FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - January 13, 2025 

WHAT/WHO

The Louisiana Music Educators Association (LMEA) Professional Development Conference and All-State Concerts moves to New Orleans in 2025. The conference will take place at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside from January 16-19, 2025. Boasting more than 1,500 teachers and students from around Louisiana and 50 exhibitors, the LMEA Professional Development & All-State Conference is the state’s largest music conference. After over 30 years in Baton Rouge, it will move to New Orleans where it will celebrate the organization’s 89th anniversary and first conference in New Orleans in almost 50 years.

“Moving the conference to New Orleans will allow LMEA to expand opportunities for Louisiana's music students by providing enough meeting and rehearsal space for 3 concert bands, 3 choirs, 2 orchestras, 2 jazz bands, a guitar ensemble, and numerous professional development clinics,” said Scotty Walker, Executive Director of LMEA. For the first time, the conference will include All State ensembles for music students in grades six through eight, whereas previously only high school students were given these opportunities. The students, who are selected by a two-round audition, will participate in three days of intense rehearsals and workshops with world-class conductors as they prepare a concert for the end of the weekend.

For Louisiana’s music teachers, there will be three days of professional development opportunities, including clinics, workshops, discussions, and guest performances. Presenters, who will include experts in all music disciplines, will provide music teachers opportunities to learn about new classroom techniques and approaches to music education as well as strengthen their current pedagogical skills. There will also be a wide range of presentations for pre-service music teachers. By moving to New Orleans, LMEA is hoping to provide more opportunities for Louisiana’s dedicated music teachers and their talented young musicians and broaden the outreach to students from diverse backgrounds and musical genres. In addition, by providing a conference that allows music teachers from all musical disciplines to attend on the same days, LMEA hopes to provide more opportunities for teachers and college music education majors to network, learn from each other, and share their passion for music and music education.

The conference includes clinics for high school, middle school and elementary school music teachers from various disciplines, as well as opportunities for gifted student performances. Concerts are given by university ensembles, as well as the Louisiana All-State choirs, orchestras, jazz ensembles, guitar ensembles and concert bands. The university ensemble performances will include the Southern University Wind Ensemble, The University of Louisiana Lafayette Jazz Ensemble with the New York Voices, University of New Orleans Choir, the Northwestern State Orchestra and the LSU Wind Ensemble & A Cappella Choir with special guests Doreen Ketchens, Hila Plitmann and Frank Ticheli.  Interested media are welcome to attend.

WHEN

January 16-19, 2025

WHERE

Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel

SOCIAL MEDIA

WEBSITE: lmeamusic.org
FACEBOOK: @lmeapublicoutreach
HASHTAG: #LMEAMusicNOLA

CONTACTS

LMEA -  Scotty Walker, Executive Director 337-280-8678, swalker@lmeamusic.org
              Lee Hicks, President 504-236-4136, leehicks@lmeamusic.org
              Tony McCardle, Administrative Advisory Council 337-802-4659, tony.mccardle@cpb.org
New Orleans & Company – Kelly Schulz, 504-421-0962, kschulz@neworleans.com
                                              Rhonda Cook, 504-616-6161, rcook@neworleans.com