Most of us are attached at the hip to what we play. We would never leave without it.

We are dependent on the good will of donors. And considering the terrible state of our city, I’m just really worried that the arts will suffer. And without the arts, what makes us human?

They didn’t tell us. We found out because we got letters from our health insurance company saying our policies had been canceled.

[The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra is the proud of offspring of the New Orleans Symphony, which went bankrupt in 1991, leaving its musicians unemployed and stunned.] They didn’t tell us, … We found out because we...