Writing Music for Today’s Woodwind Quintet: 
a discussion of contemporary performance practice

One can rely on a brass ensemble to play Bach or Gabrielli, a string quartet to play Mozart or Brahms, but what is the standard for a woodwind quintet? The lack of homogeneous sound and quirky instruments make this ensemble the most challenging to write for, however the woodwind quintet’s five unique voices can allow also for possibilities unique to that instrumentation. WindSync, a fresh, young and energetic woodwind quintet is pushing the limits of what a chamber group can do.  Specializing in avant garde performance art, incorporating choreography and text directly into music, they have achieved acclaim in their native Houston, as well as from from audiences in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

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Repertoire selections from: 

Luciano Berio, Opus Number Zoo
Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story
David Maslanka, Quintet No. 2
Valerie Coleman, Umoja
Beethoven, arr. Jacobson, Fantasia on Ode to Joy