The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra 89th Season Calendar

To kick off the 89th season of the The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, I art directed, scouted, edited, and designed the calendar that would make a splash in Southern Mississippi.

The calendar was planned around the season’s biggest and most glamorous guest, Renee Fleming. Fleming is world renowned for her impeccable style and beautiful voice. We wanted to present her in a calendar that would be just as fashionable as she.

The calendar’s photographs are intriguing. Each setting entails designer gowns, stunning hair and make-up coupled with naturalistic settings. A closer look reveals instruments of the symphony cleverly placed. On first glance it appears models, photographers and hair and make-up teams must have been flown around the world to capture these stunning images. But what makes this calendar even more special is that even a person familiar with the area would most likely not recognize the setting as Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Each model was a student at Southern Miss or Hattiesburg local and were photographed in and around the city.

Over the course of about 6 months, with help from Symphony Marketing Director, Mike Lopinto, and University photographer, Danny Rawls, I scouted the city of Hattiesburg, MS for locations, props, models, and inspiration to build this stunning calendar. Several months of the calendar feature hair, makeup, and dresses designed and executed by me. As we went to each location to shoot the photos, I hand placed the models and props to achieve the final look. To make everything better, we were able to complete the printed calendar for basically free. We had donors in the area to donate the beautiful gowns and props, models who donated their time, locations that were totally free, and set crew that were students at the University who wanted to help out. The printing cost were even covered by local businesses in support of the arts at Southern Miss.