The former first lady and her husband, former president Barack Obama, are executive producers of Matthew Heineman’s film about musician Jon Batiste and his wife Suleika Jaouad.
Michelle Obama made a surprise appearance on Thursday night at the New Orleans premiere of American Symphony, Matthew Heineman’s documentary feature about musician Jon Batiste and his wife Suleika Jaouad.
She and Barack Obama are credited as executive producers.
Heineman, Batiste and Jaouad were also in attendance.
“I am thrilled to be here in New Orleans with all of you to celebrate this amazing film that we are so, so honored and proud to be a part of,” the former first lady and current partner in Higher Ground Productions said front of a crowd of some 1,000 locals at the famed Orpheium Theaterin. “And there’s no better place to lift up this work than in the city where music is at the heart of everything, because music is at the heart of this film.”
She continued, “American Symphony opens us all up to the power and inevitability of music. Yet this film is about so much more than one man’s meteoric rise. It is the story of two souls — Jon and Suleika — on parallel paths.”
Batiste, a member of a New Orleans musical dynasty, was also welcomed back as a hometown hero, and the city issued an official proclamation declaring Friday “Jon Batiste Day.”
