Vienna, Leipzig, and New Orleans

Mary Sue Morrow received her PhD in musicology from Indiana University in 1984 and taught at Loyola University New Orleans from 1984 to 1999. She joined the faculty of the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati in 1999 and retired in 2018. 

Her publications include The Eighteenth-Century Symphony, vol. 1 of The Symphonic Repertoire, which she edited with Bathia Churgin (Indiana University Press, 2012); German Music Criticism in the Late Eighteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1997); and Concert Life in Haydn’s Vienna (Pendragon Press, 1989), as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals and collections. 

A specialist in 18th-century music, she has focused on instrumental music and aesthetics, the intersection of music and society, and German Männerchöre in the United States. She has held fellowships from the Fulbright-Hays Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Carlos Miguel Prieto is considered the leading Mexican conductor of his generation. A highly respected cultural leader, Prieto is Musical America’s 2019 Conductor of the Year. He possesses a wide-ranging repertoire, has led over 100 world premieres, and is a champion of American and Latin American composers. The 2019–20 season marks his 14th as music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), where he has been a part of the cultural revitalization of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. 

Prieto has been the music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México (OSN), the country’s most important orchestra, since 2007. In 2008, he was appointed music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, a hand-picked orchestra that performs a two-month-long series of summer programs in Mexico City. In November 2016, he led the OSN on a critically acclaimed nine-concert tour of Germany and Austria, performing the works of Mexican and Latin American composers in halls such as the Wiener Musikverein.

Prieto’s 2018–19 season included his debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Amongst other engagements, he returned to the the Hallé, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa. 

A passionate proponent of music education, Prieto served as principal conductor of the Orchestra of the Americas from its inception in 2002 until 2011, when he was appointed music director. In early 2010 he conducted the ensemble alongside Valery Gergiev on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the World Economic Forum, at Carnegie Hall. In summer 2018, he led the group on a European tour from Ukraine to Scotland. Prieto was also tapped by Carnegie Hall to lead its NYO2 youth initiative. 

Prieto has an extensive discography that covers labels including Naxos and Sony. Recent Naxos recordings include Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2 and Études-tableaux, op. 33, with Boris Giltburg and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, which won a 2018 Opus Klassik award and was listed as a Gramophone’s Critics’ Choice in 2017. With violinist Philippe Quint and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, Prieto recorded works by Bruch, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn (on Avanticlassic) and Korngold’s Violin Concerto (on Naxos), the latter receiving two Grammy nominations. His recording of the Elgar and Finzi Violin Concertos with Ning Feng were released on the Channel Classics in November 2018. 

A graduate of Princeton and Harvard Universities, Prieto was awarded an honorary doctor of music by Loyola University New Orleans in 2018.

The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is dedicated to maintaining live orchestral music and a full-scale symphonic orchestra as an integral part of the cultural and educational life of the New Orleans area, the entire state of Louisiana, and the Gulf South region. Formed in 1991, the LPO is the oldest full-time musician-governed and collaboratively-operated orchestra in the United States.

The LPO offers a full 36-week season with more than 120 performances, including classics, light classics, pops, education, family, park, and community engagement concerts in New Orleans and across multi-parish areas. In addition, The LPO collaborates with and provides orchestral support for other cultural and performing arts organizations, including the New Orleans Opera Association, New Orleans Vocal Arts Chorale, New Orleans Ballet Association, Delta Festival Ballet, Musical Arts Society of New Orleans, and the Historic New Orleans Collection.

The New Orleans Black Chorale (NOBC) specializes in the performance of music composed and arranged by African American composers, and is especially dedicated to the preservation and performance of American Negro Spirituals. NOBC made its first appearance in 1980 with the New Orleans Philharmonic Symphony at the inaugural presentation of “Symphony in Black,” a concert that highlighted the contributions of black artists to the cultural wealth of New Orleans. Originally under the direction of the late Edwin B. Hogan, the NOBC was composed of soloists, individuals from organized church and college choirs, and others with an interest in preserving American Negro Spirituals. Dr. John E. Ware, the Rosa Keller Endowed Professor and Director of Choirs at Xavier University of Louisiana, succeeded Hogan and continues to serve as the ensemble’s conductor and musical director. 

