Rickie Monie Named to Preservation Hall Foundation Board of Directors

We are thrilled and honored to introduce Mr. Rickie Monie as the newest member of the Preservation Hall Foundation Board of Directors!

Raised in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, Rickie Monie grew up near pianists Edward Frank and Roosevelt Sykes, as well as Preservation Hall trumpeter Frank Parker. His father began teaching him how to play piano at the age of eight, which he soon began playing in church.

As a young man going to hear music in the French Quarter, Monie came to know trumpeter Milton Batiste, banjo player Emanuel Sayles, Harold “Duke” Dejan – saxophonist and bandleader of the great Olympia Brass Band – and pianist Sweet Emma Barrett. In 1982, he began sitting in for the aging Barrett at Preservation Hall.

“The time I spent sitting next to Sweet Emma was like going back to school,” he remembers. “Words can’t always communicate a musical idea or concept. Sometimes, you just have to be there and experience it for yourself.”

Mr. Monie has traveled the world with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and a number of ensembles playing New Orleans music, and continues to share his love of music with students of all ages as they seek him out to request instruction in his meticulous style of playing. He is affectionately known as “The Professor.”

We are so grateful to Mr. Monie for sharing his time, expertise, and musical joy with students, audiences, fellow musicians and admirers of New Orleans music everywhere!