City of Tomorrow, Quintet

Biography

City of Tomorrow:
Elise Blatchford, Flute
Andrew Nogal, Oboe
Camila Barrientos, Clarinet
Leander Star, French Horn
Amanda Swain, Bassoon

A new model for the wind quintet of the future, the City of Tomorrow advocates for the expansion and quality of wind quintet repertoire and performance. COT was awarded First Prize in the wind division at the 2011 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In 2010, the City of Tomorrow gave the North American premiere of Italian composer Franco Donatoni's quintet "Blow" in a recital at Northwestern University. The group has performed across the Midwest in concert series at Andrews University in Michigan, and Valparaiso University and Wabash College in Indiana.

They have worked with young musicians at Notre Dame and at Midwest Young Artists in Highwood, Illinois. They also advocate for the four quintets of George Perle, the works of David Maslanka, David Lang, and Lee Hyla in addition to breathing new life into 20th century classics. The group experiments with lecture-concert formats to bring the audience closer to understanding lesser-known works. This quintet is a touring group with members based in Chicago, New York, and Portland, Oregon.

The City of Tomorrow is comprised of five musicians: horn player Leander Star performs with the Portland Opera in Oregon; Amanda Swain, a regular member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, won the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition on bassoon in 2010; flutist Elise Blatchford and clarinetist Camila Barrientos have toured Latin America with the YOA Orchestra of the Americas; Camila is a co-founder of Ensemble Electrico, which brings music to remote areas of her native Boliva; and Andrew Nogal has been spotted playing oboe (and oboe d'amore and bass oboe) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on their MusicNOW concerts and with the contemporary music group Ensemble Dal Niente.