Albinas Prizgintas, organist and music director at Trinity Church, is working with actor John Corbett giving him piano lessons for a TNT movie Richochet filming in New Orleans. Ricochet is based on the best-selling book by Sandra Brown. Prizgintas worked with Corbett, training the actor to play Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Manon Prizgintas, Albinas’ wife, indicated [...]
As a classical music buff, I purchased this CD being curious of the works of the so-called “Girl Gershwin” Dana Suesse and of the other lesser-known composers of the “jazz age.” What I discovered was a “Suite for Banjo” written in 1922 by Harry Reser and orchestrated and performed by Louisiana’s own Don Vappie. Harry [...]
John Berthelot, composer, arranger and founder of Great Southern Records passed away on Wednesday, February 23. Funeral services were private. Born at Touro Infirmary, Berthelot began taking clarinet lessons in grade school and majored in music education at Loyola University in New Orleans. He became a member of the Contours, playing saxophone, and backing artists [...]
Klauspeter Seibel, the first music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (1995-2004) died Saturday of multiple myeloma in Hamburg, Germany. He was 74. He loved New Orleans and celebrated a wedding anniversary at the Ursuline Convent, just blocks from his home on Ursulines Street. His “Beethoven and Blue Jeans” series were memorable, not only to [...]
Go see Bizet’s “other opera” just to hear the duet “Au fond du temple saint.” Two men (a tenor and a baritone) renew their friendship, even though they have both fallen in love with the same woman. This duet is perhaps one of the most famous in all of opera. The opera was first performed [...]
Saturday, July 17, the Press Club of New Orleans honored excellence in journalism in the Crescent City. In a ceremony at the Harrah’s Hotel, OffBeat was recognized in several categories. Art director Elsa Hahne was honored with the Hal Ledet Award for Print Photography. In addition, Hahne received first place for her feature photo of [...]
We mail the magazine to ourselves to monitor how long the mail takes to be delivered. The Jazz Fest Bible was placed in the mail to all of our subscribers on Friday, April 16. We received our copy today, Tuesday, April 20. If you’re a subscriber your magazine should have already arrived or will arrive [...]
Singer songwriter Jamie Bernstein has been around the music scene in New Orleans for several years working with the Crescent City All-Stars and fronting his own band J. the Savage. He was born in West Virginia, went to school in Florida and has been in New Orleans since. Songs from the Tree of Life, his [...]
From Bergen, Norway, (now living in Brooklyn) Sondre Lerche was signed to Virgin/ EMI before his 16th birthday. His latest release Heartbeat Radio on Rounder Records follows his critically acclaimed soundtrack to the movie Dan in Real Life. His music is upbeat pop with elements of Brazilian, jazz and folk. Lerche’s distinctive voice and talent [...]
