The 2025 NOCCA Foundation Concert Series at The New Orleans Jazz Museum, Sponsored by The Gia Maione Prima Foundation
Free concert series celebrates NOCCA’s 50th anniversary and showcases breadth of talent produced at the celebrated arts training school
The New Orleans Jazz Museum and The NOCCA Foundation, in partnership with The Gia Maione Prima Foundation, are excited to debut the 2025 NOCCA Foundation Concert Series, a dynamic new initiative designed to celebrate the artistic excellence of NOCCA alumni, students, faculty and affiliated artists through live performances and original artistic commissions. The series will take place at the New Orleans Jazz Museum’s Performance Center (400 Esplanade Avenue), with the opening concert this Thursday, April 3 featuring two-time GRAMMY-nominated creative Gladney. Admission to the NOCCA Foundation Concert Series is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and offered on a first come, first served basis.
“We are excited to join forces with the New Orleans Jazz Museum to present this exciting new concert series,” said Adonis Rose, Executive Director of the NOCCA Foundation. “This partnership allows the NOCCA Foundation to expand our reach, showcase the incredible talent within the NOCCA community, and create meaningful cultural experiences for audiences in the New Orleans area.”
2025 NOCCA Foundation Concert Series Schedule:
- Thursday, April 3 at 2 pm: Two-time GRAMMY-nominated creative Gladney
- Thursday, April 17 at 2 pm: WWNO’s Lagniappe Sessions with Adonis Rose, featuring an opening performance by current NOCCA Jazz Students
- Wednesday April 23 at 2 pm: Adonis Rose
- Tuesday, May 13 at 2 pm: The Evolution of Jazz with percussionist Jonathan Bloom
- Tuesday, May 20 at 2 pm: NOCCA Alumni All-Stars, featuring Chris Severin, Donald Harrison Jr., and Julian Garcia
- Thursday, June 5 at 2 pm: WWNO’s Lagniappe Sessions with Adonis Rose, featuring an opening performance by current NOCCA Jazz Students
- Thursday June 12 at 2pm: French Horn Soloist Maxwell S. Arceneaux
“From Ellis Marsalis to Jon Batiste, NOCCA faculty and alumni have played a huge role in New Orleans’ constantly evolving jazz scene,” said Greg Lambousy, Director of the New Orleans Jazz Museum. “We are thrilled to add so many NOCCA musicians to our concert season, alongside current NOCCA students.”
Anthony J. Sylvester, Trustee to the Gia Maione Prima Foundation said “We are honored to partner with NOCCA and the New Orleans Jazz Museum to sponsor the free concert series. The pilot program is a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness of NOCCA Foundation and NOCCA programs while supporting current and alumni of NOCCA.”
Concerts will also be livestreamed on the New Orleans Jazz Museum’s Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/nolajazzmuseum. For additional information, please visit NOLAJazzMuseum.org or NOCCAFoundation.org.
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BIOGRAPHIES
(with Instagram handles where available)
Maxwell S. Arceneaux (@maxwell_arceneaux)
Maxwell S. Arceneaux is a classically trained French horn player, composer and arranger with a passion for both orchestral and solo performance. With a foundation in classical music, he has performed with esteemed orchestras, including the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, the Colour of Music Festival Orchestra, and the NEWorks Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. His orchestral work spans symphonic and opera repertoire, showcasing his depth and versatility as a musician.
In addition to his classical roots, Maxwell is a dynamic soloist, seamlessly blending classical and contemporary styles. As a featured resident artist at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, he presents engaging solo performances, offering audiences a mix of classical, pop, and original compositions. His solo career has taken him to stages such as the Cayman Islands Arts Music Festival and the prestigious MD Chapter of The Links, Inc. Peabody Concert Series, where he premiered both his own compositions and celebrated classical works.
Beyond performance, Maxwell is an accomplished composer and arranger with strong transposition skills, allowing him to adapt music for various ensembles and settings. His artistic voice is further captured in his three studio albums—Believe (2022), Identity (2021), and Discovery (2020)—which showcase his range as both a performer and a composer.
Maxwell holds a Master of Music in Classical Horn Performance from Shenandoah University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. His musical journey began at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA 2018 alum), where he developed the foundation for his artistry.
Whether performing in a grand concert hall, composing for a special event, or bringing music to an intimate gathering, Maxwell’s dedication to his craft is evident in every note he plays.
