Program for Quinteto Latino – April 30, 2023
Sunday, April 30, 2023 at 4 pm
download a copy of this program here.
The Music of Orlando Jacinto García
Quinteto Latino
Armando Castellano, French horn; Diane Grubbe, flute
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe; Leslie Tagorda, clarinet
with season guest artist Jamael Smith, bassoon
Program
noche (night) (1999)
for Flute (doubling piccolo, alto, and bass flutes) and Bb Clarinet (doubling bass clarinet)
aire, madera, y metal (1997)
Bassoon solo
Intermission
la bandera sin colores (2023) World Premiere
French horn solo
separación (2001)
English horn and electronics
video artist: Jacek Kolasinski
múltiples vientos en la distancia (2016)
woodwind quintet
Note
text for la bandera sin colores (2023)
The Spanish text and English translation are both by the composer (Orlando Jacinto García):
las banderas nos orgullecen (flags make us proud)
a la misma vez cubren los esqueletos en el armario de los tiranos (at the same time they hide the skeletons in the closet of tyrants)
patria (motherland), libertad (liberty), vida (life), o muerte (or death) por qué? (why?)
About the musicians
Through more than 200 works composed for a wide range of performance genres including interdisciplinary (video, film, dance) and site-specific works, and works with and without electronics for orchestra, choir, soloists, and a variety of chamber ensembles, Orlando Jacinto García has established himself as an important figure in the new music world. The distinctive character of his music has been described as “time suspended-sonic explorations” – qualities he developed from his work with Morton Feldman among others.
Born in Havana, Cuba in 1954, García migrated to the United States in 1961. In demand as a guest composer, he is the recipient of numerous honors and awards from a variety of organizations and institutions including the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Rockefeller, Fulbright, Knight, Civitella, Bogliasco, and Cintas Foundations, State of Florida, MacDowell and Millay Colony, and the Ariel, Noise International, Matiz Rangel, Nuevas Resonancias, Salvatore Martirano, and Bloch International Competitions. He has been the recipient of five Latin Grammy nominations in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition Category (2009–11, 2015, 2021). With performances around the world at important venues by distinguished performers including The New World Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar (Venezuela), Maya Beiser, Robert Dick, Kathleen Supove, James Fulkerson, Joan La Barbara, Orquesta de Valencia (Spain), Continuum, Miami String Quartet, Nuevo Ensemble de Segovia (Spain), Sequenza Sur (Mexico), Buffalo Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, National Orchestra of El Salvador, Orquesta Filarmonica Nacional de Venezuela, Orquesta Sinfonica Carlos Chavez (Mexico), Miami Symphony Orchestra, Lviv Philharmonic (Ukraine), Cuarteto Latinoamericano (Mexico), Bang on a Can All Stars, Barton Workshop (Holland), Robert Black, Daniel Kientzy (France), Michael Bach (Germany), Anthony de Mare, among others.
García is the founder and director of the NODUS Ensemble, the Miami Chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music, the New Music Miami ISCM Festival, and is a resident composer for the Miami Symphony. A dedicated educator, he is Distinguished University Professor and Composer in Residence for the School of Music at Florida International University.
Quinteto Latino is a Bay Area wind quintet with a mission to build community through Latin American Classical Music performance and advocacy. Founded in 2004 by French horn player Armando Castellano, this unique ensemble aims to expand the boundaries of classical music by performing works exclusively by Latin American composers. Through innovative work in venues both traditional and nontraditional, they strive to make this music available, relevant, and inspiring to audiences across cultural, class, and ethnic lines. In addition, they advocate on behalf of Latinx composers and POC classical musicians through mentoring, commissioning, consulting, public speaking, and hiring – acting as an amplifying voice, both regionally and nationally, for issues pertaining to diversity in classical music.
