Founded in 1998, the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra (SAMOSO) Woodwind Quintet is a vital part of the symphony’s community outreach program. A large portion of the quintet’s focus is to provide live music programs to schools, local churches, and neighborhood organizations. “We are most fortunate to have the SAMOSO Quintet as the educational arm of the orchestra. They do the community and symphony a tremendous service,” says Maestro Allen Robert Gross. In the last year, the group performed “Classical Music on TV and in the Movies,” the Nielsen Quintet for Wind Quintet and selections from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera for students at Will Rogers Elementary, St. Anne, Franklin Elementary, John Muir, Santa Monica Alternative School House, and Grant Elementary. The quintet incorporates instructive talks into all of its performances to enhance the educational experience for younger audiences and also to introduce new or unfamiliar music.
Quintet members Emily Senchuk (flute), Dana Sundene (oboe), Lisa Kohorn (clarinet), Emily Reppun (horn) and Anthony Parnther (bassoon) also perform with the Santa Monica Symphony. As an ambassador for the symphony, the quintet’s mission is to introduce young audiences to wind music and to present a wide variety of chamber music for the enjoyment of all audiences. Along with the school programs, the quintet regularly performs chamber concerts as Vista Winds with Chamber Players of Los Angeles at the Grand Annex in San Pedro. The quintet chooses diverse repertoire to achieve its mission, and the programming for these concerts has included standard quintet repertoire, transcriptions of larger works such as Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” and Bizet’s “Carmen Suite,” as well as new music.
This past season, they premiered “Storytelling,” written for them by film composer Austin Wintory, based on themes from the movie “Abu Raed.” Members of the quintet also premiered “3 Miniatures for 3,” a trio for violin, clarinet and bassoon composed by Golden State Pops Orchestra conductor Steve Fox.
The chamber concerts in the upcoming season will feature music from many different cultures around the world. Two of the featured pieces will be “Little Scenes from China” by Soon Fu-Yuan and “Three Pysanky” by Los Angeles composer Peter Senchuk. “Little Scenes from China” is a contemporary piece written in the style of traditional Chinese folk music. “Three Pysanky” draws on the composer’s Ukrainian heritage and uses folk songs and a traditional Ukrainian wooden flute, the sopilka, to paint a picture of Ukrainian culture from the ancient past to the present. In addition, SAMOSO Woodwind Quintet will play 8 school concerts in Santa Monica schools.
