Plaza Middle School’s world languages department and the music department came together to enjoy the musical and cultural offerings by the Quinteto Latino.

Approximately 500 music and Spanish students spent over an hour with the musicians who presented music by Latino composers from Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and other nations. A question and answer session in Spanish followed the performance, and quintet members met with several music students to have master class sessions.

“I was so pleased by the responses of my students, who enjoyed the music and excitedly told me how they could fully understand the conversation in Spanish,” said Plaza Spanish teacher Sean Smallman. “It really encouraged them to continue in their studies.”

Quinteto Latino is a group from different backgrounds and different places whose mission is to expand cultural boundaries of latin-inspired, classical music and make it available to audiences of all backgrounds. Their music promotes the work of Latin and Latin-American composers, and they have performed hundreds of school assemblies in San Francisco and throughout Northern California.