Library archives can seem like dusty old places, even in today’s digital world. It’s usually the job of historians and ethnomusicologists to rummage around the artifacts of a bygone era, like the many 78-rpm records from the first half of the last century that can be found in the Frontera Collection. Researchers must find a way to help us understand those pre-modern recordings and the social context in which they were made.
Rarely do we get the chance, as decades pass, to hear directly from the artists themselves. That is what makes the story of musician Eva Quintanar so special, because she is still around to bring her own music to life.
Quintanar is a composer, pianist, arranger, and orchestra director who had an active career in Los Angeles during the 1940s and ’50s. Now 100 years old, she lives in a nursing home where she still writes music and plays the piano. She is one of the few surviving musicians from an era that featured a particularly productive music scene within the Los Angeles Mexican-American community. Quintanar’s existing body of recorded work – almost four dozen discs on which she is credited as composer or director – is amply represented in the Frontera Collection on 78-rpm releases.
The artist’s son, John McGowan, 70, has worked to collect his mother’s recordings and preserve her legacy. He has provided the Frontera Collection with material to help document his mother’s career – old photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, record label documents and his family’s biographical information. He has even made available a current video of his mother singing her latest composition as she accompanies herself on the piano.
The newly posted artist
biography of Quintanar is based on this information. It is accompanied by an in-depth
interview with McGowan, who as a child tagged along with his mother to concerts and recording studios. Together, they paint a vivid picture of the artist’s life and times, and provide a unique glimpse into the vibrant musical environment within L.A.’s emerging Mexican American community.
-Agustín Gurza
Your Mother's Art Collection
by Mario Castillo (not verified), 08/14/2021 - 00:26Hi John,
I was a friend of your parents and took classes from your mother. Years back, your sister reached out to me to see if I wanted (her) paintings. Tell her that if she still has them to contact me at this email. I live in Chicago now.
Muchas Gracias,
Mario Castillo
Eva Quintanar y Carmen Celia Beltrán
by Agustin Gurza, 01/12/2016 - 17:54Editor’s Note: The comment published below is addressed in Spanish directly to John McGowan, who is interviewed for our stories about his mother, the Los Angeles pianist and composer Eva Quintanar. The poster, Armando Miguélez, includes an article about the artist published in 1940 in a Tucson Spanish-language newspaper. Here is an English translation of his letter and the article.
John,
Look at this article from "El Tucsonense" about your mother and Carmen Celia Beltrán. I knew Carmen Celia in Tucson in the 1980s, and she spoke often about your mother. In her files, there are many items related to your mother. In fact, the photo of your mother that accompanies her biography (linked above) I had seen before in Carmen Celia’s files. She has donated all her papers to the Arizona Historical Society ( Tucson).
Translated text from the newspaper article:
Pianist of Great Renown Was Here.
We have the honor of gracing our pages with the photo of the highly noted pianist and composer “mexicanita,” Evita Quintanar (above) who arrived in our city last Friday night accompanied by our favorite poet, Carmen Celia Beltrán, and her husband Don Santiago J. Martín Jr., who hail from Los Ángeles.
Evita was kind enough to regale our audiences with several of her own compositions, with piano and vocals, during a 15-minute program on radio station KVOA, last Saturday at 4:15 p.m. The radio broadcast was arranged thanks to the influence of the above-mentioned spouses, and of Sr. Jacinto Orozco of station KVOA.
So outstanding is Eva on vocals and the piano that she is on her way to Mexico City under contract with radio station XRU, performing a duet with the pianist and composer currently considered No. 1 in his field, Don Carlos Curiel, who agreed to the contract on the condition that Evita be included in the programs.
At dawn on Sunday, this famous artist along with Mr. and Mrs. Martín left for San Antonio by train. Carmen Celia will return to Tucson within a few weeks, to resume her performances on KVOA.
(El Tucsonense, Tucson, Az., 9-IV-1940, p.1)
Eva Quintanar y Carmen Celia Beltrán
by Armando Miguélez (not verified), 12/30/2015 - 01:22John,
Mira, esta es una nota en "El Tucsonense" sobre tu madre y Carmen Celia Beltrán. Yo conocí a Carmen Celia en Tucson en los años ´80 y hablaba mucho de tu madre. En sus archivos hay muchas cosas de tu madre. Esa foto que ponéis en la biografía yo la había visto en las cosas de Carmen Celia. Ella ha dado todos sus papeles a la Arizona Historical Society ( Tucson).
Pianista de gran fama estuvo aquí
Tenemos el honor de engalanar nuestras columnas con el grabado de la notabilísima pianista y compositora mexicanita, Evita Quintanar , arriba ilustrada, quien llegó a esta ciudad la noche del último viernes en compañía de nuestra consentida poetisa Carmen Celia Beltrán y su esposo Don Santiago J. Martín Jr., procedentes de Los Ángeles.
Evita tuvo la gentileza de obsequiar a nuestro público, a piano y canto, con varias de sus propias composiciones, en un programa de 15 minutos, por estación radiodifusora KVOA, el sábado último a las 4:15 de la tarde, habiéndosela conseguido para esta radiodifusión con la influencia de los esposos arriba citados y la del Sr. Jacinto Orozco, de la estación KVOA.
Tan notable es Eva en piano y voz, que va contratada a la ciudad de México con la radiodifusora XRU, formando Duo con el pianista y compositor reputado como el actual número uno en su género Don Carlos Curiel, quien consintió en ese contrato con condición de que Evita figurara con él en sus programas.
El domingo en la madrugada tanto esta famosa artista como los esposos Martín salieron para San Antonio, por ferrocarril. Carmen Celia regresará a Tucson dentro de pocas semanas, a reanudar su actuación con la KVOA.
(El Tucsonense, Tucson, Az., 9-IV-1940,p.1)
Nice tribute
by Agustin Gurza, 12/07/2015 - 11:50Terry:
Thanks for sharing your memories of Eva Quintanar. It's a tribute for any teacher to have inspired their students who carry on their work.
Gracias.
Mrs. Eva McGowan
by Terry Rosales Taylor (not verified), 11/06/2015 - 18:43I was lucky enough to learn piano from Eva Quintanar McGowan while I was growing up in La Puente, California in the 1960s and 1970s. She was a wonderful teacher and continues to be a delightful woman. With my own group of young piano students, I can appreciate what she did for me and so many others. It wasn't until many years later that I learned of her prolific music writing career. What a woman!