LPO--Relief

I was so happy to reach my friend, Dan Weilbaecher, who teaches at Tulane and runs the piano competition for the New Orleans Musical Arts Society. He is with friends in Lafayette--where conductor Xiao-Lu Li also said all is well. And when Carlos Miguel Prieto, new music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic, replied from Spain that he was safe and that the LPO staff were safe, I had a warm sense of relief.

If there are orchestras out there or schools needing adjunct teachers, this is perhaps the best time to post these opportunities for any LPO staff and musicians to read, as they are now in a position to seek out and find interim employment. There are web sites that offer this such as http://www.myauditions.com and Drew McManus' Adaptistration at: http://www.artsjournal.com/adaptistration/archives/2005...important_infor.html.

Perhaps someday in the coming times that they will all be able to return to a rebuilt city they called home. Our prayers continue to go out to everyone afflicted by this horrific disaster and those whose lives perished from it.