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Louisiana Orchestra Performs On Moving Boats On Lake

lpomusic.com
Concert is free and open to the public starts April 8

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's upcoming concert will literally be on the water.

Musicians will perform from the decks of a moored barge and moving shrimp boats on Lake Ponchartrain — the big tidal basin bordering New Orleans. More than a dozen additional shrimp boats will move in patterns and dip and raise their nets in a stately ballet.

This version of Yotam Haber's "New Water Music" is so complex it required work with the Coast Guard and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Getting it all together for Saturday's performance also required convincing musicians that the performance would work and wouldn't endanger their instruments, and getting a marine industrial supply company to lend the barge.

Haber will conduct with big flags. Coordination also requires 50 walkie-talkies.