Music Students to Help House New Orleans Musicians
The Petrie Pedagoddesses, Converse’s chapter of the Music Teachers National Association, will present a concert Sunday, Feb. 12 to help house musicians who were forced to flee New Orleans because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The “Spread the Love” concert will begin at 4 p.m. in Daniel Recital Hall on the Converse campus and will include works by Bach, Haydn, Brahms, Schubert, Debussy, Beethoven and Liszt. Admission is a monetary donation to the cause. Proceeds from the concert will benefit a project of Habitat for Humanity and New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity to build a “Musicians’ Village” in New Orleans. The project was conceived by musicians Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis.
Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita forced many musicians to flee New Orleans, the jazz, blues and Dixieland that were the city’s musical score have been harder to find, as have the musicians who seek to return but, like so many, have no place to go. The Musicians’ Village will consist of Habitat-constructed homes for displaced New Orleans musicians. Its centerpiece will be the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, dedicated to the education and development of homeowners and others who will live nearby. It is named for the patriarch of the Marsalis clan, modern jazz pioneer and native New Orleanian. The center will have as its focus the celebration of the music and musicians of New Orleans and will include performance rooms and classrooms.
“Music is as much a part of the fabric of life in New Orleans as the cuisine, the culture,” said Marsalis, the award-winning saxophonist and native New Orleanian. “Katrina and Rita scattered musicians across the country, and shuttered many clubs and concert venues across the city. “This plan, this village, will help restore New Orleans’ musical heritage, and protect it for the next generation that will follow,” he added, noting that it’s “also the beginning of Habitat’s return to work in the city, which will see hundreds of houses built in the years to come, to help hurricane recovery and beyond.”
For more information about the “Spread the Love” concert, call (864) 596-9021.