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October 28 2005
Louisiana Philharmonic members have found a temporary home in Virginia
BY DAVID NICHOLSON
247-4794
Jane Gabka wondered if her house had survived, while Steve Menard worried if his father had made it out alive. Though the two musicians had found temporary employment with the Virginia Symphony, their thoughts frequently returned to New Orleans in the days following hurricane Katrina's deadly visit there.
"It feels better now," says Gabka, an oboist with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. "But when it first happened, I felt like there were no walls, no floor ... everything was completely gone."
Today the offices of the Louisiana orchestra have relocated from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, La., and many of the musicians have found temporary employment in other cities. Gabka and Menard, a trombonist, landed in Hampton Roads through the help of friends and www.artsjournal .com, a Web site that helped find temporary employment for displaced musicians.
Neither was in New Orleans when Katrina hit late last month. Gabka was spending the summer on her family's farm in Wisconsin; Menard had left the city the day before and returned to Chicago where he'd gone to school.
Soon after the hurricane swept through the city, Gabka drove 18 hours to Lafayette, La., to retrieve her two cats a neighbor had rescued.
Ten days ago, she returned to her ravished New Orleans home to confront for the first time the devastation she'd feared.
"I found my house had flooded, and there was mold everywhere," she says. "There was a dead dog in my tenant's apartment upstairs. I got a shovel and tried to remove it, but I couldn't do it."
Gabka spotted a cleanup crew working nearby and persuaded them to help her remove the dead animal. Her house may be beyond repair, she says, and the amount of the insurance she carried won't be enough to fix it. She owns two other homes in the city that came through in better condition.
"It was a struggle to drive through New Orleans," says Gabka. "Trees were toppled over, and crews were everywhere working."
Menard, 23, born and raised in New Orleans, studied at Northwestern University in Chicago then returned to his birthplace last season on a one-year contract with the Louisiana Philharmonic. He and a friend had been staying with his father in Slidell, a town on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, but left the day before Katrina hit to return to Chicago.
His furniture, clothes and other belongings left in his father's garage were destroyed. And while his mother and sister had relocated to Houston, Menard had lost touch with his father.
"For six days I didn't hear from my dad at all, and I was scared," Menard says. "I saw pictures of my neighborhood on TV, and everything was demolished. I really thought he might be dead. For the first time in my life, I thought I had lost someone close to me. It was such a relief when he called. It put everything in perspective."
In the meantime, orchestras around the country have invited the Louisiana players to participate in fund-raising concerts. Gabka traveled to Nashville Oct. 4 where about 55 New Orleans musicians performed with the Nashville Symphony. "It was great to see everybody again, she says." The New York Philharmonic is presenting a benefit concert Friday in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall.
Though they've comfortably settled in Norfolk - Gabka is staying in an apartment provided by realtor David Corliss and Menard is staying with principal trombonist Scott McElroy and his family - their futures remain uncertain.
Menard had been filling in for a trombonist absent at the beginning of the season. He was offered a permanent position with the Virginia orchestra, but has decided to return to Chicago at the end of the month to look for work.
Gabka was assistant principal oboist with the Louisiana Philharmonic and had worked there for 10 years. She is currently on a per-service contract with the orchestra here, meaning she plays when a third oboist is called for. There is talk of the New Orleans orchestra reconstituting in December to play previous scheduled concerts outside of the city, she says. Still, a lot remains undecided.
"Everything is up in the air," says Gabka, and she wonders, "Can we even afford to go back?
"In the beginning, my focus was to get back to New Orleans, but I like it here, too. I just focus on how fortunate I am. I have a place to live and a job."
Copyright (c) 2005, Daily Press
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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