By Arlene McKanic
“We try to heal and bring people together. People do need comfort and solace,” said Barbara Oldham of her group, the Quintet of the Americas, and its music. The Quintet is made of all wind instruments, and Oldham plays the French horn, a daunting instrument that relies on tiny movements of the lips for the pitch, like a bugle or a trumpet. Joining her in the quintet are Sato Moughalian, flute, Edward R. Gilmore, clarinet, Laura Koepke, bassoon, and Matt Sullivan, oboe.
The Quintet is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and Oldham is the only one of the founders remaining in the group. It was founded in Colombia in 1977 while she was playing in the National Orchestra there. “When we founded it, we just thought we’d play standard woodwind quintet literature,” she recalled. “Then we got this weekly radio program in Colombia, and they wanted us to play at least one work of Colombian music a week.” Oldham stayed in Colombia for a little over a year.
“I loved it,” she said. “The Colombian people are wonderful and the country is gorgeous.” But she came back when her father fell ill. Her colleagues returned to the states a couple of years later, and in 1979 reformed the quintet.
The Quintet plays music from all over the Americas, everything from Scott Joplin’s ragtime, to Charlie Parker’s “Yardbird Suite,” to John Cage, to Colombian folk music, Uruguyan tango, and music from Argentina, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, as well as standard classical repertoire from the United States, such as Hindemith, Fine, and Barber.
They’ve commissioned more than 30 pieces. “There’s one piece we played in the summer by Elliot Sharp, called ‘Bird Bath,’ which has bird sounds,” said Oldham. “We’re also premiering a piece called ‘Visions III’ by Judith Sainte Croix. We have a new piece this year by C. Brian Rulon for quintet and computer, and another piece by Kevin James, who teaches music and poetry to homeless kids at the Police Athletic League. He wrote ‘Portrait Project,’ where he interviewed homeless people and wove their words into the piece.”
The Quintet has played in such Queens venues as Flushing Town Hall, the Queens Botanical Garden, the Douglaston Community Church and the Veterans’ Hospital in St. Albans. Rehearsal times can vary.
“Folk music doesn’t take too long,” Oldham said. “The notes are easy, but the contemporary music is extremely complex, with different rhythms and pitches. The folk music is actually folk-based, like a tango.”
She spoke of an improv session that was “real fun,” undertaken by the quintet in the spirit of their willingness to try new forms. “Everybody had a mandala and notes depending on your birth date,” Oldham happily recalled. “You learn that you can’t all play at once, so you learn to listen, and it’s more important to listen than to play. Then you can play off of what someone else does, or you add rhythms.”
The quintet’s time on the road also varies. “A couple of years ago it was 60 days. Now we’re doing more individual concerts and not going out as much. Right now we’re planning on a tour of the Ukraine and [the former Soviet republic of] Georgia, helping students in the conservatory there, taking things like reeds and CD players and repair parts for instruments.”
The quintet’s most patriotic pieces have been shelved recently, due to the Sept. 11 attacks. Their most patriotic piece, “Yankee Doodle Fanfare,” was last played Memorial Day last year, but not since. The events of Sept. 11 also devastated their budget, most noticeably when attendance at a big October concert held at Merkin Hall was cut in half.
“People were planning to come from out of town and canceled,” she said. “Merkin Hall’s phones were down, and it was very difficult. We had to take out a loan to cover our operating expenses and we had extra expenses and other concerts were canceled,” Oldham noted. Attendance went back up in November, “But in October people were still in shock. I know I was. I was at a concert a week before our concert at Merkin Hall. There should have been about 50 people there, but there were only four.”
The Quintet’s headquarters are on Circle Road off Douglaston Parkway, north of Northern Boulevard, but the members practice at different people’s apartments, mostly at the Manhattan home of one musician. Over the years they’ve partnered with different organizations, including the Queens Symphony, and have held workshops and residencies as well as their concerts.
“We did some stuff through the residency with Kevin James, The Coalition for the Homeless and P.A.L.,” said Oldham. “We’re concentrating on family concerts, and workshops with kids and families. On March 8 we’re having an after school program at the Langston Hughes Library. The concert begins at 7:30 and there’s one moment with audience participation.”
Oldham did a series of workshops at PS 72 in Spanish Harlem where she had the kids write in journals and make instruments. She taught them to notice the different sounds that came from filling maracas with different items, like beads or paper clips, and to consider the purposes for the items inside based on the musical selections. Then the children formed teams and took turns playing.
Oldham firmly believes that music can't simply be written about, but must be heard, which is why she’s dismayed by the dearth of classical and jazz radio stations in the city. “I would be thrilled if they played samples of every concert held in New York,” she said. She added that the quintet would like to do more foreign tours and festivals, and build up more of a base in Queens.
“So many people are interested, and there will be a better way of reaching people. We are reaching them but our resources are limited,” she said.
The Quintet’s 7th album, “Dancing in Colombia,” on the MSR label, will be out March 12. It’s made up of 15 tracks by various Colombian composers, including Jorge Olaya Munoz, and was sponsored by a challenge grant from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, with people in the Colombian community raising a match. The Quintet will follow up that album next year with a release on New World Records. Along with their concert at Langston Hughes Library on March 8, they will also perform at the America Society in Manhattan March 12.
