june 2026: SYMPHONIC AND ART MUSIC CALENDAR FOR NEW ORLEANS
Photo courtesy of SONO
CLASSICALLY UNTRAINED
Compiled by David S. Lewis
Art music listings and news for New Orleans. Your ONLY guide to symphonic / classical / opera music in the city! This is the only calendar of its kind in the region! (Read more about this calendar and features)
It’s June, and most of the art music performers around the city have just concluded their seasons. There are still a few smatterings, though, and this is a great time to sniff out some of our fantastic musicians outside the auditorium: many will moonlight on Frenchmen. Others will conduct masterclasses and many will travel, and recharge their batteries: we wish them all luck for the summer.
Some news: Anwar Nasir, the Louisiana Philharmonic’s Executive Director, is leaving New Orleans.
Taking the helm of the orchestra’s office and fundraising at the end of the pandemic, Nasir did much to bring the orchestra deeper into the community, building ties and showing the city its Grammy-winning orchestra in settings where it had not been. Collaborations with the musicians the city is more known for, such as Big Freedia, Manny Fresh, and Tank and the Bangas, fundamentally altered who was interacting with our orchestra, and that Grammy award came to the symphony under his watch. He leaves us for Chicago, where he’ll be President and CEO of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. Look for some changes in the symphony to come! A port city like New Orleans is dynamic, always in flux, always changing and adapting, and our symphony reflects that, too.
In other sad news, long-time patroness of the LPO Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin has died, passing at 93.
A Carnival queen and a soprano who sang with many of the city’s finest vocal ensembles, Benjamin’s family helped found the symphony in 1936: later she herself led the Symphony’s board at a time when the orchestra was in dire straits, rallying the city to its aid and personally contributing hundreds of thousands dollars to make sure the musicians were paid and the organization’s debt was erased, perhaps single-handedly saving the symphony in the dark times before it was winning Grammys and integrating itself with the community. She left an enduring mark, and her presence was profound; she will be both sorely missed and warmly remembered.
LPO Music Director Matthew Kraemer wrote, “Adelaide Benjamin was the kind of person who makes you believe that one individual truly can change everything. Her love for this orchestra was unconditional and unwavering. To know her was to feel held by something larger than yourself. On behalf of everyone at the LPO, I can say that we are better musicians, better artists, and better stewards of this city's culture because of her.” And Dr. Stephen Hales, a longtime member of the orchestra’s board who worked with Benjamin, said succinctly, “There would not be a symphony orchestra in New Orleans without Adelaide Benjamin. Full stop.”
It’s a reminder that these things we enjoy – these critical institutions that characterize our experience in the city– don’t just happen by themselves: they’re the product of hard, time-consuming, enduring work by real people: resilient, optimistic, and committed. We can be those people; we can support those people. But the curtain doesn’t raise without them.
Calendar
June 4th
Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the WWII Museum Presents: The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE-Day
7:30 PM , The National WWII Museum (945 Magazine Street)
The National WWII Museum and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra to bring you a musically driven multimedia experience capturing the dramatic final months of World War II in Europe. Following sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Boston’s Symphony Hall, historian John Monsky joins The National WWII Museum, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and top Broadway stars to bring you The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day, a must-see program for history lovers. This musically driven multimedia experience, conducted by Hamilton’s Ian Weinberger, captures the dramatic final months of World War II in Europe through the eyes of war correspondents, photojournalists, and service members—including a young American intelligence officer who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Archival photos, film, and words from Ernest Hemingway, Robert Capa, Lee Miller, the 761st Tank Battalion, and others come together with music from Glenn Miller, Edith Piaf, Aaron Copland, and more to tell the story of both iconic figures and unsung heroes who served and sacrificed for our country.
EDITOR'S PICK
Symphony of New Orleans and Voices of New Orleans presents: Follies
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM, Christ Church Cathedral (2919 St Charles Ave)
Free (suggested donation $20)
The SONO, a volunteer ensemble that features some of the city’s finest players, will perform W.A. Mozart's Symphony No. 40, Richard Wagner's Sigfried “Idyll,” Pierre Passereau's Il Est Bel et Bon, Dan Forrest's You are the Music, and more. This is a season finale, and it will be a gorgeous performance.
Sunday, June 28
New Orleans Civic Symphony season finale: Farewell: Mozart and Haydn
UNO Performing Arts Center (6648 Milneburg Rd.)
Free, with donations gratefully accepted
The city’s oldest continually operating symphony orchestra will close their season with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 36th Symphony and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony 45 “Farewell.” Mozart’s 36th, also called the “Linz symphony” after the prodigy’s visit to that Austria city, was written over four days while he was there in 1783. The Haydn, both beautiful and rather cheeky, was written as a gentle protest for a noble’s hired orchestra to play for him after he retained them for his vacation…a vacation which went rather long, which led to the musicians’ making their request for time off in a very unusual manner.
