WindSync to Perform at the Met Museum, 12/14

The rebel wind quintet, WindSync, which won the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, will be making its Met Museum debut on Sunday afternoon, December 14, 3 p.m. at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. The ensemble is comprised of Garrett Hudson, flute; Erin Tsai, oboe; Jack Marquardt, clarinet; Tracy Jacobson, bassoon; and Anni Hochhalter, horn.

The complete program follows:

Prokofiev
Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34 **

Copland
Simple Gifts (From Appalachian Spring) **

Traditional/Chinese
Chinese New Year **

Traditional/Danish
Sonderho Bridal Trilogy **

Dvor?a?k
Finale from String Quartet No. 12, "American" **

Respighi
Trittico Botticelliano (1925) **
La Primavera
L'adorazione dei Magi
La nascita di Venere

Intermission

Tchaikovsky
The Nutcracker (Highlights) **

Valerie Coleman
Umoja

Traditional
'Twas the Night Before Christmas
featuring well-known Christmas carols -- announced from the stage

**Arranged by WindSync

Tickets at $30 to this event include Museum admission and can be purchased online at www.metmuseum.org/tickets or by calling 212-570-3949.

Hailed by the Houston Chronicle as "revolutionary chamber musicians," WindSync is a fresh and energetic wind quintet internationally recognized for dramatic and engaging interpretations of classical music. A winner of the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh International Competition, this dynamic ensemble focuses on building a connection with audiences through adventurous programming and charismatic stage presence. Critics and audiences alike rave about programs that expand the wind quintet repertoire with newly commissioned works written for WindSync as well as a wide array of original arrangements of classical masterworks. These five virtuoso players perform exclusively from memory and specialize in creative concerts that inspire and entertain audiences of all ages.

WindSync's 2014-15 season features a cross-continental journey with more than sixty performances spread over thirty US States and Canada. In addition to the Met Museum performance WindSync will perform at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts; will give a family concert for the Midland Symphony (MI); and combination concert/educational residency engagements for Adelphi University (Garden City, NY), Joplin Pro Musica (MO), Pamlico Musical Society (NC) and a return to the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, KY.

Houston Public Radio's "The Front Row" called WindSync "innovative...unconventional and exciting," and other recent radio appearances include Performance Today of American Public Media, Minnesota Public Radio and The McGraw Hill Financial's Young Artists Showcase program on WQXR in New York. In 2014, Houston Public Media will release the group's new CD, Play Different, which is comprised of the group's unique arrangements, and a second new recording of standard wind quintet repertoire will be released by CAG Records during the 2014-15 season.

WindSync was selected by Concert Artists Guild for the 2012 Sylvia Ann Hewlett Adventurous Artist Prize, and also received numerous performance prizes from the CAG competition, including the ensemble's November 2013 New York debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Other recent engagement highlights include: Shanghai Oriental Arts Center in China, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Chautauqua Institution, Washington Performing Arts Society, The Schubert Club's Music in the Park Series (St. Paul, MN), and the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston, where the group has been based since its inception in 2009.

WindSync is strongly committed to educational enrichment and promoting arts engagement, featuring outreach performances specifically designed for various constituencies-including students, community audiences and people with disabilities. Set in diverse spaces including museums, outdoor venues, hospitals and schools, WindSync has been presented in educational performances by The Seattle Symphony, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, KY, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Music for Autism, and the Canucks Autism Network in Canada. The group has also performed lecture recitals, workshops and master classes presented by Stanford University, CSU Long Beach, Drexel University, and the University of Minnesota. Launched in spring 2013, WindSync's latest initiative is The Play Different Project, a campaign against bullying, which teaches tolerance and friendship through music and poetry. In 2011-12, the group was selected as Ensemble in Residence for the Da Camera of Houston Young Artist Program and held the position of Ensemble in Residence with the Grand Teton Music Festival during the summers of 2012 and 2013.

Founded in 1951 with a mission to discover, nurture, and promote young musicians, Concert Artists Guild has helped several hundred young musicians start careers over the past sixty years. The range of artistry has been great: from the heart of the classical music tradition to the cutting edge. Notable alumni artists include violinist Jennifer Koh, clarinetists David Krakauer and David Shifrin, flutists Carol Wincenc and Marina Piccinini, Imani Winds, the Grammy-winning ensembles eighth blackbird, Pacifica and Parker String Quartets, and MacArthur Fellow flutist and arts entrepreneur Claire Chase.

CAG provides support to a roster of talented artists during the critical and formative time between completion of formal studies and the achievement of an established career. Artists are selected through a rigorous multi-round annual competition open to traditional and non-traditional instrumentalists, ensembles and singers. CAG offers comprehensive management services including concert bookings and tour management, commissioning and recording opportunities and marketing and publicity support.

The NewMusic/New Places initiative presents CAG artists in non-traditional venues such as bars, clubs, and galleries, introducing diverse audiences to concert music. Writing for The New York Times, music critic Zachary Woolfe captured the essence of CAG's desire to broaden the performance possibilities for its winners: "Concert Artists Guild, which manages and promotes rising classical performers, is well aware of the challenges its musicians face as they embark on their careers. Stable, dependable engagements may well be a thing of the past, and it is necessary to think beyond the same traditional halls. To that end, the organization started the series New Music/New Places which presents its young charges and alumni in a wider-than-usual range of places." (October 4, 2013)

The CAG Records label enables roster musicians to get their music onto disc and into the marketplace. The CAG Commissioning Program ensures that classical music continues to be a living art form by fostering collaborations between performers and composers.