Kyle Bruckmann, oboe ♪ Leslie Chin, flute
Beverly McChesney, bassoon
Alicia Telford, French horn ♪ Marilyn Martella, clarinet

The Story of Bellavente

Bellavente is known throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for their wonderfully imaginative concerts for children. They recently completed their fourth season with the nationally-acclaimed San Francisco Symphony’s Adventures in Music "AIM" program, performing 125 children’s concerts each year.

The quintet illuminates the concert stage with music that captures both the lushness and vitality of the woodwind quintet as well as the poignancy of each instrument’s voice. Bellavente joins familiar classical music with the excitement of contemporary music.

Bellavente’s members are among the finest classical musicians in the Bay Area. Individually, they have performed with all the region’s top orchestras and with some of the greatest stars and popular musical groups of our time.

Concerts for Kids

The musicians of Bellavente have a rich history of entertaining children and families. Our goal is to share the magic of music and to perform exciting and engaging concerts for our audiences.

Our "Frogs and Friends" show is geared for families and highlights music from our CD. From classical to traditional folk song, ragtime to Gershwin, marches to contemporary, audiences will be entertained with chamber music and the classical woodwind quintet through music, story and song.

In addition to our work with the San Francisco Symphony AIM program, concerts we have performed in the past includes our “Music in our Lives” concert that highlights how music is an integral component of our everyday lives and our “Musical Scientist” concert that invites the audience to learn the science of sound and how sound becomes music.  “Music Through the Ages, A Walk In Time” is a very entertaining concert geared for Junior High and High School aged students that introduces students to classical music and how it has evolved through history.

Bellavente's programs are full of wit, energy and enthusiasm and are presented to reflect the goals of the sponsoring organization.

Concerts and Recitals

Bellavente joins familiar classical music with the freshness and excitement of contemporary music. The listener is entertained with a range of material covering four centuries of great music written by both men and women composers and includes contemporary and historical works for wind quintet and interesting and important arrangements that have made a strong contribution to wind quintet repertoire.

Recordings

Frogs and Friends with the Bellavente Wind Quintet Music and Stories for Children

This CD is a delightful and charming collection of music chosen from our children’s concert repertoire, introducing the young and young at heart to chamber music and the classical woodwind quintet through music, story and song. From classical to traditional folk song, ragtime to Gershwin, marches to contemporary, and imaginative variations on “Happy Birthday To You”, this diverse collection of music and stories is designed to engage the young listener. Stories include “The Garden” from “Frog and Toad Together” by the award-winning children’s author Arnold Lobel. This is a CD that adults and children can enjoy together.

"Jewels of the Night"

“fine rendition...quite lovely…first rate…
warm ambience & clear sound
great ensemble playing”
TAXI A&R Review

Parlor music of Mozart and salon music of French composers Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc was chosen as well as two beautiful movements from a Quintet written by Marie Louise Simon under the pen name of Claude Arrieu. The lovely music of French-American composer Darius Milhaud and two classics from American composer George Gershwin complete the musical ambience.