Dream Out Loud: Nola Art House Music focuses on New Orleans jazz with a new concert series

On Saturday, April 16, NOLA Art House Music will debut the first concert of its “Dream Out Loud” music series in collaboration with the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Nola Art House Music is a content partner of NolaVie, contributing weekly profiles, essays and features about jazz.

The concert will feature the original compositions and arrangements of New Orleans-based musicians Edward Anderson, Evan Christopher and Matt Lemmler. The “Dream Out Loud” concert series is designed to develop a regular “scene” that will showcase New Orleans’ finest jazz musicians/composers in a venue attractive to both locals and visitors. By encouraging and promoting the most creative original music by this city’s artists, NOLA Art House Music Group hopes to not only launch jazz culture to new heights, but also to inspire and encourage greater economic opportunity for musicians.

“This concert feels like the start of something important,” says clarinetist Evan Christopher. “By focusing on composition, entrepreneurship, and the socialization of our youth to value their own musical heritage, I think we finally have a formula where we can raise the bar for New Orleans jazz and the city’s best contemporary musicians. At the same time we will work toward positioning today’s young musicians for long-term careers with financial as well as creative success.”

NOLA Art House Music Group is an organization dedicated and committed to addressing the need to provide economic opportunities for those creative artists and educators who passionately work in the jazz community. The group strives to create innovative initiatives and programs in support of the next generation of jazz artists.

What: Dream Out Loud Concert featuring Edward Anderson, Evan Christopher and Matt Lemmler

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, April 16

Where: Patrick F. Taylor Library, Ogden Museum of Southern Art

Tickets: $15; $20 at the door. To reserve a ticket, call 504.539.9616 or click here.

About the Musicians:

Edward Anderson is a trumpeter and composer of jazz, classical, and popular music. He has been recognized as one of New Orleans leading trumpeters and artists, and was named 2007 “All Star” trumpeter by New Orleans Magazine. He is co-leader of Bleu Orleans, a contemporary aggregation of musicians inspired to forge a direction for New Orleans modern jazz into the 21st century. Anderson holds a master’s degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music and a bachelor of arts in Jazz Performance from University of New Orleans, where he was a student of Ellis Marsalis and Harold Battiste. He is currently a doctoral student of composition at Louisiana State University under the tutelage of Professor Dinos Constantinides.

Anchored in the musical vocabulary created by early Creole clarinetists such as Sidney Bechet, Omer Simeon, and Barney Bigard, Evan Christopher has created a highly personal brand of “contemporary early-jazz” that strives to extend the legacy of this unique clarinet style. Christopher began his musical training on clarinet at age 11. In high school, he received the Louis Armstrong National Jazz Award and was one of the first graduates of the prestigious Idyllwild Arts Academy. He continued studies at the University of Southern California and graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach. Published research and presentations on the New Orleans clarinet style initiated pursuit of a master’s degree in musicology at Tulane University.

Influenced by the music he heard while growing up in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, Matt Lemmler is considered one of the most original jazz pianist/arrangers/vocalists/producers to emerge from the birthplace of jazz. Lemmler earned his musical skills by completing a bachelor’s degree in jazz studies from Loyola University and a master’s degree in jazz performance and composition from the Manhattan School of Music, and establishing a long lasting mentorship with jazz patriarch, Ellis Marsalis.