Randy Newman News

The New York Philharmonic is helping to bring back Beethoven to New Orleans by hosting a benefit concert for the Louisiana Philharmonic.

The Oct. 28 concert at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall will feature members of both orchestras, along with composer Randy Newman and singer Audra MacDonald. Proceeds will benefit the Louisiana Philharmonic, which is working to rebuild itself in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The concert, dubbed "bringing back the music," will be hosted by Beverly Sills. The musicians will be led by New York Philharmonic Music Director Lorin Maazel; Carlos Miguel Prieto, music director-designate of the Louisiana Philharmonic; and Leonard Slatkin, a former music director of the New Orleans Symphony.

The 68-member Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra — the nation's only full-time symphony owned and operated by its musicians — was formed following the 1991 demise of the New Orleans Symphony. It was to have opened its concert season at the New Orleans Orpheum Theater on Sept. 15, but the venue has severe water damage and is out of commission indefinitely. The orchestra's members scattered around the country during the evacuation of their city.

The all-American program will include works by George Gershwin, Charles Ives, Newman and Aaron Copland, New York Philharmonic officials said Thursday.

This week, the Louisiana Philharmonic performed its first post-Katrina concert — in Tennessee with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

___

On the Net:

http://www.lpomusic.org/

http://newyorkphilharmonic.org/