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.  Ms. Presti is a graduate of the College of Music with a degree in Music Education, double major in voice and piano, with an emphasis on choral conducting for Secondary Education.  She 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 75 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 20+ 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 have made their  Broadway debuts in “A Chorus Line”, “Rock of Ages”, “Legally Blond” and “Book of Mormoan”, and who have toured both nationally and internationally in Broadway tours of “West Side Story”, “Footloose”, “A Chorus Line”, “Hairspray”, “Bye, Bye Birdie”, “The Tina Turner Musical”, and “Book of Mormon”..

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 Childrens 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”.

Flo is an adjunct professor of Musical Theatre Voice since 2015 in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at Loyola University, New Orleans.  For TAD, Flo has acted as musical/vocal director for their productions of “Cabaret” in 2020, directed by Bryan Batt and Tom Cianfichi, the Big Easy Award Winning Best College Production “Head Over Heels” in the Spring 2022, directed by Hardy Weaver, Fall 2022 production, “The Mad Ones”, directed by Sal Mannino, Fall 2023 production of Ann Mahoney’s and Gillian Shelley’s“God Help Them If We Wake Up”, co-directed by Mahoney and Shelley, and the Spring 2025 production of “Alice By Heart”, directed by Sal Mannino.

For the last 12 years, Flo E. has served as a judge for the National World War II Museum’s Stage Door Idol Contest in the BB’s Stage Door Canteen.  She has had numerous Loyola and private students compete in the competition and one of her Loyola students was a contest winner.