Monday, February 29, 2016

Day 2 - Benefit Performance for Shalom Zone at Trinity Episcopal Church

Day two of our service project began with a nice and peaceful morning at the YRNO house. People used this time to catch up on sleep, wash up from all the traveling the day before, and eat a full breakfast to start their day. Some people also took this chance to take a nice run around town to City Park. Additionally, our time off in the morning allowed all of the members to start warming up for our performance at Trinity Episcopal Church, a benefit for the Shalom Zone Community, later that day. The YRNO house was filled with energy from the dancers working on their group dance, musicians working on their pieces, and actors rehearsing their lines. After a relaxing morning, everyone boarded the vans to head for the church.

Our concert at Trinity was not only amazing in terms of all the individual acts but also moving as a whole. We put together a program that was comprised of different types of performances not only from all the divisions of music, dance and drama but also a fusion of the three. Each act flowed perfectly into the next, as if the acts were supposed to be grouped in such a way. By the end of our concert, when we had all of our members on stage for the group song, we saw that our art and passion had reached the audience as they were dancing in their seats and singing along with us. Art matters.

Natsuko Takashima
BM Violin '18
2nd year NOLA team member

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Day 1 - Travel

"Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts." - William Shakespeare

Day 1 of our ARTreach journey began with a group supershuttle to LaGuardia Airport bright and early Saturday morning -- 4:25 am to be exact. In the midst of rubbing the sleepy sand out of our eyes, we grabbed our bags and each other from the Meredith Willson Residence Hall and hauled into the van. Upon arriving at the airport, we made our way through security and snatched some warm breakfasts within the terminal. At 6:45 am, we were on our way to our short layover location: Dallas, Texas. In Dallas, we found no shortage of Chick-fil-A, cowboy hats, and southern ladies en route to the Rock n' Roll marathon in New Orleans. A few hours later, and we were flying directly to NOLA! Sabrina and Rebecca picked up the rental vans, and treated us all to beignets, cafe au lait and tea at Morning Call cafe by New Orleans' City Park. Our bodies a little less sore, our tummies a little more full, we drove to our new YRNO home base for the week, assembled our belongings, and took stock of supplies in the house. We split into three groups each lead by a team leader, and determined the groceries we would need for our dinner nights, breakfasts, and lunches for the upcoming week. Having known little of the macrocosm that is New Orleans's Walmart, the team newcomers mustered up the strength needed to conquer the many aisles of produce, clothing, furniture, TVs, and quite literally every other tangible item of the 21st century before 5:00 pm. Team 1 (Team Angela!), decided Night 1 would be Taco Night, and despite some unexpected obstacles -- glass shattering *shudder* -- a delicious dinner of homemade guacamole, salsa, chips, salad, pizzas, and Sebastian's famous PB bowl + ice cream dessert was accomplished. We ended the day on a reflective note by Team Leader Jasminn's prompting, gathered for a team meeting, and shared our highs and lows, peaks and pits, roses and thorns of the day. Cheers to our Very First Day in NOLA! Stay tuned for more.

Michelle Geffner
BM Vocal Performance '19
1st year NOLA team member

NOLA 2016 - Meet Jeffery!

Our final team member is our native New Orleanian, Jeffery!

NOLA 2016 - Meet Malik!

Here's Malik, a 2nd year team member and 3rd year dancer! (His t-shirt says it all!)

NOLA 2016 - Meet Sean L.!

Here's our newest Sean, Sean L.!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

NOLA 2016 - Meet JJ!

And here's JJ! He is a 4th year drama student, 4 year team member and team leader this year!

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Friday, February 19, 2016

Thursday, February 18, 2016

NOLA 2016 - Meet Riley!

Hey everyone, meet Riley! He is a third year dancer and team member. He is also one of our fabulous videographers!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Only a few days left to buy raffle tickets!

Our big raffle is going to end on Saturday, February 20! We will be pulling the winners on Sunday morning, February 21. Contact one of our team members to buy tickets. You can also email theneworleansproject@gmail.com for purchasing information. Here's a reminder of our fabulous prizes. Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5.

1) Pair of tickets to Grammy winning Broadway show Hamilton, Saturday, March 12, 8 pm
2) Pair of tickets to Broadway show An American in Paris & backstage tour with Juilliard & team alum, Nathan Madden and Gia Mongell, donated by the producers
3) Pair of tickets to Broadway show Chicago & backstage tour, donated by the producers
4) Signed copy of Nine: A Salute to Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe, donated by grandparent of 2016 team member, Sean Howe.
5) Signed Wynton Marsalis CD & book, donated by Wynton Marsalis
6) Original painting donated and painted by Nina Ferguson, grandmother of 2016 team member, Malik Williams
7) Handmade quilt donated and created by Melora Neminski, mother of 2016 team member, Casey Hess
8) Film Buff Membership to Lincoln Center Film Society, donated by LCFS ($125 value)
9) One-month membership to YogaWorks donated by YogaWorks ($145 value)
10) Cut & Color at Scott J. Aveda Eastside by senior stylist, Sal Lopes ($205 value)
11) Juilliard NYC classic hoodie sweatshirt donated by the Juilliard Store ($50 value)
12) $50 Whole Foods gift card donated by Pamela Hollinshead, mother of 2016 team member Zoe Hollinshead

NOLA 2016 - Meet Zach!

Here's Zach! He's a clarinetist and third year team member.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Monday, February 15, 2016

2016 Benefit Concert

On Valentine's Day, we held a benefit concert to raise funds for our upcoming trip. We are so grateful to the audience members who braved the coldest day of the year (so far - yikes!) to attend and support us! Big thanks go out to the Church of St. Paul the Apostle for donating the performance space. Visit our Facebook page to see a few photos of the concert. Here are Malik, Angela, Riley, and Sean H. enjoying their fellow team members' performances.


NOLA 2016 - Meet Sebastian!

Presenting Sebastian! He's a double bass player and second year team member.

Saturday, February 13, 2016

NOLA 2016 - Meet Victoria!

Meet Victoria, a third year team member and one of the videographers of the "Meet the Team" series.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Monday, February 8, 2016

We are coming up on our last few weeks until we depart for New Orleans and the team is really starting to feel cohesive! During this last meeting we all took a look at the money we've raised thus far and came up with a grand total of $8,347! While this isn't terrible, we are still $11,500 short of our goal... 

Next topic of conversation was the Benefit Concert coming up this week on February 14. We hope you'll show some love and join us this Valentine's Day at 4:30 PM at the Parish Center at the Church of Saint Paul the Apostle located at 405 West 59th Street.

We have an exciting program of performances that shouldn't run longer than an hour -- so you'll still have time to catch that movie or make that dinner reservation ;) 

Other news:
  • We've declared a date for the Hamilton raffle prize! The tickets will be for the March 12th performance at 8 PM.
  • This Tuesday, February 9th, the team is hosting a pie throwing event with some Juilliard faculty in the Morse Student Lounge in the Juilliard building! King cake will be supplied in honor of Mardi Gras!
  • On Wednesday, February 10th, we'll be collecting as many $10 donations as possible in celebration of the 10th anniversary trip! (We are the longest running student-organized arts outreach project at Juilliard!)  
We concluded Sunday's meeting with a sing-thru of this year's team song: a Lean On Me/Sir Duke mashup. Also, more videos of more team members still to come :)