Jonathan Bloom (@jonathanbloom62)
Jonathan Bloom, Sr. is one of the finest percussionists to come out of New Orleans. A 1976 graduate from the New Orleans Center for the Arts (NOCCA) Mr. Bloom has shared his talent with others through his teaching career, which started in 1982. He is an instructor at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage School of Music, where he has conducted workshops with other distinguished musicians such as Doc Cheatham, Wynton & Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, and Alvin Batiste. Jonathan has a degree in Arts Administration and now serves as the Outreach Director of the Louis Armstrong Music Academy.
Julian Garcia
Scanning Julian Garcia’s “present work,” it’s clear that he could easily fit into either the contemporary or traditional jazz line-ups. It is quite an accomplishment to have the ability to play in the free style with master Kidd Jordan and be up to performing New Orleans classic jazz with clarinetist Louis Ford. The native Honduran began his musical journey playing in his junior high school band in the Bronx, where he and his family moved when he was 4. He arrived in New Orleans when he was 15 and soon auditioned for the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. The drummer’s first professional gig was playing in the Caribbean style with Rudy Mills’ band.
After graduating from NOCCA, he had the opportunity to share a bandstand with pianist and educator Ellis Marsalis performing at LeClub in the Hyatt Regency Hotel and attended Southern University of New Orleans for a year. During this era he supplied the rhythm behind the piano of Harry Connick Jr. at another now-defunct nightspot, Nexus. He remained behind the drums when David Torkanowsky took over the keyboards in a group that included bassist Chris Severin and Victor Goines.
That gig lasted five years. Noah’s on Esplanade was also a hot spot for modern jazz in the early 1980s, and Garcia got to play behind greats like saxophonist Eddie Harris and trumpeter Donald Byrd as well as our own vocalist, Lady BJ. Garcia moved to New York in 1988, took some classes and made some gigs, primarily with organist Rahn Burton. About a year later, he returned to New Orleans and worked day jobs and sometimes with violinist Michael Ward. There was a period when Garcia pretty much vanished from the New Orleans jazz scene. It wasn’t until the late ’90s that he reemerged. He credits exploring a new way of utilizing his drums, a solo drum approach called the melodic ostinato technique, for inspiring him to play again. He also began researching his ethnic Garinagu heritage, producing a solo recording of the music, “Garifuna Story” and receiving a Louisiana Fellowship Award to perform the work.
Quotable: “I just try to have fun.”
Gladney (@gladneyofficial)
A 2024 Foundation for Louisiana World Maker and sixth-generation New Orleans native, Gladney hails from the city’s iconic Lower 9th Ward. With a professional career that began at just 12, Gladney brings a wealth of experience, an infectious spirit, and a signature “Gladney Bow” hairstyle to every performance, making him a truly unforgettable artist.
A 2009 graduate of both the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) and the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music, Gladney’s early achievements include being selected for the esteemed Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (now the Herbie Hancock Institute) All-Star group. This role took him across the U.S., performing educational jazz “informances” with jazz greats Lisa Henry and Antonio Hart. During this time, Gladney was also honored to perform at the White House under the Obama administration.
With a 20-year career spanning high-profile performances, music videos, and live TV appearances, Gladney has been seen on The Kelly & Ryan Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and BBC’s The Graham Norton Show. His international collaborations feature an impressive roster of artists, including Jonathan Batiste, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, Ellis Marsalis, George Duke, Delfeayo Marsalis, Solange, and Joe Dyson. A two-time GRAMMY nominee, he contributed to Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s 2018 album, The Emancipation Procrastination, on the track “Cages” and played a key role in the creation of The Rumble’s Stories From the Battlefield.
Currently, Gladney leads his self-titled band, with the debut single “Selenite,” released in 2021, marking the beginning of his band’s recording journey. He is a proud member of the Recording Academy and serves as the woodwind instructor at his alma mater, NOCCA, leading the next generation of musicians.
Donald Harrison Jr. (@bigchiefdonaldharrison)
New Orleans born saxophonist Donald Harrison is a musician/composer who master musicians consider a master of every era of jazz, soul, funk, and a composer of orchestral classical music. He is also a genius, according to geniuses like Eddie Palmieri and Mike Clark. In the HBO drama “Treme”, Emmy winning director David Simon created two characters to portray how Harrison innovated new styles of music. Harrison has appeared as an actor/musician in 9 episodes of “Treme”, Oscar-winning director Johnathon Demme’s film “Rachel Getting Married,” Spike Lee’s “When The Levees Broke,” documentary, and Marvel’s “Luke Cage.” This talented artist is the recognized Big Chief of Congo Square in Afro-New Orleans culture and was made a Chief in 2019 by Queen Diambi Kabatusuila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa.
