Wednesday, October 24, 20187:30pm • Paul Hall

Voices of New Orleans

L A N D R I E U M A R S A L I S

The Juilliard School presents

Please turn off all electronic devices. Taking photographs and using recording equipment are not permitted. Large Print programs are available for select Juilliard performances. Please ask an usher of a house manager for assistance.

A conversation with Mitch Landrieu and Wynton Marsalis,moderated by Damian Woetzel

A selection from The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, a Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken by Wendell Pierce, accompanied by “Wade in the Water” (arr. Eric Reed)

Brandon Mendez Homer, Wendell Pierce

Jeffery Miller, Trombone Felix Mads Moseholm, Bass Joel Wenhardt, Piano John Steele, Drums

A selection from The Play About My Dad by Boo Killebrew

Anya Whelan-Smith, Essie Watson Keshav Moodliar, Larry Killebrew

“Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?” by Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter

“Li’l Liza Jane” by Countess Ada de Lachau

Jeffery Miller, Trombone Felix Mads Moseholm, Bass Joel Wenhardt, Piano John Steele, Drums

Voices of New Orleans

L A N D R I E U M A R S A L I S

Meet the Panelists

Mitch Landrieu

Mitch Landrieu was the 61st mayor of New Orleans (2010-2018), a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and in the midst of the BP oil spill when he took office. Under his leadership, New Orleans was one of the nation’s great comeback stories. In 2015, Landrieu was named Public Official of the Year by Governing magazine, and in 2016 was voted “America’s top turnaround mayor” in a Politico survey of mayors. His 2018 decision to remove four Confederate monuments in New Orleans earned him the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In his New York Times best-selling book, In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History, Landrieu recounts his personal journey confronting racism, and tackles the broader history of slavery, race relations, and institutional inequalities that still plague America. He recently launched the E Pluribus Unum Fund, which works to bring people together across the South around the issues of race, equity, economic opportunity, and violence. Prior to serving as mayor, he served two terms as lieutenant governor and 16 years in the state legislature. He also served as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He and his wife, Cheryl, have five children.

Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis ('81, trumpet) is director of jazz studies at Juilliard and managing and artistic director at Jazz at Lincoln Center. A world-renowned trumpeter, composer, educator, and leading advocate for American culture, he was born in New Orleans in 1961 and made his recording debut as a leader in 1982. He has since made more than 80 jazz and classical recordings and has won nine Grammy Awards. In 1983 he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz Grammys in the same year. Today he is the only artist ever to win Grammy Awards in five consecutive years (1983–87). Marsalis is the recipient of honorary doctorates from more than 25 of America’s top academic institutions including Columbia, Harvard, Howard, Princeton, Yale, and Juilliard. His creativity has been celebrated the world over. In 1997 he became the first jazz artist to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music, for his oratorio Blood on the Fields. In 2001 he was appointed Messenger of Peace by Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, and in 2005, received the National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the U.S. government. In 2016 he received the National Humanities Medal for his work inspiring music lovers everywhere to embrace America’s quintessential sound. Marsalis has authored six books including Jazz ABZ: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits, Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life, and most recently, Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! Marsalis helped lead the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center’s home, the Frederick P. Rose Hall, which opened its doors in 2004.

Damian Woetzel

Damian Woetzel is the seventh president of The Juilliard School. Since retiring in 2008 from a 20-year career as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, Woetzel has taken on multiple roles in arts leadership, including artistic director of the Vail Dance Festival since 2007, and director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program (2011-18). As an independent director, choreographer, and producer, his recent projects include DEMO at the Kennedy Center; Spaces by Wynton Marsalis for Jazz at Lincoln Center; Kennedy Center Honors tributes to Natalia Makarova, Patricia McBride, and Carmen De Lavallade; an arts salute to Stephen Hawking for the World Science Festival; two Turnaround Arts performances at the White House and the first performance of the White House Dance Series, all hosted by Michelle Obama. Woetzel has collaborated on numerous performances and initiatives with Yo-Yo Ma, including the Silk Road Connect program in the New York City public schools. In 2009, Woetzel became the founding director of the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s New Essential Works (NEW) Program, a five-year program that initiated grants to support the production of 35 new dance works. In 2009, President Obama appointed Woetzel to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and he served throughout the Obama administration. Woetzel holds a Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School. He received the Harvard Arts Medal in 2015, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Meet the Moderator