Our 2026/27 season, BEAUTIFUL CITY, interweaves science, song, and visual storytelling, inviting singers to envision the integration of the natural environment with our urban environment. Guided by optimistic repertoire, our singers will be centered as stewards of New Orleans and will actively identify and ideate solutions to current water issues.

Fall 2026’s Great Trees sonically fuses the urban environment with the natural world, slowly moving from the subterranean sounds of Janelle Monáe’s “Many Moons” to the (extra)terrestrial “A Seed’s a Star” by Stevie Wonder. This newly-adapted repertoire is paired with songs developed at our summer program with Ripple Effect Water Literacy Project, all of which showcase student-created lyrics and xylophone orchestration. Throughout the concert, singers and audiences alike are challenged to re-examine the power of plant life taking root in our city.

After a multi-month project with master teacher Cat Driskell, in which students use visual arts to creatively envision new community-based solutions to stormwater flooding, students shift their gaze to the future in our Spring 2027 concert, Eyes on Tomorrow. Songs like “Cross Roads,” by Ben E Hunter, “Wild N Young,” by Dawn Richard, and “Something Beautiful,” by Trombone Shorty & Lenny Kravitz, frame these creative renderings, compelling audiences to consider the power of imagination to pave a path forward.

All of this work leads toward our energetic Season Finale Concert on Tuesday, May 4 at the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Market, titled Beautiful City. Please join us and make your mark on our city’s future!