Young Musician Gives Out Gratitude

by Melinda Morris
Times-Picayune

If you ever had the pleasure of seeing Jenna Sherry play her violin back in her Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra days, you knew she was on her way to big things.

Sure enough, Sherry, who is from Algiers, won a prestigious Wells Scholarship to Indiana University, which covers all her tuition and expenses and is allowing her to pursue her passion for music. (She was the first home-school graduate to win the award.)

But she hasn't forgotten New Orleans or the musicians here who helped her along, so now she is doing something to help them.

With some friends by her side and assistance from the IU Jacobs School of Music, Sherry organized the Hurricane Katrina Anniversary Benefit Concert in Indiana earlier in October, to benefit the New Orleans youth orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Habitat for Humanity's Musician's Village. The concert grossed $3,260.

"This has been a hard year for everyone in New Orleans and the surrounding area, but at times like this, I think we need music more than ever," said Sherry, who turns 21 in two weeks. "Without music and culture, what would the future of a city like New Orleans be like?"

LPO Managing Director Babs Mollere said the LPO's share of the concert proceeds will go into a special fund for musicians' salaries, health insurance and instrument insurance.

"We're absolutely thrilled," she said. "Of course, we knew her (Sherry) when she was playing with the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra. It's just an incredibly wonderful gesture for her to put this together pretty much on her own."

Beyond the financial help, "the moral support is incredibly meaningful," Mollere said.

Sherry was a five-time winner of the LPO's Concerto Competition, a four-year co-concertmaster of the youth orchestra and the 2002 winner of its concerto competition, the 2002 winner of the Rapides Symphony Concerto Competition, and a concertmaster and soloist in the Louisiana All-State Orchestra.

Sherry chose the organizations that she did to benefit from her concert because of the support that they have given her.

She chose the youth orchestra because "I knew how important it was for me and so many of my friends." She said working with former Executive Director John Fairlie, who has since moved from Algiers to Colorado, exposed her to a repertoire that she is studying in her college music theory classes, making the task considerably easier.

"He taught me so much."

At GNOYO, "I learned so much about what I know about music. I realized how lucky I was when I got here."

She chose the LPO because "without the LPO, it would have been hard to have a youth orchestra. They're who we looked up to for inspiration.

"And also because the LPO is so important to the health of classical music in the community."

She chose the Musicians' Village "because that broadened things a little, so it wasn't just support of classical music. And also, I know that many LPO members lost their homes."

Sherry said she was thrilled to have the participation of IU faculty participants in the concert, including violinist Federico Agostini, violist Atar Arad, cellist Emilio Colon, violist Yuval Gotlibovich, pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer, violinist Mark Kaplan, violinist Alexander Kerr, violinist Jaime Laredo, cellist Sharon Robinson and pianist Yael Weiss.

Works performed were by Brahms, Prokofiev and Schumann.

The musicians who performed "made this a priority," she said. Two of them were willing to play at the 1 p.m. concert even though they had to leave for the airport two hours later.

"They kept thanking me for doing this," she said, when all she wanted to do was thank them for helping her support her hometown.

For what she learned in her New Orleans days to the support offered in Indiana, "I feel very grateful."

Student organizes concert to aid New Orleans artists leans

by Shannon Valentine
Indiana Daily Student

In an attempt to invigorate and revitalize art and music in the Gulf region after Hurricane Katrina, the Jacobs School of Music hosts a concert at 1 p.m. Sunday in Auer Hall. The event, which costs $10 for students, will raise money for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra and Habitat for Humanity's Musicians' Village, according to a press release.

Junior music major and New Orleans native Jenna Sherry said she organized the event single-handedly in response to the continued struggling of New Orleans artists a year after the hurricane hit.

"The things that are really suffering in New Orleans are nonprofit organizations, education and the arts," Sherry said in a phone interview. "The classical musicians are really struggling, and historically, that music has really been important to the city."

Some of the proceeds from this concert will be donated to the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, a group founded in 1994 that was severely hit by the storm, Sherry said. Freshman music major Joyce Rorabaugh was a member of this group when the storm hit and said she is hopeful about the benefits the concert might bring.

"A lot of people weren't able to come back because they didn't have houses," Rorabaugh said. "I would definitely say that more than half of the people we got back weren't even in the orchestra in the first place."

After the hurricane hit, there was not much left because so much was ruined in the flood.

"Everyone was affected -- just some more than others," Rorabagh said.

The concert and fundraising event will feature compositions by Prokofiev, Schumann and Brahms performed by Jacobs faculty members Atar Arad, Jaime Laredo, Mark Kaplan, Sharon Robinson and many others. Though the concert will not feature any of the jazz or blues tunes associated with Louisiana, Sherry said she is adamant about the classical music in the program.

"Jazz and classical music are co-existing and parallel influences with each other," she said. "I think it's a big misconception that if you play one, you don't play the other. The classical community has gotten a lot less attention recently."

The Hurricane Katrina benefit concert, on the other hand, has gotten a lot of publicity. Aside from the numerous flyers around campus advertising the event, IU's Web site displays information about the event on its main page.

"Everyone's community has been shattered," Sherry said. "My hope is to help out the arts because they're so important to the city. It's been really moving to see the support of the School of Music."

Benefit brings in more than $1,500

by Shannon Valentine
Indiana Daily Student

Although the final amount raised Sunday night through the Hurricane Katrina benefit concert is not yet known, ticket and faculty CD sales generated at least $1,570, said event organizer Jenny Sherry.

The concert, held Sunday in Auer Hall, drew about 170 students and community members. Money raised from the concert will be donated to the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Habitat for Humanity's Musicians' Village to help benefit artists and musicians in and around New Orleans more than a year after Hurricane Katrina hit.

The concert featured works by Prokofiev, Schumann and Brahms, all performed by Jacobs School of Music string faculty members. Each piece received at least three enthusiastic rounds of applause, and many people in the audience wore colorful beads symbolic of New Orleans and Mardi Gras festivities.

Sherry, an IU junior and New Orleans native, said she organized the event in response to the lack of musical progress a year after the hurricane. She is hopeful that money raised at the concert will help.

"It went really well. I'm very grateful of the support of faculty for this cause," she said. "This music was a wonderful gift to the community -- not only here but also in New Orleans."

Sherry's dedication to the event inspired others to try and help out as well. Distinguished viola faculty member Atar Arad expressed his approval of the event and praised Sherry's initiative.

"Jenna should take all the credit; it's not an easy thing to organize," Arad said. "I would have been a fool to say no to this opportunity. If we can do anything to help those in need, we should."

Many students also volunteered by ushering, serving refreshments and selling faculty CDs, the profits of which will go to the Katrina cause. Information about the various organizations the concert would benefit was displayed on tables.

"I thought it was a beautiful tribute to the musicians and budding musicians in New Orleans affected by the hurricane," said IU senior and volunteer usher Lisa Loew. "After reading the press release, I felt compelled to participate and help out."

There have been other events coordinated to try and raise money for the Gulf region, but few were specifically tailored to musicians.

"It's nice to see something being done that isn't necessarily just targeting poverty or poor people," graduate student Nick Volz said.