Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. The weather forecast is calling for chilly temps, and if you're looking for a place to enjoy an inside activity, look no further than the Queer Urban Orchestra's Saturday night concert titled Refuge. The Queer Urban Orchestra was founded in 2009 as New York City's first orchestra specifically serving the LGBTQ community. This year, it's celebrating "The joy, beauty, and necessity of a queer space," through its season titled A Place for Us. Tomorrow's program features Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony, plus Debussy and a world premiere of a piece by one of the orchestra's cellists. In a moment, you'll get to hear a bit of that piece from a portion of the group because we couldn't fit a 60-piece ensemble in the studio. First, joining me now to preview tomorrow's show and talk about the orchestra are David Bloom, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Queer Urban Orchestra since 2022. It's nice to meet you, David.

David Bloom: You too.

Alison Stewart: Dave Lohman, Principal Bassoonist of the orchestra, and former president. Hi, Dave.

Dave Lohman: Nice to meet you.

Alison Stewart: And Brian Shaw, Principal Oboist and Orchestral Manager.

Brian Shaw: Hello.

Alison Stewart: Nice to meet you as well. Brian, you've been a member of the group since its beginning?

Brian Shaw: Yes.

Alison Stewart: How did the group come to be?

Brian Shaw: We have a sister organization called the Big Apple Corps. It's a symphonic band and marching band. They've been around for a long time, but there were a few members that really wanted a space to play some orchestral music, so a bunch of them set out to make this happen. 2009, it all came together. We started our first rehearsals at the Gay Men's Health Crisis down in Chelsea, playing in their cafeteria. It was a ragtag group of four oboes, two violins, two cellos, a tuba, and a couple brass. We pulled it together, and over the last 15, 16 years, we've really just exploded.

Alison Stewart: Dave, the group was founded as a space specifically for musicians in the LGBTQ community, but now its membership is open to all adult musicians, regardless of age, race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity. How has the group and its mission grown since it was first founded?

Dave Lohman: I think that we've expanded the repertoire, for sure. We've added a lot of music by contemporary composers who identify as LGBTQ. We've enlarged our activities to include outreach, training new conductors, giving new composers a place to hear their music through competition, and things like that.

Alison Stewart: David, you joined the group in 2022.

David Bloom: Right.

Alison Stewart: What attracted you to this group?

David Bloom: It is such a special group of musicians who are really devoted to the mission of uplifting queer artistry. QUO is the only LGBTQ orchestra in the Northeast, so it's a big job, and the musicians are all really devoted to it.

Alison Stewart: How do you recruit musicians for the group? Who wants to take that?

Dave Lohman: Much by word of mouth.

Alison Stewart: Word of mouth, really?

Dave Lohman: Hopefully, after this broadcast, [laughter] we'll get a few more. People get invited to concerts, they hear us, and they write us. They see our website. With a couple of exceptions, we haven't really needed in the last few years to really go out and try hard to get people who want to play with us.

Alison Stewart: Brian, it seems like community is an important part of this.

Brian Shaw: Yes.

Alison Stewart: How do you all try to foster a sense of community?

Brian Shaw: It's so important as queer people to have a space where you feel safe to come together, so just by the nature of being, we are a space where people can come together and make music in community. We also have a social committee on our board that tries to find other places outside of the rehearsal setting where we can come together. We like to go out for drinks after rehearsals, after our concerts, just fostering that sense of togetherness and enjoying each other's company.

Alison Stewart: David, this season is titled A Place for Us. How is this season's message expressed through the concerts and the music we're going to hear today?

David Bloom: Each season, we choose a theme, often having to do with some essential part of queer culture. This season, of course, finding a space for gatherings, a safe space for queer expression, which is what QUO is all about. Tomorrow night's concert, Refuge, is one perspective on that, of home, of belonging, of safety. Each of the pieces that we will play tomorrow, including the world premiere by our member Michael Viljoen, Tchaikovsky, Leilehua Lanzilotti, all of these pieces have something to do with a sense of home, a sense of safety in space.

Alison Stewart: Brian, you're going to take your place for the performance, and I'll ask you one question while he gets all set. The season is titled A Place for Us. We took bets upstairs. What does A Place for Us mean?

Dave Lohman: For me, I'll speak personally, growing up gay, when I felt like I couldn't be myself was experience that many people of my generation have had. I think to live in New York City now in this time, it's not perfect, but things are improving. It gives us a sense of family, community, and a place to be.

Alison Stewart: What's the song we're going to hear?

David Bloom: This is music by Francis Poulenc. It is the sextet for Piano and Winds. As with many of the composers that QUO performs, Poulenc was queer. It's wonderful to give him his queer day in the sun today.

Alison Stewart: Let's listen.

[MUSIC - Francis Poulenc: Piano and Winds]

We're here in studio with the Queer Urban Orchestra. They have a performance tomorrow night at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue at 30 West 68th Street. I'm speaking with its artistic director, David Bloom, Principal Bassinet-- Sorry, I keep saying. Bassoonist Dave Lohman and Principal Oboist Brian Shaw. These folks are going to leave the studio. We're going to bring in our next set of musicians. We can ask a couple of questions while they're getting set, and then we want to make sure we get to their performance as well.

All right. Tomorrow night's show at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, what's in the program? Who wants to take it?

David Bloom: We have a work by native Hawaiian composer Leilehua Lanzilotti, all about taking care of the land in Hawaii. We have the winner of QUO's Concerto Competition for this year, clarinetist Johann Palo playing Debussy. We have a world premiere by Michael Viljoen, whose music you'll hear a little bit very soon, and the Tchaikovsky Second Symphony, music that takes inspiration from the folk traditions of Ukraine, which was like a second home for him. He loved spending time there and getting to know the music there.

Alison Stewart: Dave, how do you feel about the balancing of the new and the old?

Dave Lohman: To be honest, at first, I really just wanted to play the pieces that I already knew.

Alison Stewart: [laughs]

Dave Lohman: The programming that David has done has really been inspiring. It's made me appreciate music in a whole new way. I find that I like these more contemporary pieces just as much, but in a different way than I do the ones that I can hum from memory.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Brian, I wanted to ask you, you were playing oboe in that piece, what is that like for you? What do you like about playing the oboe?

Brian Shaw: Oh, gosh. The oboe is such a unique instrument. It's very soloistic at times. Being part of an oboe section in an orchestra, you're part of a block of musicians that's really focusing the winds. It's a challenge. I love the oboe. I played it since I was 16 years old. That's actually the same oboe I played since I was a kid.

Alison Stewart: Oh, no. Really?

Brian Shaw: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Oh, that's wonderful.

Brian Shaw: It's held up nicely.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] You have as well. Our next piece we're going to hear-- What is it we are going to hear?

David Bloom: This is a piece by one of our members, Michael Viljoen, whose piece will play tomorrow. This is a different piece than the one we'll hear tomorrow. This piece is called Khumbula, which was a piece he wrote in 2007. The title is a Zulu word that means remembering and conveys a sense of homesickness.

Alison Stewart: You're about to hear the Queer Urban Orchestra. They will have a concert tomorrow at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on West 68th Street. Here they are with a performance. Thank you so much for being with us.

David Bloom: Thank you, Alison.

Brian Shaw: Thank you.

[MUSIC - Michael Viljoen: Khumbula]

Alison Stewart: That was the Queer Urban Orchestra. They will be performing tomorrow night at West 68th Street at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. Thank you so much for joining us on All Of It.

Brian Shaw: Thank you for having us.

David Bloom: Such a pleasure.