Harrison honed his experience playing with Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, Eddie Palmieri, Dr. John, Lena Horne, McCoy Tyner, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Chuck Loeb, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Digable Planets, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, The Headhunters, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and The Notorious BIG. He has performed with over 200 jazz masters and created three influential styles of jazz. At the age of nineteen, Harrison created a modern jazz take on the New Orleans second-line tradition and introduced his composition New York Second-Line to the jazz world in 1979. By the mid-’80s, he created Nouveau Swing, a distinctive sound that blended the swing beat of modern jazz with hip-hop, funk, and soul music. In the ’90s, Harrison recorded hits in the smooth jazz genre. He began exploring music through the lens of quantum physics in 2000. With quantum jazz, Harrison heard how to move music from a two-dimensional state into a four-dimensional state. Harrison’s latest recordings feature his Omniverse Music multi-singles concept.
The recordings include “The Magic Touch,” which melds the artist’s multifaceted life experiences into a unique musical journey of nine different versions of the same song in nine different genres. His 2024 Ropeadope Records release, “The Art of Passion,” is three versions of the same song, with one version being a romantic trap instrumental. In the third recording, “Congo Square Suite,” he channels his experience of becoming the Big Chief of Congo Square. The first movement is an Afro-New Orleans chant. The second movement is a classical work based on Afro-New Orleans Harrison becoming a Big Chief in Afro-New Orleans culture. The third movement features Harrison and his jazz trio with The Moscow Symphony Orchestra.
Harrison has mentored artists such as The Notorious Big, Jon Batiste, Chief Xian aTunde’ Adjuah(formerly Christian Scott), Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews, and Esperanza Spalding.
In 2024, look for Harrison performing music from his Omniverse Music multi-genre singles. He is composing orchestral classical music for upcoming premiers and adding hip-hop/jazz to his multi-genre recordings and performances.
NOCCA Jazz Students (@nocca.nola)
The Jazz Instrumental Music Department is designed to create not only a proficient Jazz performer, but a well-educated and literate musician. Students are taught scales, chords, and fundamental stylistic elements of various periods of Jazz through specific repertoire of Jazz literature. Students are expected to memorize a minimum of four songs with solo transcriptions each semester and perform these works in a combo setting in class and the weekly student performance class. Students will also perform these requirements at the Jazz juries at the end of each semester.
Adonis Rose (@adonisrosedrums)
Adonis Rose is a Grammy-award winning artist, composer, educator, and producer from the city of New Orleans, LA. A 1992 graduate of NOCCA, Executive Director of the NOCCA Foundation, and the Artistic Director of The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. He has played and recorded with the biggest names in Jazz, including Terence Blanchard, Betty Carter, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Harry Connick, Jr., and Wynton Marsalis, and has performed on the most renowned stages in the world such as Carnegie Hall, Olympia in Paris, North Sea Jazz Festival, Umbria, Birdland, Apollo Theater, Newport Jazz Festival, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, to name a few. Rose has over fifty recordings to his credit (five as a leader), including six with longtime friend, trumpeter Nicholas Payton. In 2010, he won a Grammy Award with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra for Best Large Ensemble.
In January 2017, Rose was named the Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO) and led the eighteen-piece orchestra to its first concert season in October of that year that featured world-renowned artists Sheila E, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ledisi, Slick Rick, and Eric Benet. He has been instrumental in the organization’s success by developing educational and community programs, leading performances, and developing partnerships associated with The Jazz Market, a 350-seat performance venue in the New Orleans’ Central City neighborhood which is home to the orchestra. Prior to his role at NOJO, Rose served as the Artist in Residence at the University of Texas Arlington and Cadillac’s Jazz by the Boulevard Festival, produced the Keller Jazz in June series, and founded the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra, a 501c(3) non-profit organization.
In 2019, Rose produced NOJO’s most recent recording “Songs: the Music of Allen Toussaint” on the legendary Storyville Records imprint, which received rave reviews. He is currently working on several new recordings with the orchestra and his own ensembles and continues to tour, perform, and produce a range of projects. In 2022, he released his latest ballads album ‘For All We Know’, featuring his trio and vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa, on Storyville Records. Cavassa (winner of the Sarah Vaughan competition in 2021) represents a new generation of wonderful and very talented new vocalists who know the tradition.
