Louisiana’s young musicians have a great opportunity to take part in the National Symphony Orchestra National Trustees’ Summer Music Institute. Click here for details, or read the blurb below. The application deadline is February 20!

Every summer, approximately 70 students (ages 15-20) from all over the nation meet in Washington, D.C., to attend the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute (SMI). The Institute offers four weeks of private lessons, rehearsals, coaching by National Symphony Orchestra members, classes, and lectures to prepare aspiring musicians for their futures in music.

Several of the students are graduates or current participants of the NSO Youth Fellowship Program, an orchestral training program for talented young musicians. Also included are students participating in the Young Artists of Color National Training Initiative of the Kennedy Center. In addition to their many lessons and training sessions, the students also perform a series of free Kennedy Center Millennium Stage concerts that are open to the public. Watch past SMI Millennium Stage performances by selecting any of the concert dates in the “Watch & Listen” section on the right side of this page.

The Summer Music Institute is coordinated by the National Symphony Orchestra Education Program, which is a component of the Kennedy Center Education Department. Young people, teachers, and families take part in innovative and effective education programs initiated by the Center, including performances, lectures, demonstrations, open rehearsals, dance and music residencies, master classes, competitions for young actors and musicians, backstage tours, and workshops. These programs have become models for communities across the country, as educators and government leaders recognize what the Center has known for years: that the arts can unlock the door to learning for young people, fostering creativity, teaching discipline, improving self-esteem, and challenging students to think in new ways, as well as offering them experiences in the joy of the performing arts.

Visit kennedy-center.org/smi for additional details and application information.

On Thursday, February 16, the Louisiana Presenters Network (LPN) will hold a state-wide block-booking session for presenters. This is a great opportunity for arts administrators to share information about artists they would like to host at their organizations and/or venue in the future. If others at the session become interested in those same artists, the LPN can help create a block-booking, which reduces artist fees and other expenses, making the residencies more financially feasible. Year after year, this event proves to be very valuable to all who attend.

The meeting will be held at the Capitol Welcome Center in Baton Rouge at 10am, and the session usually lasts until about 3pm. Lunch will be ordered and delivered to the center.

If you’d like to attend, or if you have questions, please contact Naomi Cordill at symphony@bayou.com or 318-435-0029.

We’d like to take a moment to congratulate arts organizations throughout Louisiana on their Decentralized Arts Fund (DAF) grant awards!  Their efforts to provide quality arts experiences across the state and to provide work for artists is crucial to Louisiana’s economy, the educational success of our children, and the building of our communities.

Although DAF grants generally don’t provide the majority of funding required for a project, the Louisiana Partnership for the Arts Advocacy (LPAA) knows that DAF grants provide organizations with critical seed money that allows them to seek co-sponsors, program advertisers, and other funding sources, thereby allowing a successful project or provides much-needed operational support.

NOW, IMAGINE IF THAT ORGANIZATION RECEIVED AN AMOUNT ONLY HALF AS LARGE! Would it have been as easy to get that project off the ground? Thanks to round-the-clock efforts from the LPAA and our well-respected lobbyist, we secured a last-minute 50% increase to DAF funding during the 2011 legislative session. Without that boost, far smaller awards would have been given to grant recipients in all 64 parishes. Today, we’d be enjoying far different — and likely far fewer — arts experiences in our local areas.

We still face funding battles and the 2012 legislative session is just around the corner. LPAA DOES NOT EMPLOY ANY STAFF AND ONLY HAS FUNDS TO PAY OUR LOBBYIST FOR ANOTHER MONTH OR TWO. Without the memberships of arts organizations and individual memberships from board members, patrons, staff members, and YOU, we cannot continue to work for you and your community.

Please help us continue helping you. Your financial support helps us maintain and (dare we hope?) increase funding for the arts in Louisiana! It is easy — just click the “Join” tab above or the PayPal button in the right sidebar.

Thank you for all you do to support Louisiana’s creative culture!