WindSync
Garrett Hudson, flute | Noah Kay, 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.
The wind quintet WindSync embraces the classics and the growing contemporary repertoire with a fresh sensibility. Versatile and vibrant, the group plays “many idioms authoritatively, elegantly, with adroit technique, and with great fun” (All About the Arts). In the span of one performance, they can cover vast musical ground from revitalized standard repertoire to freshly inked works to folk and 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. That 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).
Highlights of WindSync’s 2024-25 season include a weeklong residency at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall series, Chicago; a weeklong residency at Shelter Island Friends of Music, New York; performances at Corpus Christi Chamber Music Society with pianist Jon Kimura Parker; Harvard Musical Association, Cambridge, MA; the University of Vermont Lane Series, Burlington; Chamber Music Kelowna, British Columbia; Chamber Music Raleigh, NC; and a return to Chamber Music Northwest and Emerald City Music, in Seattle and Portland, for community residencies. The group celebrated its 15th-anniversary season in 2023-24, with performances in New York City (Chelsea Music Festival), Houston, Miami, Portland, Phoenix, Charleston, Rochester, Syracuse, and Santa Rosa, among other cities.
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WindSync has enjoyed an international touring career since winning the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. They continued as prize winners at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. In its 16-year history, the group has regularly appeared on notable chamber music stages throughout the United States and abroad, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Ravinia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, Rockport Music, and Emerald City Music. The quintet has also shared the stage with such distinguished artists as David Shifrin, Jon Kimura Parker and Alessio Bax, among many others.
Building a new repertoire that is driven by purpose and growing from close collaboration, WindSync’s recent projects include Rise by Shawn Okpebholo, commissioned by a consortium of prominent American orchestras and wind quintets, Stumble, Fall, Fly by Nathalie Joachim, commissioned by Emerald City Music and Schneider Concerts, and A Night at Birdland by Nicky Sohn, commissioned with support from the Chelsea Music Festival. Other premieres include a concerto for wind quintet and orchestra by Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Gilbertson, a Paul Lansky commission premiered at the Library of Congress with support from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and works by Ivan Trevino, Marc Mellits, and Viet Cuong.
WindSync regularly coaches at universities and conservatories, including New World Symphony, Eastman School of Music, Frost School of Music, and the University of Texas. Winner of the 2022 Fischoff Ann Divine Educator Award, WindSync collaborates with youth orchestras, coaches at pre-college music programs, and performs for thousands of young people each year. The group has performed educational programs presented by the Seattle Symphony and by pianist Orli Shaham.
Also in demand for its ability to embed itself in the community, WindSync has served in residencies with the Grand Teton Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Lied Center. WindSync is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, presenting programming in its artistic hometown of Houston, Texas. WindSync’s Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival has been connecting Houston’s people and places through music since its inception in 2017. Festival partners include the Houston Youth Symphony and the Center for Performing Arts Medicine.
On the heels of “All Worlds, All Times,” WindSync’s 2022 release that “will make you want to get up and dance” (The WholeNote), the quintet released its second commercial album, featuring the works of Miguel Del Aguila and recorded in Studio Two at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, to a number 1 debut on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart in 2024.
August 2024 - Please do not edit without permission.
Videos
Programs & Repertoire
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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.
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.W. A. Mozart: Serenade in C Minor, K. 388
W. A. Mozart: Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Winds, K. 452
George Gershwin/arr. WindSync: Summertime
George Gershwin/arr. Gutschy: Rhapsody in Blue
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 -
PROGRAM I - BOULANGER’S AMERICAN LEGACY
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. Featured on WindSync’s 2026 album Nadia, 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 this program may feature recent works written for WindSync by American composers.
Nadia Boulanger/arr. LaMoure: Prelude in F and Three Pieces
I. Modéré
II. Sans vitesse et à l'aise
III. Vite et nerveusement rhythmé
Philip Glass/arr. LaMoure: Etude No. 17
Elliott Carter: Quintet (1948)
Allegretto
Giocoso
Quincy Jones: The Midnight Sun Will Never Set
PROGRAM II – MIRRORS OF THE WINDCarl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet, Op. 43 is the masterpiece of its genre, and here WindSync tours the work for the first time in the ensemble’s 18 years. Faced with a uniquely broad sonic color palette, Nielsen wrote that he “attempted to render the character of the various instruments.” In doing so, he indelibly captured the distinctive personalities--both the charms and the pathologies--of himself and the members of the Copenhagen Wind Quintet. Bassoonist Kara LaMoure’s virtuosic arrangement of Vivaldi’s “La Follia” (“Madness”) does the same for WindSync, through variations on the most popular theme in music history.
