BLACK LIVES MATTER! Statement of the Quintet of the Americas

The Quintet of the Americas stands in solidarity with the Black community, in the arts and beyond, as our country struggles to overcome racial discrimination and violence. Long espousing the values of equity and justice, both as an organization and as individuals, we will not remain silent at this time of turbulence.

The pandemic has affected us all, but none more than the Black community. Disparities in access to healthcare and housing, as well as education and jobs, have left communities of color struggling for survival.

As a musical ensemble, we recognize and value the immense contributions of Black performers and composers to chamber music. Our efforts to increase their visibility and representation, collaborating with Black and Latinx artists, have educated us and our audiences about the painful history of injustice they have long endured.
The Quintet continues to prioritize racial equity in all areas of our operations, and to encourage dialogue about organizational and structural racism within our field. We urge our audience members, funders, and colleagues in the performing arts to stand together with us to declare that racial intolerance and violence must be stopped. The change must be in each of us … and it must be now.

Quintet of the Americas Creates Concert Archive of Commissioned Works as part of Its Celebration of 40 Years in New York City

All of the Quintet’s concerts were cancelled starting mid-March as the global pandemic swept through NY with a vengeance. Prevented from rehearsing and performing live, we have been creating concerts for you to hear and watch on YouTube – selections of our commissions from the last 40 years which we have recorded from past concerts. We are asking the composers to record new introductions to their works! Our first concert is up. It’s a diverse program, everything from Colombian dances by Jorge Olaya Muñoz, to a work inspired by Manhattan in 1609 and today: Mannahatta Windows by Robert Deemer, to fun works by Thiago de Mello and James Cohn, to one of our first Memory Project pieces: Music for Bayside by Lembit Beecher based on interviews with Bayside seniors, to Dream Song from Vision III by Judith Sainte Croix with native flutes and masks, to Variable Winds by Daniel Ott, a piece inspired by the changes over hundreds of years in Flushing, NY. We have also posted a short of Carl MaultsBy’s Still Rockin’ In Jerusalem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ya5tx6PDWA. We hope you will enjoy this concert and check back for the next one coming soon!

Quintet produces 9 educational videos

After visiting one school to perform our educational program, the virus stopped us from visiting any more schools. We spent the first 6 weeks of stay-at-home recording and assembling a workshop video and 8 more videos which we sent to many schools. Teachers and principals were grateful for these materials as they switched with no notice to on-line remote learning. We expect these videos will be used in more schools in the fall. They are all up on YouTube.

Queens Jazz Greats Program Big Success Last Fall

We had great fun collaborating again with jazz artists Earl McIntyre, bass trombone/ tuba player and arranger, Renée Manning, vocalist, and Carlos Maldonado, percussionist, in programs that celebrated the artistry of Queens Jazz musicians. So many jazz artists have called Queens home. We presented a series of 4 workshops, a culminating concert and satellite concerts featuring music by Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Jimmy Heath, Cannonball Adderley, and Dizzy Gillespie. Earl created new arrangements of these works for woodwind quintet, trombone or tuba, percussion and vocals. . We took these event to senior centers, an Adult Alzheimers Day Care, rehabilitation hospitals and the Langston Hughes Library. This project was part of a Chamber Music America Residency and was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as New York State for the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. It’s always so much fun to work with these friends! Here is a performance we put on YouTube of one of Renée's songs performed by the 8 of us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucg7evI4hPA ENJOY!