LIFESTYLES
WEEKEND, MARCH 18-19, 2017
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Kindergartners help play a song with The Condor Band recently at Grove Elementary School in Milton-Freewater. The Condor Band plays music that
originated in the Andes region of South America.
The Condor Band plays traditional folk music of South America
with maracas, drums and gourds
distributed by the band.
The band — Clark Colahan on
The audience in Milton-Freewater the pan flute, Dan Rasmussen on the
recorder, Victor Trejo and Jon St.
was witnessing a rare occurrence.
With its members spread across the Hilaire on guitar, Howard Ostby on
Northwest, the The Condor Band’s percussion, Trudy Ostby on violin and
original lineup was performing for the Larry Dickerson on the charango —
was able to reunite and play a series of
first time in 12 years.
The audience could be forgiven shows for all 12 classes of kindergart-
for not knowing this fact — most of ners and first graders at Grove thanks
to a grant from the
them hadn’t been
Umatilla
County
born the last time all
Cultural Coalition.
of The Condor Band
The idea for The
members convened
Condor Band started
to perform.
in earnest when the
A group that
wife of Colahan, a
plays
traditional
Spanish professor at
folk music from
Whitman College,
the Andean region
bought him a pan
of South America,
flute at a renaissance
The Condor Band
fair in Moscow,
finished a three-week
Idaho.
stint of performing
Up
to
then,
for students at Grove
Colahan
played
Elementary School
instruments like the
in Milton-Freewater
Irish tin whistle, but
on March 10.
he was intrigued by
The seven-piece
the pan flute and
band convened at
took it up.
Grove and played a
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Colahan
and
mix of the familiar
Victor Trejo sings the tradi-
Rasmussen
were
and foreign.
tional Bolivian song “Cuna-
at
Songs were sung ta Quiracai” in the native colleagues
Whitman,
and
in both Spanish — language of Quetchua.
they began to add
Grove is 56 percent
members to the
Latino
—
and
Quechua, an indigenous language band through the circle of friends and
spoken in parts of Peru, Bolivia, acquaintances at the college and from
a local contra band.
Chile, Colombia and Ecuador.
Although most of the band
Along with acoustic guitars and a
violin, the group also featured a pan members come from different music
flute and a charango, a small Andean traditions, the joy and uniqueness of
guitar partly made out of an armadillo the music drove them into the genre.
Inspired by his admiration of
shell.
All the while, their kindergarten Andean bands, Dickerson saw a
audience assisted the band members charango at a Pasco pawn shop and
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Clark Colahan plays the Andean pan flute, a wind instrument made of
bamboo shoots or other hollow reeds, while performing with The Con-
dor Band recently at Grove Elementary School in Milton-Freewater.
More online
Fore video of the
group playing visit
eastoregonian.com
spent the $105 to take it home.
While Mexico brings its own
unique sound to Latin American
music, Trejo grew up in Mexico City
watching his brother play Andean
music before taking it up himself.
After forming 18 years ago, The
Condor Band got its big break when
the Walla Walla Symphony gave them
a grant to perform in schools across
Walla Walla.
As the years have gone on, it’s
gotten harder and harder to play
together as band members spread out.
Although Colahan, the Ostbys and
Dickerson continue to live in the Walla
Walla Valley area, St. Hilaire lives in
La Grande, Trejo lives in Richland,
Washington, and Rasmussen lives in
Lyle, a city on the Washington side of
the Columbia River Gorge.
The full band hasn’t played
together in a dozen years, but a
smaller lineup has performed for the
past three or four years at a world
music class at Walla Walla University.
While their reunification stint
was short-lived, Colahan said the
Walla Walla Children’s Museum is
interested in hosting them and they’d
be open to more gigs that would
bring Andean folk songs like “Cunata
Quiracái” and “El Papagayo” to the
people of the region.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or
541-966-0836.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Larry Dickerson holds out his instrument, a charango, which is a small
stringed instrument that is made from the shell of an armadillo.
Drummer Howard Ostby answers a question about his drum during a
performance of The Condor Band recently at Grove Elementary School.