Chris Severin (@turnupmybass)
Chris Severin is an amazingly talented, versatile, and accomplished master-musician from the Treme area of New Orleans. He graduated from the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) in 1976 during his adolescence and later attended Southern University of New Orleans (SUNO) for music education. The greats Alvin Batiste, Ellis Marsalis, and Walter Payton were all a part of Mr. Severin’s musical training.
A skilled teacher himself, Mr. Severin believes in and promotes consistent practice as the path to a musician’s success and pay off. His daily discourse often details music history, theory, and fundamentals. In the business for over 30 years, Mr. Severin’s extensive client list includes many of the world’s most gifted singers and musicians including: Diane Reeves, Dr. John, Terrence Blanchard, Allen Toussaint, Bonnie Raitt, Nicholas Payton, Ellis Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Lou Rawls, Alvin Batiste, Herlin Riley, Victor Goines, Irma Thomas and Kent Jordan. Mr. Severin has played his seven string bass across the globe and is a frequent flyer for the top jazz recording companies such as Blue Note, Rounder, MCA, and Windham Hill Records. He is a member of Union of New Orleans Musicians, AFM Local 174-496, BMI, the co-owner of Chrisan Music, Lead Engineer at the Box Studios-Studio A, prior member of Windjammer, Vietnam, Allen Toussaint Band, and holds several sponsorships including Schecter Guitars and DR Strings. Mr. Severin’s universal sound sets him apart. He plays seven-string and acoustic bass for all genres of music including R&B, jazz, and hip-hop. In his capacity as faculty member, Mr. Severin provides music, media arts, and jazz instruction for the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). He also continues to provide private lessons on everything bass and is a teacher during the Sunday Youth Music Workshop at Tipitinas.
WWNO’s Lagniappe Sessions with Adonis Rose / @wwno_fm and @adonisrosedrums
The Lagniappe Sessions is broadcast on WWNO 89.9 FM and is hosted by 1992 NOCCA alum Adonis Rose. The Lagniappe Sessions features musicians, writers, visual artists, and community leaders that protect and promote New Orleans culture.
ABOUT THE GIA MAIONE PRIMA FOUNDATION
Gia Maione Prima Foundation, Inc. was established by the late Gia Maione Prima with the assistance of long-time friend and counsel, Anthony J. Sylvester of Sherman Atlas Sylvester & Stamelman, LLP. Gia was a singer and widow of famous jazz musician, singer and composer Louis Prima. Gia was also an artist and a devotee of the fine arts. The Foundation’s purposes include, but are not limited to, making donations to other tax-exempt organizations that support and encourage an appreciation for American jazz, American popular music and jazz performance, as well as the fine arts.
ABOUT THE NEW ORLEANS JAZZ MUSEUM
Housed in the historic Old U.S. Mint, strategically located at the intersection of the French Quarter and the Frenchmen Street live music corridor, the New Orleans Jazz Museum is in the heart of the city’s vibrant music scene.
Through dynamic interactive exhibits, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities and engaging musical performances, the music New Orleans made famous is explored in all its forms.
Through partnerships with local, national and international educational institutions, the New Orleans Jazz Museum promotes the global understanding of jazz as one of the most innovative, historically pivotal musical art forms in world history.
ABOUT NOCCA AND THE NOCCA FOUNDATION
The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) was founded in 1973 and opened its doors to students in 1974. Today, NOCCA is Louisiana’s arts conservatory for high school students, offering intensive instruction in Classical Music, Creative Writing, Culinary Arts, Dance, Drama, Entertainment Production Design, Jazz, Media Arts, Musical Theatre, Vocal Music, Visual Arts, and academics. Students come from across Louisiana, attending via full-day, afternoon, and after-school sessions. Admission to NOCCA is by audition, and there is no tuition.
The NOCCA Foundation is NOCCA’s nonprofit partner, providing supplemental funding for NOCCA and advocacy for its world-class program. Some of the Foundation’s more notable endeavors include: a Student Support Program that pays for students’ classroom supplies as well as fees associated with important summer training programs across the country; an Artists-in-Residence Program that brings more than 100 professional visiting artists into NOCCA’s classrooms each year; the capital campaign for NOCCA’s current home and expansion projects like Press Street Gardens; a wide array of arts classes for adults; and concert, gallery, and literary events for the community. The Foundation also oversees rentals of the NOCCA campus, making it available to arts organizations, individuals, corporations, and other groups.