WindSync
Garrett Hudson, flute | Emily Tsai, oboe | Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet | Kara LaMoure, bassoon | Anni Hochhalter, horn
“...stood out for the excitement generated and the extraordinary synchronization between the five members.”
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Since winning the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, WindSync has toured extensively both nationally and internationally, eliciting great reviews and quickly becoming fan favorites due to its intimate performance style. Frequent guests at chamber music series around North America, the quintet eliminates the "fourth wall" between artist and audience by often performing from memory, creating an immediate and intense connection.
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In addition to performing wind quintet masterworks and adapting classics to its instrumentation, WindSync is well-known for championing new works by today's composers. Recent performances have featured works of leading living composers including Akshaya Avril Tucker, Marc Mellits, Ivan Trevino, Michael Gilbertson, and Paul Lanksy, with new commissions by composers such as Mason Bynes, Viet Cuong, and Nathalie Joachim planned for future seasons.
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Proponents of the unique ability of small chamber ensembles to explore the possibilities of creative placemaking through music, WindSync has developed projects and relationships with a number of organizations nationwide. In Houston, the ensemble has curated and performed in the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival annually each April since 2017, even continuing the Festival remotely throughout the pandemic. The quintet was a pilot ensemble of Sound Places, a year-long project in Louisiana's Opelousas cultural district exploring the possibilities of creative placemaking led by Chamber Music America with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. WindSync is also developing an ongoing relationship with the Nevada Chamber Music Festival Summerfest (under the auspices of the Reno Chamber Orchestra), returning in 2022 after their debut in 2021 was enthusiastically received. By engaging audiences in the concert hall and beyond, WindSync aims to galvanize community involvement and address the needs of a particular place each at each performance.
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Reaching over 5,000 students per year through its concerts for young people, WindSync's educational work includes tour stops at public schools and ongoing collaborations with the Sistema Ravinia and Houston Youth Symphony Coda social music programs. The quintet offers a popular Peter and the Wolf school assembly program for elementary students, and also conduct clinics in middle and high schools. Its outreach activities at the college- and university-level has included masterclasses at New World Symphony and Northwestern University, to name just a few, and the ensemble has served as ensemble-in-residence for Adelphi University and the Grand Teton Music Festival, among many others.
Versatile and vibrant, the musicians of WindSync “play many idioms authoritatively, elegantly, with adroit technique, and with great fun” (All About the Arts). In the span of one performance, the quintet can cover vast musical ground from revitalized standard repertoire to freshly inked works to folk and American Songbook, the common thread telling a compelling story about music history and our human selves.
WindSync frequently eliminates the "fourth wall" between musicians and audience by performing from memory, creating an extraordinary connection. This personal performance style, combined with the ensemble’s three-pronged mission of artistry, education, and community-building, lends WindSync its reputation as ”a group of virtuosos who are also wonderful people, too" (Alison Young, Classical MPR).
WindSync launched an international touring career after winning the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and they continued as prize winners at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. The 2023-2024 season features the quintet’s first appearances on the main stage at Shalin Liu Performing Arts Center (MA), Chamber Music Tulsa, and with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society. WindSync previously appeared in concert at Ravinia, the Met Museum, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.
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Building a new repertoire driven by purpose and growing from close collaboration, WindSync’s recent projects include “Song Book, Vol. 3,” a work for multi percussion and wind quintet by Ivan Trevino, which they toured together in a program inspired by songwriters and poets, and “Apollo” by Marc Mellits, written as part of a moon landing 50th anniversary celebration presented in partnership with the Lunar and Planetary Institute. In 2015, the quintet was invited by the Library of Congress to perform the world premiere of Paul Lansky’s “The Long and the Short of it,” commissioned by the Carolyn Royall Just Fund and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Other premieres include “The Cosmos,” a concerto for wind quintet and orchestra by Pulitzer finalist Michael Gilbertson, and works by Akshaya Avril Tucker, Erberk Eryilmaz, Mason Bynes, and Nathalie Joachim.
In demand for their ability to embed in communities, developing relationships with audiences at public spaces and schools, WindSync has served in residencies with Grand Teton Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Emerald City Music, and the Lied Center. Winner of the 2022 Fischoff Ann Divine Educator Award, WindSync regularly coaches at training programs nationwide, collaborates with youth orchestras, and performs for thousands of young people each year. In its artistic hometown of Houston, the ensemble presents a concert season in local landmark spaces, partners with businesses and organizations across disciplines of education, science, and art, and presents the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival.
Celebrating its fifteenth anniversary in 2024, WindSync performs world premieres by Viet Cuong, Nicky Sohn, and Shawn Okpebholo. On the heels of “All Worlds, All Times,” WindSync’s Billboard chart-topping 2022 release that “will make you want to get up and dance” (The Whole Note), the quintet is releasing its second commercial album, featuring the works of Miguel Del Aguila and recorded in Studio Two at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.
