If New Orleans’ musical heritage finds most of its glory it the blooming of jazz and blues, the city surely has room and appreciation for classical music, as the growth of the Birdfoot Festival has shown over the past four years.

Birdfoot Festival brings classical musicians from around the world to New Orleans to perform in an array of different venues ranging from the Contemporary Arts Center to more relaxed settings like Cafe Istanbul.

Eleven concerts and events across the city will feature a variety of formations and types of classical music all the way through May 31st.

“It’s fabulous music and fabulous performances, every one of our concerts is different music,” said Tracey Sherry, Birdfoot Festival founder and managing director. “We’re making significant inroads, every year our audiences are building.”

The festival started on May 20th when the classic southern scenery of the Madewood Plantation House in Napoleonville welcomed the musicians for the Birdfoot Artists Residency.

Gathered in the intimate setting of the plantation house away from the roaring city, guests artists who traveled from the U.K., Germany, Canada, Iceland and many other places are studying with local musicians classic works of chamber music, sometimes during sessions that run deep into the night, according to Sherry.

The Artists Residency will move back to the city in the CAC in the Arts District, where open rehearsals will be held every day through May 29th, inviting the public to catch insight of the musicians’ work. Sherry said visual artists are also encouraged to come paint or craft during the rehearsals.

Concerts will include a performance of New Orleans composer Yotam Haber’s quartet for violin, viola and two cellos, Society of the Free and Easy at Cafe Istanbul on May 27th, a combination of spoken word and chamber music retrospecting on the 10th anniversary of Katrina at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center featuring local poet Kataalyst Alcindor, a conversation and performance around Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence in collaboration with WWNO at the Basin St. Station in the Tremé on May 28th and many others.

By performing outside of the traditional concert hall and reaching out to neighborhood venues, the festival helps familiarizing diverse crowds to different forms of classical music. Sherry said that they have seen younger crowds come and enjoy the concerts at Snug Harbor and Cafe Istanbul in the past.

“We get a lot of people who don’t have a lot of experience with classical music but who aren’t scrooges. Once we get them in the door, we keep them. And they’ll come back,” Sherry said. “It’s just about making them try in the first place.”