Álvaro plays percussion, and joined us in October 2010 How did you come to join QUO? A friend mentioned it to me, and I looked it up online. My first rehearsal was at the GMHC on 24th Street. I remember that time we had actual timpani for rehearsal! What is your favorite place to take friends visiting NYC? I like …
Steven Petrucelli
Steven is our French horn section leader, a former board member, and a founding member of QUO. How did you come to join QUO? In summer 2009, Jim Babcock (trombone) told me about a planned new LGBT community orchestra. I thought I’d have 6 or more months to improve while they organized, so was shocked and impressed when they were …
Jasmine Rault
Jasmine plays cello, and joined us in October 2013 How did you come to join QUO? I saw a Ballez performance of The Firebird and while I loved the dance, I kept thinking, who is this glorious orchestra? I found the QUO website the next day and saw they needed string players. I wrote an email asking if they wanted …
Phong Ta
Phong is our concertmaster, and joined us in December of 2009. How did you come to join QUO? He probably doesn’t know it (since we weren’t friends at the time), but QUOboist Brian Shaw is my link to QUO. A mutual friend saw Brian’s Facebook post about the very first concert and passed along the info. That very night I …
Erin Kulick
Erin is our trumpet section leader, and joined us in October of 2010 How did you come to join QUO? I joined in 2010 midway through the season because my husband, a trumpetor, found an ad from QUO on Craigslist. We had just moved to New York and I was looking for a way to continue playing. I had never …
Matthew Hadley
Matthew is our oboe section leader, and is a founding member of QUO How did you come to join QUO? I actually joined QUO at the very beginning–when we were still rehearsing in the cafeteria of the old GMHC space in Chelsea. I heard about QUO through friends from our sister organization, the Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps. I …
Alva Bostick
Alva plays second violin, and joined QUO in September of 2011. How did you come to join QUO? I learned about QUO at Village Contra Dance. I attended a couple of concerts & was reminded of how much i missed playing in a full orchestra. How long have you been playing violin, and how did you start? By age 4, …
Drew Acquaviva
Drew plays viola and joined QUO in September 2014 How did you come to join QUO? I was searching around for different orchestras when I first moved here last August and found some others but found QUO through James of the viola section. He sent me to the site and I fell in love with the 2014-2015 season program and …
Jim Babcock
Jim is low brass section leader and a founding board member and past president of QUO. How did you come to join QUO? Prior to that famous meeting at Starbucks, I had been contacted by Brandyn Metzko, a Cleveland-based musician who was moving to New York and looking for help to start up an LGBTQ community music ensemble. We were …