The program also includes a new multi-movement work by Kian Ravaei (b. 1999), one of the most in-demand young composers in the United States. Ravaei’s work takes tone painting to a new level, synthesizing diverse inspirations ranging from the Iranian music of his ancestral heritage to the pulsating electronic music of late-night dance clubs. He has received fellowships from Copland House, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Chamber Music Northwest, as well as a New Music USA Creator Fund Award and a Barlow Endowment Commission. He is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School.
Carl Nielsen/arr. Kara LaMoure: Benedictus Dominus
Carl Nielsen: Wind Quintet, Op. 43
Antonio Vivaldi/arr. LaMoure: Trio Sonata in D minor “La Follia,” RV 63
Kian Ravaei: New WorkPROGRAM III – TOWARD THE LIGHT
Toward the Light is a program of new music exploring topics at the forefront of recent cultural shifts: social justice, personal resilience, and mental health. The program engages composers who, having lived through these upheavals, address the challenges and realities head-on yet reach toward hope. The distinctive and imperfect instruments of the wind quintet represent a societal microcosm with which the composers sculpt meaning, and the forms of the musical works take on narrative qualities that reflect arcs of life and thought.
Nathalie Joachim: Stumble, Fall, Fly
Akshaya Avril Tucker: What will you hold
Shawn Okpebholo: Rise
Viet Cuong: FloraCOLLABORATIVE PROGRAMS
TIMO ANDRES NEW WORK FOR WIND QUINTET AND PIANO
WindSync has commissioned composer and pianist Timo Andres to write a major work for wind quintet and piano. Andres will develop the program in collaboration with WindSync and perform as pianist. As a composer-performer, Andres made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2023, and his recent projects include a tour with the Calder Quartet, a piano concerto for Aaron Diehl and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and orchestrations and arrangements for Justin Peck’s production of Sufjan Stevens’s Illinoise. He was nominated for a Grammy award for his performances on 2021’s The Arching Path by composer Chris Cerrone, and he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016.
The collaboration between WindSync and Andres traces a thread of common musical influences between Andres and the repertoire for winds. Francis Poulenc and György Ligeti, composers of two 20th century masterworks for wind quintet, share a sense of humor and self-consciousness. Works by John Adams and Philip Glass, two leading lights of American music and mentors to Andres, reveal a direct lineage. Supported by lead commissioner Harvard Musical Association, the program will premiere in 2027.
Philip Glass/arr. Kara LaMoure: Etude No. 17
György Ligeti: selections from music for wind quintet
Francis Poulenc: Sextet
John Adams/arr. Preben Antonsen: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Timo Andres: New WorkTURNING POINTS: WINDSYNC + JON KIMURA PARKER
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.W. A. Mozart: Serenade in C Minor, K. 388
W. A. Mozart: Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano and Winds, K. 452
George Gershwin/arr. WindSync: Summertime
George Gershwin/arr. Gutschy: Rhapsody in BlueIVAN TREVINO: SPACE JUNK
This musical story for families recounts the adventure of a little star--and what happens when the stars around her have made a mess. The piece features WindSync doing triple duty as narrators, musicians, and theatrical performers. Movement and interactivity immerse the audience in the world of the little star and inspire us all to create beautiful things. The piece is written for flexible presentation, with versions for wind quintet alone, for wind quintet plus beginning musicians, and for wind quintet plus symphony orchestra.
Composer, educator, and percussionist Ivan Trevino is a longtime friend and collaborator of WindSync. Space Junk premieres with the San Diego Symphony on April 11, 2026.
Ivan Trevino: Space Junk
THE SONG OF THE EARTH
In this one-of-a-kind collaboration, WindSync leans on their internal chemistry to join vocal, string, and percussion artists for an ambitious performance of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) without conductor, embracing the spirit of Schoenberg’s arrangement and this most intimate expression from Mahler—a blend of his two signature genres of song and symphony—to play it as chamber music.
Responding to the strikingly transparent textures in Gustav Mahler’s would-be ninth symphony, Das Lied, Arnold Schoenberg began a stripped-down arrangement of the symphonic song cycle for his Society for Private Musical Performances, Schoenberg’s safe haven for new music in conservative Vienna. The hour-long work itself serves as a haven for Mahler’s most personal sentiments, pitting full-bodied exuberance against the blackness of death and a final hope for salvation in “the luminous blue of the horizon…forever.”
WindSync will produce its first Das Lied performance in May 2026 at the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival with the Balourdet Quartet and friends.
Gustav Mahler/arr. Arnold Schoenberg & Rainer Riehn: Das Lied von der Erde
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LIGHT AND LIVELY
An option for audiences who prefer to hear popular styles and well-known works with an introduction to quintet repertoire.W. A. Mozart: Serenade in C Minor, K. 388
George Gershwin/arr. WindSync: Summertime
Various/arr. LaMoure after Väsen: Botanist Suite
Viet Cuong: FloraWINTER 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
