Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

Louisiana Philharmonic: no stage, no home

The evacuated players are scattered across the country. The bassoon player is holed up in Texas. The violins are scattered across Ohio, Georgia, Massachusetts, Illinois and Tennessee. The French hornist, who also plays the garden hose, is stuck in Nashville. Katrina has blown the 68-member Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra - the only full-time symphony in America owned and operated by its musicians - into exile. And no one knows if their beloved ensemble will survive.

The orchestra's audience, the city of New Orleans, is gone. Its venue, the ornate Orpheum Theater in the business district, has taken on water. And many of its musicians have lost their homes. “There's no reason to have an orchestra if there's no one to play for,” said Howard Pink, who escaped with his instruments, all 30 or 40 of them, including his French horns, his ram's horns and a 15-foot alphorn, all of which he uses on his second job as the star of a traveling road show called 'Howard Pink and Musical Garden Hoses.' Pink's house in Gretna is ruined. “The water damage is insane,” he said. He is staying with friends, 450 miles from home and he can no longer bear to look at the images of his destroyed city. “It's too horrific,” he says.

Self-made orchestra The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is the proud of offspring of the New Orleans Symphony, which went bankrupt in 1991, leaving its musicians unemployed and stunned. “They didn't tell us,” said bassoonist John Fairlie, who's staying in Temple, Texas. “We found out because we got letters from our health insurance company saying our policies had been cancelled.” So the members got together and decided to rebuild the orchestra themselves. They sold their own tickets. They enlisted friends to conduct. “For the first few years,” said Pink, “we paid all the bills first and divided what was left as salary. Sometimes that was $50 a week.” Professional French horn players, like every other orchestra member, aren't in it for the money. The pay is lousy - about $18,000 a year in the Louisiana Philharmonic. You have to love the music, and you have to have at least one other job. Pink has his garden hoses. Cellist Kent Jensen conducts a youth symphony and gives private lessons, and sometimes paints houses.

Classical musicians offer aid to Katrina victims - Trying to find jobs and homes for displaced musicians

NEW YORK: Though New Orleans is renowned for its rich musical heritage, classical music may be the genre least identified with the city known for its jazz bands, blues clubs and pop festivals. But across the nation, classical institutions and individual artists have rallied to offer their resources to victims of Katrina and to help preserve the region's classical resources - most notably the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and other orchestras in the Gulf region. “To have these musical institutions at risk is just really devastating for the town and the region,” said Jack McAuliffe, vice president and chief operating officer of the American Symphony Orchestra League. “So because of that, I think those of us who are affiliated with music, and in this case especially orchestras, have said 'What can we do to help?' So in addition to the people surviving, that the cultures survive.”

The Washington National Opera is donating all of its proceeds from a September 14 dress rehearsal of 'I Vespri Siciliani'. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is working with Habitat for Humanity to raise relief aid. And other orchestras nationwide have held events to help the devastated region. There have also been offers to help displaced musicians. Several orchestras are offering jobs. Some musicians are reaching out personally to others, making space in their homes for fellow artists.