgium, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Colorado, and Virginia, among others. He has also appeared as guest artist at the music festivals of Aspen, Santa Fe, Ravinia, La Jolla, the Heifetz Institute, the Great Mountains Festival in Korea, Chamber Music Northwest, the Rome Chamber Music Festival and the Great Lakes Festival. With the late Isaac Stern he had collaborated in the International Chamber Music Encounters both at Carnegie Hall and in Jerusalem. Currently Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Stony Brook University and at the Robert McDuffie School for Strings at Mercer University in Georgia, Mr. Dutton began violin studies with Margaret Pardee and on viola with Francis Tursi at the Eastman School. He earned his Bachelors and Masters degrees at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Lillian Fuchs and has received Honorary Doctorates from Middlebury College in Vermont, The College of Wooster in Ohio, Bard College in New York and The Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. Most recently, Mr. Dutton and the other members of the Emerson Quartet were presented the 2015 Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award from Chamber Music America and were recipients of the Avery Fisher Award in 2004. They were also inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2010 and were Musical America’s Ensemble of the year for 2000. Mr. Dutton resides in Bronxville, NY with his wife violinist Elizabeth Lim-Dutton and their three sons Luke, Jesse and Samuel.

Mr. Dutton exclusively uses Thomastik Spirocore strings.
Viola: Samuel Zygmuntowicz (Brooklyn, NY 2003).

Darlene Castro (b.1993) is a Mexican-American composer and classical guitarist based in Chicago. Her interest in music began at a young age with the violin, first in a youth mariachi band, then in a classical orchestra setting. Raised in a bilingual family, her creative interest mostly lies in translation and creating sonic representations on non-musical objects, often using electronics, noise, and extended techniques. Her music draws most of its inspiration from trying to auralize processes or extra-musical objects in order to arrive at a vivid, self-contained musical translation. These musical translations can sometimes be literal, other times more veiled and often use visual art, poetry, scientific processes, and active words as starting points. 

Her music has been performed and commissioned by ensembles such as Spektral Quartet, the Runnin' Fl'UTES', Salty Cricket Composers Collective, PANTS (Wind Quintet), Nightingale Ensemble, and the Salt Lake City Public Library's SHH! A Very Quiet Music Series. ​ 
 
Her research on historical music notation has been presented with the American Musicological Society (Rocky Mountain Chapter) and has led her to conduct research in a week-long seminar on historical music notation at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.  

She completed her Bachelors in Music Composition at the University of Utah and ​is currently working on her PhD in composition at the University of Chicago.
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We are excited to have both Lawrence and Darlene joining our team and look forward to their invaluable contributions.

TWO WORTHY UTAH ENLIGHTENMENT EXAMPLES: DAN HIGGINS’ IN. MEMORY. OF, NOVA CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES’ MICRO-CONCERTO PROGRAM
Les Roka, The Utah Review
​Two recent Salt Lake City performances once again highlight the creative entrepreneurial impact of the Utah Enlightenment....(Follow link for more) 

AUDIO: IN THE STUDIO WITH ARTISTS OF THE LOUIS MOREAU INSTITUTE
Joe Shriner, nolavie.com

​The Louis Moreau Institute presents its second season of new music with two evening concerts on Friday, February 26 at the Marigny Opera House and Monday, February 29 at Dixon Hall on Tulane University's campus. Before all six artists began their grueling daily rehearsal schedule this week, violinist Marina Kifferstein, cellist Liam Veuve, and violinist/violist Arnaud Ghillebaert arrived a day early to take in the sights.... (Follow link to read more)

Artists In Their Own Words: Ray Evanoff
Kelley Crawford, nolavie.com
This week's Artist In Their Own Words spotlights local composer Ray Evanoff, who may think prepared pianos are a nightmare, but The Situationist and Anthony Braxton open his mind in new ways... (Follow link to read more)

 There’s Music That’s New and Then There’s New Music!
Sharon Litwin, nolavie.com
When it comes to new music, there may be sounds, there may be a melody, and there may be nothing that listeners expect. Sharon Litwin discusses all these nuances that will be playing live at the Marigny Opera House for the Louis Moreau Institute, Program 1 on Friday (2/26).​... (Follow link to read more)