For the birds: Quintessence show celebrates feathered friends

Birds of a feather, sing together.

At least in the case of Quintessence: A Community of Singers. It has centered its performance around birds for its 12th annual summer choral festival.

This year, the group will premier Christopher Tin’s Grammy-nominated “The Lost Birds: An Extinction Elegy.” The songs in the 45-minute performance pay homage to birds and the effect climate change has had on them.

For the birds: Quintessence show celebrates feathered friends

According to a Quintessence news release, the show is “sweeping and elegiac” and serves as a haunting tribute to soaring flocks that once filled the skies, but whose songs have since been silenced.

The performance will be the finale to the weeklong choir festival. It is the first time the “The Lost Birds” will be performed in New Mexico.

Other music that will be performed by Quintessence include compositions by Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms and a mix of modern contemporary composers. Quintessence hires a local, professional orchestra to accompany them.

“We do classics like Mozart’s ‘Requiem,’ but we also try to alternate that with contemporary pieces because supporting living composers is really important,” said Matthew Greer, artistic director of Quintessence. “One of the challenges with this performance is that most people have never performed these songs before and have never met before. It can be a bit daunting but the composer of the piece is just really happy that we’re doing it in New Mexico.”

Every summer since 2013, the group has joined together. For one week, more than 130 children, teenagers and adults will prepare music pieces to perform at 3 p.m. on Sunday, July 28, at V. Sue Cleveland High School, 4800 Cleveland Heights Road NE, in Rio Rancho.

The Kids’ Choir will perform at noon on Friday, July 26, at St. John’s United Methodist Church, 2626 Arizona St. NE. It is the first time Quintessence has had a children’s choir.

While some of Quintessence’s members are new, many are returning members.

The teenager and collegiate age group consists of 16 performers. In order to be selected, students have to get a recommendation from a choir teacher. They then audition to be a part of Quintessence.

Greer said the week is filled with workshops and preparation for the show.

“It’s a fairly intense week, especially for the choral scholars, the high school and college kids, because they’re rehearsing with me during the day and often rehearsing the big piece in the evening,” Greer said. “We’ve got workshops about just general singing topics or vocal health.”

To help the choir get into a bird-themed headspace, Quintessence partnered with local wildlife groups like Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, Interfaith Power and Light, and Bird Alliance of Central New Mexico to highlight bird health and conservation. The groups will lead the choir on birds walks, teach them about birds in the area and hold a bird song workshop.

“I think it’s an opportunity for us to reach out and to sort of highlight the good work of other organizations around us,” said Abby Greenwald, executive director of Quintessence. “We think it’s these organizations that are advocating and educating that can really turn the tide and give us hope. We invited them to our show so they can have a table and connect with our audience.”

Greenwald said that the group was very excited to work with the organizations and feels it is important to connect performers with their purpose.

“Art reflects reality and because the music can be quite moving, then we like to sort of close that loop,” Greenwald said. “That sort of prompts us to make those community connections. For the singers, it is very deep because they spend weeks or months with the music and with messages in it. We have found that the singers are quite receptive to this type of closing the loop.”

Greer said that audience reception has been great for Quintessence throughout the years and he hopes to keep that momentum up with their upcoming festival.

“We’ve had a great response to this because it is something that has become a staple for a lot of people in the Albuquerque community,” Greer said. “It’s just an absolutely gorgeous piece and I think people will be moved. It has a little bit of extra energy because we’re doing a New Mexico premiere of a piece that we think is important.”