The quintet has performed extensively throughout the greater Bay Area and has been engaged by presenters across the country such as Quad City Arts – The Clarice (College Park, MD), Strathmore (North Bethesda, MD), Pregones Theater (The Bronx, NY), Musical Masterworks (New London, CT), and Virginia Arts Festival (Norfolk, VA). Quinteto Latino’s debut CD, 100 Years of Mexican Music for Wind Quintet, was released by Con Brio Recordings in 2011.
Oboist Kyle Bruckmann‘s widely ranging work as a composer/performer, educator, classical freelancer and new music specialist extends from conservatory-trained foundations into gray areas encompassing free jazz, post-punk rock, and the noise underground. Beyond Quinteto Latino, his current ensemble affiliations include Splinter Reeds, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, sfSound, Eco Ensemble, and the Stockton Symphony. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area from Chicago in 2003, he has performed as a substitute with the San Francisco Symphony and most of the area’s regional orchestras while remaining active within an international community of improvisers and sound artists, appearing on more than 100 recordings of various genres. He is now Assistant Professor of Practice in Oboe and Contemporary Performance at University of the Pacific, and also teaches at UC Santa Cruz, Davis and Berkeley. Bruckmann earned undergraduate degrees in music and psychology at Rice University in Houston, studying oboe with Robert Atherholt and serving as music director of campus radio station KTRU. He completed his Masters degree in 1996 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he studied oboe performance with Harry Sargous and contemporary improvisation with Ed Sarath.
Armando Castellano is a musician, bilingual teaching artist, and arts advocate based in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a professional French horn player, he is active internationally as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral performer. As an arts advocate, Armando is the lead teaching artist for Quinteto Latino, providing bilingual residencies, music education, and performance services to students, teachers and school systems nationally. He also actively advocates on behalf of musicians of color in the US through direct mentorship as well as leading QL’s fellows programming. His equity work is far reaching and tireless, speaking nationally on issues impacting BIPOC classical musicians, giving workshops on culturally relevant arts education and cultural expression in the arts, and consulting on organization diversity. He currently sits on three boards nationally, including as current board chair of Donors of Color Network.
Flutist Diane Grubbe is a very active performer and teacher, with a special interest in contemporary music and new techniques of performance on flute, piccolo, alto and bass flutes. She is a member of Quinteto Latino and she has appeared with orchestras throughout the Bay Area including the Stockton Symphony, One Found Sound, Symphony Silicon Valley, Lamplighters Music Theater, Festival Opera, Pocket Opera, and many others. She often performs with the avant-garde ensemble sfSound, and has been a guest artist with Earplay, the Eco Ensemble, Santa Cruz New Music Works, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. She earned degrees in flute performance are from San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Bassoonist Jamael Smith is a performer and educator based in San Francisco. They have played with various ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, California Symphony as well as the San Francisco Contemporary Players. Jamael is a member of the conductor-less chamber orchestra One Found Sound, as well as the woodwind quintet Avenue Winds. They have attended summer festivals such as the Kent Blossom Summer Festival and the Pierre Monteux Festival. They completed graduate studies with Stephen Paulson and have also studied with Seth Krimsky and Bill Buchman.
Born and raised in Hawaii, clarinetist Leslie Tagorda received a B.M. in Clarinet Performance from the Eastman School of Music and an M.M. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In her long career as musician, Leslie has worked as both educator and performer. In Hawaii, Leslie worked with the Royal Hawaiian Band, the Hawaii Opera Theater, and the Honolulu Symphony as a freelance clarinetist. In the Bay Area, Leslie has freelanced with regional orchestras including the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Sacramento Opera, Modesto Symphony, Marin Symphony, Monterey Symphony, California Symphony, New Century Chamber Orchestra and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. Currently Leslie focuses her musical time on chamber music with a purpose, including Quinteto Latino. When not making music, Leslie is a sought-after business astrologer, author, podcast host, designer and teacher weaving astrology and identity into specific strategies for visionary change makers to step into their highest potential of impactful luminary leadership. She resides with her husband and son in the occupied land of the Ohlone Ramaytush currently called San Francisco.