Flo E. Presti

Flo E. Presti comes from a musical family.  Her parents, Lt. Col. Michael Presti and Florence C. Presti were well-known local voice teachers and her mother was a long-time accompanist for the New Orleans Opera Association and Loyola’s Opera Workshops directed by Arthur Consenza.  Her mother was a graduate of Loyola University’s College of Music and both her mother and father studied at Julliard School of Music in NYC.  Ms. Presti studied voice with her parents as well as Mary Tortorich and Patricia Etienne Havranek during her years at Loyola Music School.  She was a piano student of James Bastien and Irene Huggins Carr.

Ms. Presti started her Musical Theatre career at the age of 15, assuming the position of Musical/Vocal Director for a Teenage Workshop Production of  My Fair Lady at NORD Theatre, New Orleans, LA.  Since that early beginning, she has been involved in over 60 theatrical productions in the role of Musical/Vocal Director/Performer at theatres in New Orleans, New York, New Jersey, Long Island, San Antonio, and Los Angeles.  She has performed at The Beverly Dinner Playhouse, New Orleans Opera Association, Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, Tulane Summer Lyric, Rivertown Repertory Theatre, NORD Theatre, Jefferson Performing Arts Society, Energy Theatre, Theatre Forty/Los Angeles, The Fiesta Dinner Playhouse, The Brooklyn Playhouse, and Southern Repertory Theatre. 

Ms. Presti maintains a private voice studio of 30+ students with an emphasis on musical theatre repertoire with a classical voice foundation.  She also coaches local professional, semi-professional and amateur performers for roles in musical theatre productions, as well as preparing high school students for local and state level vocal competitions.  Ms. Presti prepares graduating high school seniors for college arts programs auditions.  Her students participate in various professional performing venues including New Orleans Opera Association, Jefferson Performing Arts Society, Rivertown Repertory Theatre, Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre, Southern Repertory Theatre, Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre and she has former students who are currently performing on Broadway and who have toured both nationally and internationally in Broadway tours.  In addition, Ms. Presti’s students have given concerts, recitals, and programs for public enjoyment all over NOLA.  She maintains a musical theatre library of over 500 scores, vocal selections, anthologies and over 500 individual sheet music songs, in addition to a library of over 250 classical/sacred/wedding scores, compilations, etc.

In her spare time, she has been the founder/director/performer in four separate small ensembles; Vocal Color, an a cappella quartet of professional singers in New York, NY, who performed for three Christmas seasons at public, private and corporate Christmas parties using traditional and modern versions of sacred and secular carols and songs; Jubilant Singers!, an ensemble of 12 non-professional singers based in Ridgefield Park, NJ, who gave six concerts of repertoire ranging from traditional sacred and popular secular Christmas music, classical and contemporary sacred music, spirituals, opera choruses, Broadway medleys and original cabaret material; Belles & Beaux, an a-cappella quartet of professional singers in New Orleans, who performed for seven years during the Christmas season at world-famous Commander’s Palace Restaurant, as well as appearing at public, private and corporate events. Belles & Beaux also gave three public Christmas concerts focusing on updated versions of traditional secular Christmas songs as well as standard sacred carols; and Out of Habit, an ensemble of women who came together when they all played the roles of nuns in a production of “The Sound of Music”.  OUT OF HABIT gave four concerts of choral music featuring traditional sacred and popular secular Christmas music, classical and contemporary sacred music, spirituals, opera choruses, Broadway medleys, and original cabaret material.

From 1984 – 1993, while residing in NYC, Ms. Presti worked in the television industry at both NBC’s Late Night With David Letterman Show and Children's Television Workshop’s Sesame Street.

Ms. Presti has garnered the following awards: 1999 Storer Boone Award Nomination, Best Musical Direction, “Baby”; 2000 Big Easy Award, Best Musical Direction, “Beehive”; 2000 Jay Stanley Marquee Excellence in Theatre, Best Musical Direction, “Beehive”; 2000 Storer Boone Awards Nomination, Best Musical Direction, “Beehive”; 2002 Big Easy Award, Best Musical Direction, “Crazy For You”; 2002 Jay Stanley Marquee Excellence in Theatre, Best Musical Direction, “Crazy For You”; 2004 Big Easy Award Nomination, Best Musical Direction, “Damn Yankees”.

Ms. Presti holds a Bachelor of Music Education, Secondary Education, Emphasis in Choral Conducting, Double Major Piano and Voice from Loyola University, New Orleans.