Quinteto Latino – Saturday, April 17 at 8 pm
PROGRAM INFORMATION AVAILABLE HERE
Quinteto Latino
Diane Grubbe, flute
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe
Leslie Tagorda, clarinet
Shawn Jones, bassoon
Armando Castellano, Ensemble Director & French horn
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are more than just buzz words – they represent a generational shift around traditional power structures in the Arts and beyond. What does that mean for Latino composers and performers, a group woefully underrepresented in professional orchestras and their repertoire? Quinteto Latino director Armando Castellano, a leading voice in the discussion of DEI issues in classical music, talks with O1C Director Matt Wolka about the origins of Quinteto Latino, the state of Latino music and musicians and the effect of the current DEI movement on increasing BIPOC participation in the classical music world – the answer might surprise you. In addition to the conversation, Quinteto Latino performs four works by Latino composers for wind quintet.
Founded in 2004, Quinteto Latino is a professional, multi-racial wind quintet whose performing repertoire consists solely of classical and commissioned works by Latino and Latin American composers. Armando Castellano, Founder, Artistic Director, and French Horn player, sought to challenge the racially exclusionary roots of classical music by putting the voices of diverse Latino communities at the front of all Quinteto Latino’s performances, whether formal concerts, school assemblies, or community events.
In addition to concertizing, Quinteto Latino has commissioned new works by Latino composers and brings together early career professional Latino classical musicians from throughout the US to train in chamber music performance and to address diversity and equity issues in classical music.
Quinteto Latino is the professional performance group of Latino Music Education Network, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization officially incorporated in 2020 in the San Francisco Bay Area.