Sukay Finds Bridge Into the Andes : Music: On albums such as ‘Return of the Inca,’ the group combines traditional compositions and new works.

Quentin Howard was born in Brooklyn and raised on Elvis and the Beatles. She was working as a graphic artist when she went to a folk festival in Buffalo.

“I was on my way out when I heard this sound,” she recalls. “Immediately I said to myself, ‘That is the most beautiful music I have ever heard.’ ”

She invited the musicians who’d been playing the music to her house for dinner; they ended up staying the weekend.

“They left me a flute. I didn’t know what end to blow in. But when you get that feeling about something, that kind of joy, you know it’s your path. I was a shy person, but the day I went on stage to perform this music I was . . . anything but shy.”

That was 20 years ago. She began playing the kena, or notched flute, in an Andean duo soon after, and in 1978 she founded Sukay, a group that plays tonight at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library.

Flexibility has been one of the band’s earmarks, in terms of both personnel and format. Recent CDs such as “Return of the Inca” (one of nine the band has released) combine traditional music with newly composed works.

“Like any project that continues over a decade or two, whether it’s marriage or a music group, you survive with changes,” Howard said, “with shocks that come at precise moments when things begin to get mechanical.

“Sukay began as a group dedicated to traditional music, like ethnomusicologists. And we performed like ethnomusicologists. That went on for years, but because it was many Americans’ first exposure to this music, it was exciting for them. We played twice in Lincoln Center. We played in Carnegie Hall.

“But we came to an impasse. The traditional music goes so far.”

Joining Sukay in 1989 and breathing new life into the group were Eddy Navia, formerly with the Bolivian group Savia Andina, and celebrated Argentine guitarist Enrique Coria, who’d been involved with more than 100 recordings in his homeland.

Navia, now Sukay’s artistic director, composes what Howard calls “neo-folk” music. He also performs on charango , a string instrument traditionally made from an armadillo shell; zamponas or pan pipes, and a two-neck charango- guitar combination.

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Howard plays kenas , zamponas , drums including bombos and wangaras , and sings. Brothers Mario and Greg Torrico will play zamponas and other wind instruments in San Juan Capistrano.

Given that most members of Sukay were born in South America, Howard found that some education was in order when they started playing Andean music. “I didn’t even speak Spanish! I went for a year and a half to the Andes.”

Initially, she felt disappointed and lost.

“All my conceptions and romantic imaginings were dispelled. It’s hard to understand the indigenous people. You find a kind of stoic silence. They’re not conversationalists. I was born in New York City; we’re used to relating in a certain way. These people are still sensitive to the movements of the earth. They are in touch with inner essences. We have evolved another part of ourselves to adapt to our fast pace city world.

“Music was the bridge that brought me close. In the words of Joseph Campbell, ‘It opened doors where there were no doors.’ ”

She found that in the Andes it’s not common for a woman to perform in a band. She was accepted, she said, because she came from another culture and because the Andeans were honored that anyone from another culture, man or woman, appreciated their music.

She remembers asking an Andean woman why there weren’t more women players. “She said, ‘In our culture the women don’t have time to play.’ But I did my own study. They think if a woman plays she won’t have any milk for babies. I think it’s because men like to get together with men. They get together every night before the festivals begin. They make new instruments every year.”

Howard contrasted the ways that music is made here and in the Andes. “The magic is that when these people play at their fiestas, they play music that is just right for that festival, that unlocks a feeling in which everyone collectively participates, and in which the musicians lose their identity.

“Here, virtuosos pride themselves on their name and fame. There, you get the feeling that people pick up an instrument not to say ‘look at me’ but to lose themselves, to somehow enter into other people.”

Howard--who refers often to the wild quality of Andean music--told a story that reflected another way that music-making is different there.

“Before I left for South America, I was learning the music by listening to ethnomusicological recordings. One recording of music from Peru had a rhythm I’d never heard before. I asked some more experienced musicians if they could tell me what was happening. They said, ‘It begins in 4/4, then it goes to 6/8. It’s very puzzling and very complicated.’

“I happened to go to the little village where the recording was made. The recording had included a photo, and I happened to see the same group performing. This is it , I thought. But they played in perfect 4/4 through everything.

“By the end of the festival, however, people had been drinking and drinking, and now the (group members) were leaning against the wall of the church. . . . they were playing exactly as they’d sounded on the recording.”

* Sukay plays music of the Andes today at 7 and 9 p.m. in the courtyard of the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library, 31495 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. $3. (714) 493-1752.