Leonard Ray
March 30, 2007
Lady Tigers fall, but LSU baseball, softball teams have successful weekend
April 3, 2007
Sharing a New Song is returning to Houma April 17 for a free concert at Southdown Plantation.
The Terrebonne Historical and Cultural Society is presenting a free concert by the internationally-traveling choral group Sharing a New Song (SANS) on Tuesday, April 17, at 6:30 p.m., at Southdown Plantation, 1208 Museum Dr., in Houma.
Making a special guest appearance at the concert is Wylma Dusenbery and the Dusenbery Family Singers.
The Boston-area based group, which was founded in 1983 by a high school teacher to promote cultural understanding through music, will be making its second visit to Houma.
“Our first trip was in 2003 to visit the Houma Indian Nation in Dulac, but we stayed in Houma,” said Joanne Lowery, administrative director of the 45-member group.
“We made wonderful friends in Houma and we wanted to return,” she said. “It’s a beautiful area of the country. Part of building friendships is maintaining them.”
SANS will sing a highly eclectic range of music at Southdown. Besides Broadway, spiritual, and folk songs. The group will cover tunes from the various countries it has visited, including those of South Africa and Vietnam.
The choral group has no government or religious affiliations.
At its beginning, SANS wanted mostly to generate understanding with choruses in the former Soviet Union, according to Lowery.
The group’s international performances have taken its members to Russia, Ukraine, Siberia, Armenia, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, China, South Africa, Cuba, Vietnam and Cambodia.
“We had broken through barriers with music (since our founding),” she said. “So, in 2003, we decided to look ‘in country,’ into areas we may not know much about.
“We researched Native American tribes on the Internet,” she said. “Jaime Luster and Rev. Kirby Verrette (minister of the United Methodist Church in Dulac) of the Houma Indian Nation helped arrange our visit to Dulac. We wanted to learn more about their culture, and connect with them through music.”
SANS also made a connection with Houma poet Oradel Morris.
“We were introduced to a poem she wrote, and we set it to music,” Lowery said. “Since then, we’ve kept in touch with her.”
During SANS’ stay in Terrebonne Parish, members are helping repair homes damaged by Hurricane Rita.
The concert will take place outdoors in the Buquet Pavilion on the grounds of Southdown Plantation.
