New Orleans Airlift: from 'New Water Music'

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new water music new orleans airlift 2017

Photo by Melissa Stryker.

In 2009, New Orleans Airlift was founded by musician and artist manager Jay Pennington and multi-media installation artist Delaney Martin as an artist-driven collaborative initiative to inspire wonder, connect communities, and foster opportunities through education and the creation of experimental public artworks in the city of New Orleans and across the globe. Now, in honor of New Orleans Airlift’s tenth anniversary, the CAC presents the installation From New Water Music, which includes remaindered materials and excerpted sound recordings from Airlift’s April 8, 2017 performance, New Water Music. 

The original free, public performance on Lake Pontchartrain of composer Yotam Haber’s score took inspiration from Handel’s Water Music, famously performed on the River Thames for King George I in 1717. Conceived and executed by New Orleans Airlift, New Water Music was performed from the water by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and hundreds of community musicians in a spectacular choreographed visual presentation. Conducting with naval semaphore flags and in occasional Morse Code from the shore, Haber paid tribute to traditional Louisiana music, including Cajun accordion and African-American spirituals. In the regatta beyond, a procession of fishing boats and vessels unfolded under the artist direction of New Orleans Airlift’s Delaney Martin. cacno.org/fromnewwatermusic.