NOBC presents two concerts annually—a Christmas concert and a black history concert—and performs in venues throughout New Orleans and the surrounding region. NOBC is regularly featured in the Trinity Artist Series at Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans, the Third Sunday Concert Series at Christ Episcopal Church in Covington, and the Heritage Choir’s annual Festival of Negro Spirituals in Baton Rouge. In 2015, NOBC performed a “Tribute to Moses Hogan” at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and performed Robert Russell Bennett’s concert version of Porgy and Bess with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (Mexico), conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto. In 2016, the group returned to Mexico to perform a suite from Joplin’s Treemonisha and Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride, along with other spirituals. The ensemble again performed Treemonisha and other spirituals with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2017.

Throughout its history NOBC has not only given the New Orleans community access to music not usually heard, but has also presented scholarships to music students at Xavier, Dillard, and Southern Universities. Additionally, at its annual black history concert, NOBC honors individuals and organizations that have made a contribution to the community.

Casey Candebat, a tenor hailing from New Orleans, is quickly garnering the attention of opera companies around the country. He is a graduate of the prestigious Merola Opera Program, where he was a two-time participant in the summer training program. Recently, he performed in Matthew Aucoin’s new opera, Eurydice, with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He is a frequent performer with the San Francisco Opera, New Orleans Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Santa Barbara, and Opera Grand Rapids. He has been featured in the New Orleans Opera productions of Orpheus in the Underworld, Dead Man Walking, Salome, Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto, Il Trittico, Manon Lescaut, La Bohème, and Turandot. This season’s highlights include performing King Charles VII in The Maid of Orléans with the New Orleans Opera; Max in Der Freischütz with Heartbeat Opera, New York; and appearing as a guest soloist in various concerts and galas across the country. 

Equally at home in concert work and oratorio, Candebat recently performed Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the New West Symphony in Los Angeles and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra this season. He has also performed the tenor solos in Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and Schubert’s Mass in E-flat major. A frequent recitalist, Candebat has had several highly acclaimed touring recitals, including “Casey at the Movies,” “O Holy Night of Opera,” and “Scarborough Fair: Folk Songs of the British Isles.” Candebat has won several awards in prestigious vocal competitions, including the Grand Prize in the Bel Canto Foundation Opera Contest in 2011. Candebat is a graduate of Northwestern University and Loyola University New Orleans.

Distinguished vocal artistry combined with superior musical preparation defines the mastery of Dr. Valerie Francis, recitalist, opera singer, music professor, and scholar. Her award-winning, brilliant voice places her among the country’s greatest performers of classical music and Negro spirituals. Dr. Francis currently serves as associate professor of music and executive artistic director of opera and vocal programming at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. 

Francis made her debut with the New Orleans Opera in October 2010 as the Strawberry Woman and soprano I prayer soloist in Porgy and Bess and returned as Inez in Il Trovatore in April 2011. She sang the role of Leonie in a premiere concert performance of Freedom Ride by Dan Shore. She has also appeared as guest soloist with the Dallas Symphony, the American Institute of Musical Studies, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Jefferson Performing Arts Society, and has been featured in the Trinity Artist Series at Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans. 

For five years, Francis has served as recitalist, master class technician, and adjudicator of the Concurso y Festival Internacional de Canto Lírico in Trujillo, Peru. Dr. Francis represented the southwestern region at the National Association of Negro Musicians’ centennial convention held in Chicago in summer 2019. She also served as guest soloist for the National Baptist Convention held in New Orleans in September 2019.

Ivan Griffin is a versatile artist who has delighted audiences in the United States, Europe, and South Africa in both concert, operatic, and musical theater performances. In 2016 he appeared in two historic productions at the 40th anniversary celebration concert of the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston. He was recently featured 17 in the title role of Ulysses in Opera Louisiane’s adaptation of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. 

A familiar face to New Orleans audiences, Griffin has appeared with the New Orleans Opera in productions such as Tosca, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, La Traviata, and Carmen, and has performed numerous roles with OperaCréole. He has been a featured soloist with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (Mexico), and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, all under the direction of Maestro Carlos Miguel Prieto. 

Additionally, Griffin has appeared with the symphony orchestras of South Bend, Indiana; Nashville; South Carolina; Toledo, Ohio; Southeast Texas; and Flint, Michigan.

