Baroque on the Bayou

In a three day celebration that will take music lovers up and down the Bayou Teche and into the vibrant rural communities of Acadiana, the Atchafalaya Orchestra presents the inaugural Baroque on the Bayou festival. The vision was to bring some of the world's masterworks of music from the Baroque era, played alongside indigenous Louisiana genres, into accessible, intimate, and historic venues in our community. Each day will feature a one-hour concert at a site in St. Martin Parish, starting with NUNU Arts & Culture Collective in Arnaudville, where the orchestra will perform concertos by Vivaldi and Bach, and local musician Forest Huval will premiere Louisiana composer Jessé Bateman's re-imagination of Louisiana folk music in a neo-Romantic style for a contemporary orchestra, titled "Five Cajun Songs". Saturday, the show will take place at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Cecilia, with performances of Borislava Iltcheva's "Spring," and Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Cellos in G Minor, followed by original songs. by composer/vocalist Laura Huval in concert with the orchestra. And it will all close out with a celebration of baroque opera at the Duchamp Opera House in St. Martinville, including selections from Cadmus et Hermione and Amadis and a concluding presentation of French opera selections sung by the festival's own founder and St. Martin Parish native, André Courville. Friday and Saturday concerts at 7 pm; Sunday at 3 pm. $35 each; $90 for the whole festival. Details at bayoutechemusic.com.