Acadiana Symphony Launches ‘The Listening Room’, Partners With ACA

The Acadiana Symphony Orchestra has partnered with the Acadiana Center for the Arts to bring you a new concert series: "The Listening Room".

What's a "listening room"? I'm glad you asked because this one is easy to explain.

A listening room can be one of two things.

First, it can be a dedicated space in your home or office optimally designed for listening to music. The quality of the room can vary, from a simple small room with a simple audio source to acoustically-designed rooms with multiple speakers, sound-deadening features, and a top-of-the-line audio source.

The other kind of listening room is the kind of which we speak in this article. It is a music venue where patrons understand that the music comes first. No cell phones, no talking, no moving around during the performance: the music is not only the main event, but it's also the ONLY event.

Don't get me wrong: some artists who play in listening rooms sometimes have those songs that just beg you to get up out of your seat and shake what your mother gave you. This can be done in a listening room, but only if that's the understanding going in.

With that being said, I guess you now understand that listening rooms are for serious music lovers who want to allow the artist to freely share his or her most intimate feelings through their art - without interruption or distraction.

The Acadiana Symphony Orchestra's partnership with the Acadiana Center for the Arts on the Listening Room Series is a no-brainer: the ACA has the perfect venue for a series like this one in its James Devin Moncus Theater.

Acadiana Symphony Orchestra and Acadiana Center for the Arts are collaborating on this series in order to offer a fresh way to experience world-class symphonic performances. Different from ASO’s traditional Masterworks concerts, these concerts will offer a distinctive selection of lesser-known, but highly-regarded classical music works, performed in a salon-style setting by an ASO chamber ensemble, with guest musicians from around the world.

Officially called "The Listening Room Chamber Music Series", this partnership with ACA  is a four-part concert series that premiers on Sunday, August 21, 2022. The inaugural performance will feature Italian guest pianist Francesco Mazzonetto.

Mazzonetto is one of the youngest artists ever to be signed by the SONY Classical Label, and he is currently the Artistic Director of Musica Regina in Villa, an international music festival in Turin, Italy.

Guest vocalist, Brandon Motz, adjunct professor of voice at the University of Louisiana, will accompany Mazzonetto and the ASO chamber ensemble to perform a piece by Franz Schubert.

The respective executive directors of the organizations are excited about the new partnership.

Sam Oliver, ACA Executive Director is excited about the series, citing his venue's acoustical perfection:

We are so fortunate to have an acoustically-perfect venue like the ACA's theater, where we can present chamber music in the way it was intended to be heard—in the round, where every audience member has a unique experience of the performance. ACA is pleased to collaborate with our great friends at ASO. - Sam Oliver, Acadiana Center for the Arts

Acadiana Symphony Executive Director said her organization has been hoping to present a series like this for several years.

we’ve been looking to undertake a chamber music series for a number of years, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be launching it this year, in tandem with our Turning Points season, and in collaboration with ACA. Both organizations are delighted to partner on this series, which will add a completely new musical and cultural experience to Lafayette’s already robust cultural landscape. - Dana Baker, Acadiana Symphony

Tickets for the inaugural The Listening Room performance are on sale now and can be purchased through the Acadiana Center for the Arts website.