Despite the fact that the group's music was very
different from many of the Coalition's audience members'
experience (both youth and adults), turnout exceeded goals.
Congreso sold out more than half of the CDs they had brought
for a six-week national tour during their New Orleans
residence.
Douglass High School students engaged in dialogue with
Congreso members. The experience broadened both groups'
perspectives about unfamiliar parts of the world through
music.
A pre-performance curtain raiser by the Douglass High
School Band in the lobby of the Contemporary Arts Center
just prior to Congreso's first public performance generated
significant attention and appreciation of the community.
The event gave the Band and its director a meaningful
opportunity to display their talents, increase their
exposure, broaden their performance experience and receive
validation of their work. Hugo Pirovich of Congreso
publicly acknowledged them as his "colleagues from across
the continent."
For the first time in Contemporary Arts Center history,
75% of paying audience members (about 100 people) were from
New Orleans' 8th and 9th Wards (20% were Douglass High
School Band members' families).
