Inside The Arts WWNO

One of the longest-running foreign language festivals in the country is gearing up for its 24th celebration as the New Orleans Film Society presents the 2021 New Orleans French Film Festival. The event will showcase contemporary and classic French language films. New Orleans Film Society artistic director Clint Bowie joins us by phone with a sneak peek at this year's highlights.

Luke Fleming founding artistic director and violist with the Manhattan Chamber Players is bringing members of the ensemble to New Orleans. It will be their first concert before a live audience in a little over a year, as such performances were canceled by the Pandemic. The concert entitled, The Soulful Clarinet, is being presented through Fleming's popular Crescent City Chamber Music Festival. Luke joins us by phone.

A homegrown, now, international chamber music festival is celebrating a major milestone. New Orleans' own Birdfoot Festival is turning 10 and plucking its strings with a virtual season devoted to its signature Backstage Performances. Birdfoot artistic director and violinist Jenna Sherry joins us by phone.

Acclaimed African-American composer, pianist and native New Orleanian, Courtney Bryan, is the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra's first Creative Partner. She is releasing a new work on the LPO digital series, Orpheum Sessions. It's a violin concerto she calls Syzygy. Courtney joins us by phone.

The Historic New Orleans Collection is celebrating the voices of Black Activists as it launches the virtual 25th Williams Research Center Symposium. Recovered Voices: Black Activism in New Orleans from Reconstruction to the present day explores the origins and legacies of Black activism in the Crescent City as featured in three new Historic New Orleans Collection publications. Jessica Dorman director of publications and student education with the Historic New Orleans Collection joins us by phone.

A four month residency at the Joan Mitchell Center inspires award winning multi-disciplinary artist José Torres-Tama to return to his first love, painting. We see a different side of the artist who is known for his performance solos, Taco Truck Theatre Ensemble and photo documentation of immigrant reconstruction workers post-Katrina. José is in a creative period and he joins us by phone with a sneak peek at his latest works.