Born in 1993, Loriane Llorca began her musical studies in the conservatory of Pau, France. Subsequently she attended the Regional Conservatory of Toulouse, where she studied organ, harpsichord, and pianoforte with distinguished professors such as Stéphane Bois, Michel Bouvard, Jan Willem Jansen, and Yasuko Uyama- Bouvard. After obtaining a degree in musicology from the Sorbonne, she entered the organ class of Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard at the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris. Her studies have been supported by several organizations, including the Fondation Yves Brieux-Ustaritz, the Fondation Meyer, and the Fonds de Tarrazi. In 2017 she was awarded first prize and the audience prize at the Jean-Louis Florentz International Organ Competition, sponsored by the French Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France. She recently completed a residency at the Royal Chapel of Versailles as organist and at the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. In December 2019 she was named young-artist-in-residence at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, in New Orleans.

Eric McCrary has been a collegiate, high school, and elementary school music teacher for over 25 years. As an undergraduate at the University of New Orleans, he double majored in vocal music education and vocal music performance. He received a master’s degree in choral conducting in 2006. McCrary is the music director, pianist/ organist, and cantor at St. Agnes Church in Jefferson and at St. Ann Church and National Shrine in Metairie. He is also the cantor at Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans and is the accompanist and assistant music director of the choir at St. Louis King of France School in Metairie, where he is also the computer teacher and IT director.

A New Orleans native, David Murray is a first year vocal performance graduate student at Loyola University New Orleans, studying in the studio of Dr. Tyler Smith. He also received his bachelor of music degree from Loyola. Murray currently performs with the New Orleans Opera and Loyola Opera Theatre. With the New Orleans Opera, his roles have included Joseph DeRocher’s younger brother in Dead Man Walking, the Warrior in Tchaikovsky’s Joan of Arc, as well as understudying the role of the Grand Vizier in the chamber production of Tabasco. He has also performed with New Orleans Opera Chorus for the past five years. With the Loyola Opera Theatre, he has performed as John Brooke in Mark Adamo’s Little Women, the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, George Jones in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, and Grégorio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. In March 2019, he performed as the countertenor soloist in the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert of Lera Auerbach’s The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie.

Bahamian-born soprano Dara Rahming has been gracing concert and operatic stages for 20 years. Highlights of her career include four seasons with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, two seasons with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and two seasons with the Sarasota Opera. 

In 2004 Rahming began performing with the New York Harlem Production’s tour of the The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, a chapter in her career that took her around the globe. For 10 years she worked with this production company, performing leading and supporting roles in some of the greatest opera houses and theaters in the world, including Bunkamura–Orchard Hall (Tokyo), Alte Oper Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Dusseldorf), Teatro Pérez Galdós (Las Palmas, Spain), Teatro Massimo Bellini, Catania (Sicily), Semperoper Dresden, Oper Leipzig, Komische Oper Berlin, and Nationaltheater Mannheim. 

After witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005, Rahming began a benefit recital series to raise money for Xavier University of Louisiana, where she had earned a bachelor of arts degree. For nine years, she served Xavier as professor of voice and director of the Opera Workshop. 

Rahming maintains a busy teaching and performing schedule and has added several new roles to her repertoire: the title role of William Grant Still’s opera Minette Fontaine, performed with OperaCréole; Minerva in Opera Louisiane’s adaption of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria; Sylvie in Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride; and the title role of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha, performed with Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (Mexico) and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. In February 2020 she performed in the world premiere of the completed Freedom Ride at the Chicago Opera Theater.

Ken Weber has performed frequently with the New Orleans Opera, where his roles have included the Pasha in Tabasco, Warden in Dead Man Walking, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Nourabad in The Pearl Fishers, the Speaker in The Magic Flute, and dozens of comprimario roles. Weber has also performed leading roles with the Mobile Opera (Conte di Luna in Il trovatore, the title role in Sweeney Todd), Shreveport Opera (Germont in La Traviata), Opera Las Vegas (Tonio in Pagliacci), and Opera in the Ozarks (Olin Blitch in Susannah). With the Loyola Opera Theatre, he has performed Dr. Pangloss / Voltaire in Candide, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Dr. Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love, and Leporello in Don Giovanni. A native of Los Angeles, Weber is the university minister at Loyola University New Orleans.