by Theodore P. Mahne
Saturday, December 09, 2006
The Times-Picayune

For most 13-year-olds, music is something you get strictly from iPods and the Internet. But for one local organization in its adolescence, the joy of music is still found in strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion.

As the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra celebrates its 13th birthday this season, it's the music that keeps driving its mission, despite the challenges brought on not by adolescence, but by Hurricane Katrina.

"Our goal is to instill in children a love of music and to provide that education for them," said Marianna Roll, executive director of GNOYO. "We don't see ourselves as a presenting organization. That's a means to an end."

Bringing that love of music into the hearts of the children, she pointed out, will enrich the rest of their lives, whether or not they grow up to become professional musicians.

Open to children and teenagers from 7 to 19 years old, the Youth Orchestra comprises five ensembles, geared toward bringing out the full potential in youngsters who show an interest in music. In addition to developing young talent, Roll said, participation in music also builds more intangible assets such as leadership ability, teamwork, personal responsibility, commitment and self-esteem.

For its efforts, GNOYO was recognized recently by the state with the 2006 Governor's Arts Award in Arts Education. The group was honored particularly for its post-Katrina work in bringing back music education for young people and helping provide both instruments and lessons to students who otherwise might have been forgotten.

"More than ever, groups like the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra are needed in our community," said Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, whose office administers the awards. "It's a great umbrella organization that offers so much to our children."

Having served a generation of children, the organization has seen some of its members, now in college or beyond, emerge in careers as professional musicians.

"It's amazing to see their progress," Roll said. And those musicians haven't forgotten the orchestra that got them started. Several have given benefit performances and participated in other fundraising drives to help GNOYO recover and rebuild after Katrina.

To help ensure that all students have the opportunity to develop their talents, the orchestra gives out more than $18,000 annually in scholarships and fee waivers. Through the group's Endangered Instruments Program, the orchestra also has been able to help students replace instruments lost in flooding. In addition, it has filled similar needs in schools.

"The schools didn't have much in music programs to begin with," Roll said. In post-Katrina schools, the music programs have fallen even lower in priority for the system, she said. "We're able to meet some of those needs."

At a time when some might consider expenditures on the arts to be luxuries that can be cut, Landrieu strongly disagrees, saying he appreciates the work of groups like GNOYO to fill the void.

"The arts should never be viewed as a luxury," Landrieu said. "After we meet the immediate needs, after we ensure that the levees are capable of protecting the city, we have to ask, 'What is it that we're trying to protect?' Our culture is what the rest of the world loves us for. It is what distinguishes us uniquely in the world. What we have here can't be replicated."

And, Landrieu pointed out, supporting the arts doesn't satisfy aesthetic needs alone. It also produces jobs. "In Louisiana, culture means business. The arts account for 144,000 jobs" across the state, he said.

The combined ensembles that make up GNOYO now include about 125 students. Although the group included about 200 students before Katrina, Roll said she is pleased that their numbers have bounced back as well as they have. The return of the program -- less than two months after Katrina -- also was a dearly needed aspect of bringing back that sense of normalcy to the children's lives, she said.

"As the kids were displaced, one of the things that really got them excited about returning home was that we were starting our activities again," she said.

As the holiday season approaches -- prime performance time for groups such as GNOYO -- one of the biggest challenges has been to secure performance spaces. "With so many theaters shut down, finding venues on the south shore has been a major challenge," Roll said.

Spaces in large churches or college recital halls, for example, are being used by the larger professional organizations, such as the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the New Orleans Opera, while their major homes remain unusable. As a result, Roll said, GNOYO has been scheduling smaller community performances. Several of those will take place in St. Tammany Parish in the coming months.

For a schedule of all upcoming performances, check the group's Web site, www.gnoyo. org.

Other local artists honored with the 2006 Governor's Arts Awards included painter George Rodrigue, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award; Covington voice teacher Michael Presti; Offbeat magazine, which got the business/corporate award; gallery owner Jonathan Ferrara, honored with the Leadership in the Arts Award; and William Goldring, named Arts Patron of the Year.

Landrieu also lauded the city of Shreveport, honored this year for its role in hosting film productions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

"Shreveport really came to the rescue," as several productions had to cancel shooting in the New Orleans area, he said. Shreveport's welcome ensured that the productions would at least stay in the state.

"One of the messages that I've pushed is that we can't see this as a North-versus-South thing," Landrieu said. "We're competing with Canada, with Great Britain, with New Zealand for these film productions. Not with one another."

In addition to the jobs that the industry creates, Landrieu also said that film production alone has an estimated $600 million economic impact annually for Louisiana.