History of the 1805 Concert
The original impetus for 1805 Concert comes from a collaboration, initiated in 2022, between Jeff Leichman and Shea Trahan, around the project to build a digital architectural model based on the rediscovered prospectus for an immense theatre complex on the banks of the Mississippi, proposed by Bordeaux-born architect Jean-Hyacinthe Laclotte in 1805. The research and computer-assisted modeling work undertaken by Leichman and Trahan was sponsored in part by the Transatlantic Research Partnership of the Albertine Foundation, and will be published in the 2024 volume Nouvelles Etudes sur le lieu de spectacle de la première modernité (eds. P. Beaucé and J. Leichman, Open Book Publishers).
For eight years following the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the Territory of Orleans (which
included most of present-day Louisiana) existed as a part of the American polity while
awaiting accession to the status and rights of statehood. At the same time, the inhabitants
of the capital city, New Orleans, remained culturally attached to the French Atlantic
Empire, an affinity that became more pronounced as local populations sought to protect
their heritage in the face of American cultural encroachment, giving rise to a unique
political-aesthetic amalgam that continues in many ways to define the region’s inimitable
cultural status in the United States.
Mr. Trahan, a practicing architect in New Orleans and Doctor of Design candidate at LSU, is currently completing work on a doctoral dissertation project integrating architecture and acoustics. Together, Mr. Trahan and LSU Associate Professor of Electronic Music Jesse Allison, have created an acoustical computer model of Laclotte’s theatre. In turn, the 92-channel sound system in the LSU Digital Media Center Theatre will use this model to sculpt the sonic experience of listeners, effectively transporting them to the aural space of this never-built structure. LSU Associate Professor of Opera Performance Brandon Hendrickson, the 1805 Concert musical director, selected and arranged works from the repertoire of Territorial New Orleans, and has rehearsed with faculty, graduate and undergraduate students to create the performances for the concerts that will take place on September 26-27 at 7:30 pm in the LSU Digital Media center Theatre.
The concert format provides a welcoming space for students, scholars and non-academic
members of the community to explore and understand the research conducted and facilitated
by the LSU Center for French and Francophone Studies, as well as to (re-)discover
an important chapter of the long and ongoing history of relations between France and
Louisiana. This public event invites LSU and the broader South Louisiana community
to understand the vital role of French Studies for our region and, through our integration of digital tools and skills in departmental pedagogy, a viable and valuable educational path at LSU.
Photo: Shea Trahan, AIA, exterior view of Laclotte’s theatre (©2022)