Composers – The Quintet of the Americas

José Raúl Bernardo

Cuban Baroque Suite (with piano or harpsichord and percussion) (1998) I: Overture III. Habanera II. Fanfare IV. Danzon V. Aria VI. Beguine VII. Zapateo VIII. Minueto IX. Rumba finale Notes courtesy J. Bernardo: The music of José Raúl Bernardo has often been characterized as “deceptively simple.” This deceptive simplicity is nowhere more evident than in…
Judith Sainte Croix

Vision III (2002) for Wind Quintet, Indigenous Instruments and Festival Images of Central and South America Prologue – Original Nature I. Ancient Hustle Bustle II. El Dorado III. The Secrets Drop into Hiding IV. Dream Song V. Soaring Above the Festival In 2001 Quintet of the Americas was chosen out…
Justin Davidson

Cinquintettelettes (1992) Mr. Davidson wrote Cinquintettelettes for Quintet of the Americas while he was a student at Columbia University. Justin Davidson (born 1966 in Rome, Italy) is a classical music and architecture critic. In 1983, he graduated from the American Overseas School of Rome, where his mother was an English teacher. He began his journalism career as a local stringer for…
Karel Husa

Five Poems (1994) 1) Walking Birds 2) Happy Bird3) Lamenting Bird with a dead bird4) Fighting birds5) Bird flying high above Quintet of the Americas performed all of Husa’s wind chamber music on a concert at Merkin Hall on Octmber 23, 2001 celebrating the composer’s 80th birthday. This music was recorded a few days later and…
Kathleen St. John

Heliotrope a Suite of Six Dances for Woodwind Quintet (1981) The Winds of Aeolus (1981) Quintet of the Americas was introduced to Kathleen St. John when Jeannie Poole, organizer for the First International Congress on Women in Music at New York University in 1981, asked us to perform a piece by Kathleen on a program…
Kevin James

Portraits – “Mother Teresa,” “Midnight Avenue A” (1997) Mr. James’ selection for the Meet The Composer/New Residencies Program in 1999 placed him in residence variously with The Kitchen, Quintet of the Americas, and Sirius String Quartet. It included the commission of The Portraits Project, a 90-minute multimedia “opera-lingua”, for which Mr. James recorded over 700 interviews…
Laura Kaminsky

Cadenza Variations (2004) I. PreludeII. ClarinetIII. BassoonIV. FluteV. French hornVI. OboeVII. Postlude Quintet of the Americas premiered this work at Merkin Hall, NYC on April 19, 2005 It was performed again at Sarah Lawrence College in 2005 and on April 16, 2013 on the Women’s Work Second Concert of 2013 Series at the Players Theatre,…
Lee Hyla

Amnesia Breaks (1990) Amnesia Breaks was commissioned by Quintet of the Americas with funding provided by the New York State Council on the Arts in 1990 and was premiered by them the same year. Lee was another NY “Downtown” composer introduced to the group by oboist Matt Sullivan. The piece involves extreme contrasts wild and…
Lembit Beecher

Music for Bayside (2013) Program notes by Lembit Beecher: Music for Bayside was commissioned by the Quintet of the Americas as part of their ongoing relationship with communities in Queens, New York. The piece is based on interviews that the members of the quintet and I conducted with senior citizens at Bayside Senior Center in…
Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin

Lullaby and Memory (2013) for flute, English horn, bass clarinet, horn and bassoon Click (2013) for percussion students and wind quintet Tango for a Cold Wintry Day (2014) Rockaway Baby (2016) I. The Rockaways II. Blue Heaven III. D.O.M. (optional contrabassoon) For The Sparrows (2018) for Wind Quintet, children’s chorus, recorder group and chamber orchestra…
Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin

Lullaby and Memory (2013) Tango for a Cold Winter Day (2014) Rockaway Baby (2016) For the Sparrows (2018) For solo woodwind quintet, chamber orchestra, children’s choir and recorder ensemble composed by Ljova in memory of Judith Sainte-Croix Commissioned by Quintet of the Americas through the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant. This project…
Marcelo Toledo

Rezongos (Grumbles) for wind quintet, piano, 8 voices, and bandoneon. Txt by John Cage. 8′ (1998) Marcelo Toledo was born in Posadas, Misiones, Argentina. He studied at the National University of Litoral, in Santa Fe, Argentina, and privately with the composer Dante Grela in Rosario. He wrote “Stravinsky or The Sculpture of Time”, a study…