Lilli Lewis on Her Upcoming Collab with the LPO

Lilli Lewis, by Liz Hogan

Who gains what from an indie music/classical music pairing?

On Wednesday, Lilli Lewis will play a “Market Night” collaboration at the Jazz and Blues Market with a pared down version of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). Then on Friday, the LPO will collaborate with DJ Mannie Fresh at the Orpheum.

I’ve written about the LPO’s collaborations with Big Freedia, Alfred Banks, Tank and the Bangas, Lost Bayou Ramblers and ÍFÈ, and one underlying question is what working with the LPO gives an indie artist, particularly a rapper whose not likely to expand their audience through such shows.

I asked Lilli Lewis about that via email for a piece I wrote on the collaborations for Antigravity. Her music lives in an in-between space—Americana because it has become a bit of a catch-all genre, but as she says below, she used to think of her music as “soul-oriented art songs,” and that phrase still sounds pretty accurate.

As I learned when she introduced herself to Jazz Fest audiences via her favorite songs in 2024, Lewis is not afraid to explain herself in depth. It’s also not surprising that she has nuanced thoughts about what was once termed the high/low art divide, which valorized classical music and denigrated more popular forms.

Here’s Professor Lewis, weighing in on the stability of that divide and how the two sides interact.—Alex

So the question about whether or not classical music still carries weight. Do you mean in terms of aesthetic value or esteem?

I think the aesthetic value will never die. It seems like people use classical sounds in their contemporary tracks as much as they ever did; they’re just getting them from download samples instead of people more often than not. How does the song go? “Money changes everything,” right?

People have a hunger to make music that feels good to them and will stop at nothing to do it. So if they can’t afford the big studio and a chamber ensemble the engineers and the like, they’ll just get it from a box and get it close enough to right, creating a new standard and becoming the only version that’s “right.” Lol.

As for esteem, I’m not sure people believe in that anymore. Elevated seems to have become against our religion. I would imagine a Sexy Red concert with the LPO being much more readily embraced than what I’d offer, but that’s because what the idiom means to me might be way off from what it means to everyone else.

I spent all of my young life, really up into my 30s, in classical music, and when I first started writing songs, I considered them soul-oriented art songs. My lead instrument for my first few years was clarinet with a little bit of flute peppered in from time to time. It was art music, I’ll admit, but because I was genre agnostic we played everything from folk shows to jazz shows to punk shows. I was determined to carve out a corner for myself with my weird AF songs. When I moved to New Orleans, I mostly identified as a composer, but the ongoing prospect of trying to get that music performed was becoming more and more gloomy.

But the more I got to know how collaborative music really works, I got addicted to that ride so now, I can’t say that I’m writing those songs all the time anymore (although I am writing one now! lol) To me, music is so human that that’s I’m trying to get at: the humanness of it all. So if something seeps through the crack in this dimension and whispers at me that it can help me on that quest, I just grab it and follow it where it takes me. A ‘wither thou goest’ sort of arrangement.

Let me take a moment to say that my comment about Sexy Redd intended no disrespect. I believe ratchet is a new form of art aesthetic that needs to be explored in order to shake loose the cultural knots we’re in, and I used her as an example of that, saying nothing of other artists who might be construed in that arena by the people who don’t yet understand it. And Big Freedia is exempt from any such analysis because the bish is so talented and beautifully spirited that she elevates the space no matter where her platforms land.

The truth is, the classical arena is dying, and probably needs out of the box collaborations more than the collaborating artists need the box. There may not be as much room for canon or new works as there used to be, but what idiom survives if it’s not “for the people?” Where the musicians can offer aesthetic elevation, these visiting artist can offer renewal, revival—perhaps even survival?

That said, the songs I’m bringing to the ensemble are the ones that have always wanted this sort of treatment. I was amongst those who couldn’t afford it but too much of a purist to get them from a box (plus I find the boxed stuff never bends to my will like I want them to).

For me there’s incredible meaning in this collaboration because it feels like I’ve been in exile and now I’ve been invited to at least visit my home. Dr. Jimbo Walsh is the composer responsible for my arrangements (my health has been too off and on to do them myself), and he’s intimately acquainted with my work, having been a primary collaborator for nearly a decade. He also knows my mind better than any, having also served as a mentor. In fact, Jimbo first became aware of me through a cantata I was trying to get performed here, but his real mentorship involved hours upon hours of revelation bridging philosophy, sociology, physics, general badassery, etc., an eternal gift.

So yes, classical Lilli will likely show up, (even though I’m still trying to find the right dress), and I couldn’t be more excited, but not because of any notion of elitism, because classical Lilli understands more about the whole equation now. The truth is people who have been with me since the beginning have been waiting to see me in this idiom for over two decades. I just hope we make something beautiful, and I hope somehow I get to keep doing it!