August 2023 – Please do not edit without permission.
Videos
Programs & Repertoire
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Bio Acoustic
WindSync’s signature mix of musical styles and periods, featuring works inspired by the natural world around us
Nathalie Joachim: Title TBD (commissioned work)
Viet Cuong: Flora
W. A. Mozart/arr. Mordechai Rechtman: Serenade in C minor
Leonard Bernstein/arr. Kara LaMoure: Make Our Garden Grow from CandideCarnival of the Animals: wind quintet + piano
Camille Saint-Saëns: Carnival of the Animals*
Ludwig Thuille: Sextet for winds and piano
Selected wind quintet feature piece
Selected solo piano piece* WindSync offers a complete version of Carnival of the Animals for wind quintet + piano, which can be performed with presenter’s preferred concert pianist or with pianist Andrew Staupe.
Light & Lively
An option for audiences who prefer to hear popular styles and well-known works with an introduction to quintet repertoire
Beethoven/Rechtman: Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 4/103
Gershwin: Summertime
Valerie Coleman: Umoja
Ravel: BoleroMasterworks
A traditional option featuring standard repertoire
Samuel Barber: Summer Music Beethoven/Rechtman: Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 4/103
Selected WindSync commissionsSong Book: wind quintet + percussion
A collaborative program with composer/percussionist Ivan Trevino
WindSync set
Music inspired by contemporary songwriters and poets
Ivan Trevino marimba solo set
Ivan Trevino: Song Book, Vol. 1, Immigrant Song, Strive to be Happy
Ivan Trevino: Song Book, Vol. 3
Music for wind quintet + multi percussion written for this collaboration
Son Lux: Lost it to TryingWindSync’s Peter and the Wolf: concert for schools & families
A short interactive program introducing young people to the wind instruments of the orchestra through theatrical storytelling, guided listening and movement
Copland/WindSync: Hoedown from Rodeo
Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
Rimsky-Korsakov: Flight of the Bumblebee
Valerie Coleman: Umoja -
PROGRAM I - TAXONOMIES
2024 main stage programViet Cuong’s desert garden served as the inspiration for his wind quintet Flora, written in 2023 for WindSync. This program branches into works filled with loops and variations, reflecting patterns in music and nature.
Dieterich Buxtehude/arr. LaMoure: Passacaglia in D Minor, BuxWV 161
W. A. Mozart/arr. Rechtman: Serenade in C Minor, K. 388
Miguel del Aguila: Blindfold Music
Viet Cuong: Flora
Leonard Bernstein/arr. LaMoure: Make Our Garden Grow from CandidePROGRAM II - GAME OF THIEVES
2025 main stage programGame of Thieves celebrates musical thievery like quotes and remixing while also exploring larger questions of morality. The program title is itself stolen from Juego de Ladrones by Spanish composer Oscar Navarro, based on a story by Miguel de Cervantes that satirized the harsh truths of society.
Antonio Vivaldi/arr. LaMoure: La Follia
W. A. Mozart/arr. Rechtman: Serenade in C Minor, K. 388
Nicky Sohn: A Night at Birdland
Oscar Navarro: Juego de Ladrones
ABOUT THE NEW WORKS
Viet Cuong: Flora
Written for WindSync in 2023, this 3-movement work combines influences of early counterpoint writing with mimicry of electronic effects.Miguel del Aguila: Blindfold Music
Featured on WindSync’s 2024 album WindSync Plays Miguel Del Aguila. A musical drama with influences of Stravinsky and Latin jazz.Oscar Navarro: Juego de Ladrones
A programmatic work depicting scenes from the Cervantes novella Rinconete y Cortadillo in classic Spanish style.Nicky Sohn: A Night at Birdland
Written for WindSync in 2024, each movement of this work is based on a quote by saxophonist Charlie Parker, written in a colorful style reminiscent of the quintets by Jean Francaix.COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMS
TURNING POINTS: WINDSYNC + PIANO
WindSync offers a wind sextet program connecting George Gershwin and W. A. Mozart, two composers whose experiments in pairing piano with winds indelibly changed their careers. Also featured are a new arrangement of Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams and the heartfelt Summer Hours by American composer and violist Kenji Bunch.John Adams/arr. Antonsen: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Kenji Bunch: Summer Hours
George Gershwin/arr. Gutschy: Rhapsody in Blue
W. A. Mozart: Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Winds, K. 452 -
PROGRAM I - BOULANGER’S AMERICAN LEGACY – VERSION 1 MADEMOISELLE & HER STUDENTS
In this program, WindSync spotlights music in the United States growing out of the 20th century, an era when European art music took on a distinctly American accent, and the remarkable teacher who guided the shift: Nadia Boulanger. Music by Elliott Carter, Philip Glass, and Quincy Jones highlights the wide range of musicians who were drawn to study with Boulanger and the unique styles she supported. The second half of the program features the revival of the wind quintet by Marion Bauer, Boulanger’s first American pupil and an important teacher, composer, and writer in 20th century New York.
