The Louis Moreau Institute for New Music Performance is celebrating its 11th anniversary season and over 10 years of presenting contemporary classical music to audiences in New Orleans. This year’s festival will feature Institute Artists from past seasons including violinist Rhiannon Banerdt, clarinetist Nicholas Davies, and cellist Zhihao Wu. They will be joined by violinist Emelyn Bashour as well as the Institute’s Assistant Artistic Director, acclaimed pianist Wesley Ducote.

The festival opens with a program that bridges musical traditions across the 20th and 21st centuries, featuring composers that reflect the Institute’s mission to celebrate both established and emerging voices in contemporary classical music, including works by Unsuk Chin, Mario Davidovsky, György Ligeti, Augusta Read Thomas, Igor Stravinsky, and Andrew Waggoner.

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

György Ligeti – Études for Piano: L'escalier du diable
Mario Davidovsky – Synchronims 9
Unsuk Chin – Advice from a Caterpillar
György Ligeti – Sonata for Solo Cello
Igor Stravinsky – Élegie
György Ligeti – Études for Piano: Fém
Augusta Read Thomas – Dancing Helix Rituals
Johnson, Johnson,and Cole – Oh Didn’t He Ramble
György Ligeti – Études for Piano: White on White
Andrew Waggoner – Summer

The year's Institute Artists are:
Rhiannon Banerdt, violin
Emelyn Bashour, violin
Nicholas Davies, clarinet
Zhihao Wu, cello

Accompanied on piano by Assistant Artistic Director, Wesley Ducote

Small Plates: A Mélange

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

Unsuk Chin – Advice from a Caterpillar

Nicholas Davies, clarinet

Advice from a Caterpillar - Unsuk Chin

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

Mario Davidovsky – Synchronisms No. 9

Rhiannon Banerdt, violin

Synchronism No. 9 - Mario Davidovsky

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

György Ligeti – Études for Piano: L'escalier du diable

Wesley Ducote, piano

L'escalier du diable - György Ligeti

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

György Ligeti – Sonata for Solo Cello
I.  Dialogo – Adagio, rubato, cantabile
II. Capriccio – Presto con slancio

Zhihao Wu, cello

Sonata for Solo Cello - György Ligeti

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

György Ligeti – Études for Piano: White on White

Wesley Ducote, piano

White on White - György Ligeti

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

Johnson, Johnson,and Cole – Oh Didn’t He Ramble

Rhiannon Banerdt, violin
Nicholas Davies, clarinet
Zhihao Wu, cello
Wesley Ducote, piano

Oh Didn’t He Ramble - Johnson, Johnson, & Cole (arr. Wesley Ducote)

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

Igor Stravinsky – Élegie

Rhiannon Banerdt, violin

Élegie - Igor Stravinsky

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

Andrew Waggoner – Summer

Rhiannon Banerdt, violin
Nicholas Davies, clarinet
Zhihao Wu, cello
Wesley Ducote, piano

Summer - Andrew Waggoner

March 27th, 2025

New Marigny Theatre
2301 Marais St
New Orleans, LA 70117

György Ligeti – Études for Piano: Fém

Wesley Ducote, piano

Fém - György Ligeti

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. 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 provide them with media from these performances to boost their early career development.