Art music listings and news for New Orleans. Your ONLY guide to symphonic / classical / opera music in the city! This is the only calendar of its kind in the region! (Read more about this calendar and features)
It’s June, and most of the art music performers around the city have just concluded their seasons. There are still a few smatterings, though, and this is a great time to sniff out some of our fantastic musicians outside the auditorium: many will moonlight on Frenchmen. Others will conduct masterclasses and many will travel, and recharge their batteries: we wish them all luck for the summer.
Some news: Anwar Nasir, the Louisiana Philharmonic’s Executive Director, is leaving New Orleans.
Taking the helm of the orchestra’s office and fundraising at the end of the pandemic, Nasir did much to bring the orchestra deeper into the community, building ties and showing the city its Grammy-winning orchestra in settings where it had not been. Collaborations with the musicians the city is more known for, such as Big Freedia, Manny Fresh, and Tank and the Bangas, fundamentally altered who was interacting with our orchestra, and that Grammy award came to the symphony under his watch. He leaves us for Chicago, where he’ll be President and CEO of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. Look for some changes in the symphony to come! A port city like New Orleans is dynamic, always in flux, always changing and adapting, and our symphony reflects that, too.
In other sad news, long-time patroness of the LPO Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin has died, passing at 93.
A Carnival queen and a soprano who sang with many of the city’s finest vocal ensembles, Benjamin’s family helped found the symphony in 1936: later she herself led the Symphony’s board at a time when the orchestra was in dire straits, rallying the city to its aid and personally contributing hundreds of thousands dollars to make sure the musicians were paid and the organization’s debt was erased, perhaps single-handedly saving the symphony in the dark times before it was winning Grammys and integrating itself with the community. She left an enduring mark, and her presence was profound; she will be both sorely missed and warmly remembered.
LPO Music Director Matthew Kraemer wrote, “Adelaide Benjamin was the kind of person who makes you believe that one individual truly can change everything. Her love for this orchestra was unconditional and unwavering. To know her was to feel held by something larger than yourself. On behalf of everyone at the LPO, I can say that we are better musicians, better artists, and better stewards of this city's culture because of her.” And Dr. Stephen Hales, a longtime member of the orchestra’s board who worked with Benjamin, said succinctly, “There would not be a symphony orchestra in New Orleans without Adelaide Benjamin. Full stop.”
It’s a reminder that these things we enjoy – these critical institutions that characterize our experience in the city– don’t just happen by themselves: they’re the product of hard, time-consuming, enduring work by real people: resilient, optimistic, and committed. We can be those people; we can support those people. But the curtain doesn’t raise without them.
Calendar
June 4th
Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the WWII Museum Presents: The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE-Day
7:30 PM , The National WWII Museum (945 Magazine Street)
The National WWII Museum and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra to bring you a musically driven multimedia experience capturing the dramatic final months of World War II in Europe. Following sold-out shows at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Boston’s Symphony Hall, historian John Monsky joins The National WWII Museum, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and top Broadway stars to bring you The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day, a must-see program for history lovers. This musically driven multimedia experience, conducted by Hamilton’s Ian Weinberger, captures the dramatic final months of World War II in Europe through the eyes of war correspondents, photojournalists, and service members—including a young American intelligence officer who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Archival photos, film, and words from Ernest Hemingway, Robert Capa, Lee Miller, the 761st Tank Battalion, and others come together with music from Glenn Miller, Edith Piaf, Aaron Copland, and more to tell the story of both iconic figures and unsung heroes who served and sacrificed for our country.
EDITOR'S PICK
Symphony of New Orleans and Voices of New Orleans presents: Follies
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM, Christ Church Cathedral (2919 St Charles Ave)
Free (suggested donation $20)
The SONO, a volunteer ensemble that features some of the city’s finest players, will perform W.A. Mozart's Symphony No. 40, Richard Wagner's Sigfried “Idyll,” Pierre Passereau's Il Est Bel et Bon, Dan Forrest's You are the Music, and more. This is a season finale, and it will be a gorgeous performance.
Sunday, June 28
New Orleans Civic Symphony season finale: Farewell: Mozart and Haydn
UNO Performing Arts Center (6648 Milneburg Rd.)
Free, with donations gratefully accepted
The city’s oldest continually operating symphony orchestra will close their season with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 36th Symphony and Joseph Haydn’s Symphony 45 “Farewell.” Mozart’s 36th, also called the “Linz symphony” after the prodigy’s visit to that Austria city, was written over four days while he was there in 1783. The Haydn, both beautiful and rather cheeky, was written as a gentle protest for a noble’s hired orchestra to play for him after he retained them for his vacation…a vacation which went rather long, which led to the musicians’ making their request for time off in a very unusual manner.