Monterey Park Concert Provides a Measure of Ethnic Harmony

When John Acevedo tried to post an advertisement in Chinese at an Asian food market in Monterey Park last week, a worried manager said that because of tensions in the city over use of the Chinese language, he did not want the poster in his store window.

“The store next door (also Chinese-managed) was more brave,” said Acevedo, who told of the incident as an example of ethnic conflict and misunderstandings that recently have plagued Monterey Park, home to roughly equal numbers of Anglos, Latinos and Chinese.

The advertisement was for a joint concert of La Sinfonica del Barrio and the American Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Acevedo on Sunday. The concert was aimed at strengthening ties between Latinos and Chinese in East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, thus helping ease some of the tensions that so worried the store manager.

An ethnically mixed audience of about 300 came out to hear the joint performance at East Los Angeles College’s Ingalls Auditorium in Monterey Park. They heard first from Peter Quesada, music director of La Sinfonica del Barrio.

Language of Understanding

“I don’t speak Chinese, but I speak music,” Quesada said Sunday, welcoming the crowd.

Quesada described the event as a “historic” concert that would be the first in a series reaching out to different ethnic groups.

“We will meet our Afro-American brothers and sisters at St. Brigid’s Catholic Church (in a joint Dec. 7 performance) with their wonderful gospel choir,” Quesada said.

Musicians from the two orchestras said the weekend rehearsals this summer provided them the opportunity to make new friends.

“I live in Monterey Park,” said John Nunez, a bassoon player. “I’m able to meet people and find out where they live, and find out that I’m neighbors with a lot of them. I hope to expand on those friendships.”

Monterey Park, which in the spring of 1985 won an “All-America City” award for its success in assimilating Asian immigrants, has been wracked in recent months by ethnic controversy. In June, the City Council passed a resolution that instructed police to cooperate with federal authorities “in regards to illegal aliens,” and urged that English be made the nation’s official language.

La Sinfonica del Barrio, founded by Quesada in 1974, has a long history of promoting classical music in Southern California’s barrio communities. Primarily made up of Latino musicians, it also includes Asian, black and Anglo performers.

Chance to Perform

Its major purposes, Quesada said, have been to provide orchestral performance opportunities to Latino students and professionals, to give exposure to works of great Latin American composers seldom heard in the United States, and to play for people who otherwise would be unlikely to experience symphony orchestra concerts.

Sunday’s concert was the second event for the American Chinese Philharmonic Orchestra, which is still in the process of establishing a formal nonprofit organizational structure. Daniel H. Liu, coordinator of the Chinese group, said the orchestra was created because many excellent Chinese musicians have immigrated to Southern California from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. While the orchestra is a source of community pride, Liu said he also believes that “people who immigrate here should learn the language, adopt the culture and make friends.”

Sunday’s program began with “Overture (in Italian Style)” by Franz Schubert. Next came “Concierto del Sur,” a piece by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce for classical guitar and symphony orchestra. Joseph Gonzalez, who graduated from UCLA, was the guitar soloist.

First-Ever Performance

After intermission was the first-ever performance of “Symphonic Poem for String Orchestra” by Tyzen Hsiao, a composer now living in Los Angeles who is famous for compositions incorporating melodic themes from Taiwanese folk songs. This piece was a contemporary work that included elements of the tonal quality of Chinese music but no folk song themes.

Violin soloist Ingrid Kuo, a Los Angeles resident now studying at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, then performed “Rondo Capricioso” by Camille Saint-Saens. The concert concluded with Beethoven’s First Symphony in C Major.

“I think it’s wonderful, because it brings all the cultures together,” Audrey Pollock, a Los Angeles resident in the audience, said Sunday. “We can all understand the music. It doesn’t matter what language you speak. I like the classical guitar very much.”

‘Whole New Experience’

Vicky Salazar, an 18-year-old violinist who plans to major in music education at California State University, Los Angeles, said that participating in the concert was “a whole new experience” for her.

“I get to play with professional musicians,” she said. “I get to work with them and mix with them. I get to see what they do, and talk with them, and hear about their struggles. . . . I think music is a way of uniting people from different countries and different places. When you understand music, you also understand a person and their feelings.”