Nadia Boulanger/arr. LaMoure: Three Pieces
I. Modéré
II. Sans vitesse et à l'aise
III. Vite et nerveusement rhythmé
Elliott Carter: Quintet (1948)
Allegretto
Giocoso
Quincy Jones: The Midnight Sun Will Never Set
Marion Bauer: Quintet for Woodwinds, Op. 48
Philip Glass/arr. LaMoure: Selected etudes
PROGRAM II – BOULANGER’S AMERICAN LEGACY – VERSION 2 PAST & PRESENTIn this program, WindSync spotlights music in the United States growing out of the 20th century, an era when European art music took on a distinctly American accent, and the remarkable teacher who guided the shift: Nadia Boulanger. Music by Elliott Carter, Philip Glass, and Quincy Jones highlights the wide range of musicians who were drawn to study with Boulanger and the unique styles she supported. Showcasing Boulanger’s lasting legacy, the second half of the program features works written for WindSync by women.
Nadia Boulanger/arr. LaMoure: Three Pieces
I. Modéré
II. Sans vitesse et à l'aise
III. Vite et nerveusement rhythmé
Elliott Carter: Quintet (1948)
Allegretto
Giocoso
Quincy Jones: The Midnight Sun Will Never Set
Philip Glass/arr. LaMoure: Selected etudes
Akshaya Avril Tucker: Hold Sacred*
Nicky Sohn: A Night at Birdland*** Written for WindSync in 2020-2025, Hold Sacred explores meditative, gestural, and effervescent soundscapes, informed by Tucker’s training in Hindustani music and as an Odissi dancer
** Written for WindSync in 2023-2024, each movement of this work is based on a quote by saxophonist Charlie Parker, composed in a colorful style reminiscent of the quintets by Jean Francaix.
ALTERNATIVE REPERTOIREBy American composers:
Omar Thomas: Shenandoah
A setting of the folk song
Viet Cuong: Flora
Movements depicting the life cycles and survival of desert plants that combine early music influences with mimicry of electronic effects
George Gershwin/arr. WindSync: SummertimeEarlier repertoire:
Antonio Vivaldi/arr. LaMoure: La Follia
W. A. Mozart/arr. Rechtman: Serenade in C minor, K. 388 -
LIGHT AND LIVELY
An option for audiences who prefer to hear popular styles and well-known works with an introduction to quintet repertoire.Miguel del Aguila: Sambeada (4’)
Oscar Navarro: Juego de Ladrones (20’)
Maurice Ravel/arr. WindSync: Bolero (7’)
George Gershwin/arr. WindSync: Summertime (2’)
W. A. Mozart/arr. Rechtman: Serenade in C minor, K. 388 (25’)MASTERWORKS
An option including standard repertoire for chamber winds.Gyorgy Ligeti: Six Bagatelles (11’)
W. A. Mozart/arr. Rechtman: Serenade in C minor, K. 388 (25’)
Oscar Navarro: Juego de Ladrones (20’)WINTER MUSIC
WindSync shares music from the 16th century to today in this cozy program exploring winter as depicted in art and dance.Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Exultate Deo (2’)
Ottorino Respighi/arr. Marquardt: L’adorazione dei Magi from Trittico Botticelliano (9’)
Arcangelo Corelli/arr. LaMoure: Concerto grosso in G minor “Fatto per la Notte di Natale,” Op. 6 No. 8 (15’)
Valerie Coleman: Umoja (3’)
Jacques Offenbach/arr. LaMoure: Ballet of the Snowflakes from A Trip to the Moon (9‘)
Leroy Anderson/arr. Schweitzer: Sleigh Ride (2’)SONG BOOK: WINDSYNC + PERCUSSION
In this collaboration with percussionist Ivan Trevino, WindSync shows a heartfelt side inspired by songwriters and poets. After trading individual sets, WindSync and Trevino join forces for a suite of instrumental songs.WindSync
Marc Mellits: Apollo (17’)
Jimmie Davis/arr. Ziemba: You Are My Sunshine (2’)Ivan Trevino, marimba (all works composed by the performer)
Anthem from Song Book, Vol. 1 (3.5’)
Vessels from Song Book, Vol. 1 (3’)
Baila from Song Book, Vol. 2 (3.5’)
Ghost Arms from Song Book, Vol. 2 (3.5’)
Strive to be Happy (5’)WindSync and Ivan Trevino
Radiohead/arr. WindSync: Exit Music (For a Film) (5’)
Ivan Trevino: Song Book, Vol. 3 (13’)
Son Lux/arr. WindSync: Lost it to Trying (4’)
Projects
