JAVS Fall 2005

\kiODISTS IN NOLA 'COMING FROM' AND 'GOING TO' IN Tvvo LETTERS

vast majority of me time these evacuations, warnings o r watches are "false alarms;" the storms change course and hi t somewhere else (just as Katrina was originally aiming at Pensacola). We got out with our two best vio las, some clothes, a laptop comput er and our hurricane box, in which we kept most of our important papers (insurance, passports, social securi ty cards etc.), and made it to Knoxville, Tennessee the next day. We spent d1e next weeks sleeping on friends' couches in Knoxville, Chatranooga, and the Adanta area. A week and a hal f after the hurri - cane hit, I took me first audition out d1ere, and won a one-year full - time position, which I am mrilled ro have. This will allow us to sur vive while we figure our whar to do next. Bur d1is was sheer luck; for dle majori ty of our musicians mere are no such opportunities ou t mere. Members of me Louisiana Phil11armonic are now sc.1.ttered around d1e country looking for whatever wo rk is ava ilable, which in the orchestra world is nor a lor. While many people on a personal level have been extremely generous offering places to stay, money, etc., o n an organizational level things have not always been easy. Hotels, which proudly advertised their reduced rates to Hurrican e victims o n their websites, seemed not to know anything about it when we

Slapin and Solomon, in ~fi'ont ofLalee Pontchartrain (the !alee that flooded New Orleans).

by Scott Slapin

always been committed to playing ar a high level, no matter what the financial ~md administrative chal lenges of d1e mornem were, and we reaJiy appreciated d1at. This is not the case in eve1y o rches tra. The same week our viola duo CD Sketches from d1e New World was released, Tanya and T evacuated from our house on Mirhra Sn·eet, nea r Bayou St. John and C ity Park. We left Saturday night, Hurricane Kauina hit on Monday mo rning, and the levees broke sometime Monday night. We did n'r leave because we rea lly thought me hurrican e was coming for N ew Orleans; we left to avo id what was sure ro be a lo t of evacuation traf fic on Sunday. In the summer, at any given moment, there's usually

My wife, Tanya Solomon, and T loved being violists in the ciry of NOLA (New Orleans, Lousiana). We enjoyed everything from the unique food, music, and a rchitec ture ro the region's subt ropical eli mare wi.th palm, fig and banana trees. Of all of the places we have li ved, it is d1i s ciry that we liked the most. We gave many recitals and chamber music concerts around town, and we really enj oyed playing wim d1e Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), the on ly full time orchestra in the Gulf region and the on ly full rime cooperat ive orchestra in the United States. The LPO began as d1e successor of the New Orleans Symphony, wh ich wem bankrupt in the ea rly 1990's. T he musicians of the LPO have

a hurri can e Aoating around or near the Gulf somewhere. The VOLUME 2 1

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