NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Loyola University New Orleans says internationally acclaimed violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will be the first resident artist at its music school.
She'll teach master classes, give four performances at Loyola, starting in October, and turn the university's chamber orchestra into a conductor-less group.
"The development of a conductor-less ensemble at the university level will empower our musicians, demand a higher level of preparedness and give our students an increased degree of authority in their ensemble playing," Anthony Decuir, dean of the College of Music and Fine Arts, said in a news release Monday. "This residency will also send a powerful message to prospective students and to the larger community about the special place artists occupy at Loyola and in New Orleans."
Three of the performances will be with the chamber orchestra. One will be with Grammy Award-winning violinist Mark O'Connor and the Loyola Symphony Orchestra, which is larger than the chamber orchestra.
Concerts are scheduled Oct. 4, Nov. 7, Jan. 30 and March 13 in Loyola's Louis J. Roussel Performance Hall on campus.
Salerno-Sonnenberg began talking with Loyola in December, after performing with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
She has won numerous awards.
In 2008, Salerno-Sonnenberg became music director of the San Francisco-based New Century Chamber Orchestra, one of a handful of conductor-less ensembles in the world.
