A celebration of the 300th anniversary of the founding of New Orleans, this program will consist of beautiful, sumptuous sacred and operatic works from the Chapelle Royale at Versailles and the Opéra in Paris, and even from la Nouvelle-Orléans herself. There will be music associated with the courts of the Roi-Soleil Louis XIV, his great-grandson Louis XV, and the ill-fated Louis XVI — Austin Baroque Orchestra promises no heads will roll!

They’ll perform a motet by Jean-Baptiste Lully composed for the baptism of Louis XIV’s eldest son, the finale of Les Sauvages from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s masterpiece Les indes galantes, the festively brilliant Te Deum by Michel-Richard de Lalande, and Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville’s vivid and exciting motet In exitu Israël. The performance will also feature excerpts from the Manuscrit des Ursulines de la Nouvelle-Orléans, the only surviving music manuscript from colonial Louisiana. Austin Baroque Orchestra’s first large-scale French concert since 2012 promises to be très magnifique — they hope you’ll join them!