The New York Woodwind Quintet is an ensemble-in-residence at the Juilliard School in New York City, originally appointed in 1987. [1] At Juilliard, the members of the New York Woodwind Quintet present seminars each year for student woodwind ensembles, give regular coachings, and perform.
The quintet's current members are flutist Carol Wincenc, oboist Stephen Taylor, clarinetist Charles Neidich, bassoonist Marc Goldberg, and French horn player William Purvis,
The New York Woodwind Quintet has been performing for more than 50 years in concerts and workshops in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America. More than 20 compositions have been written for and premiered by the quintet, some of which have become classics of the woodwind repertoire. They include quintets by Gunther Schuller, Ezra Laderman, William Bergsma, Alec Wilder, William Sydeman, Wallingford Riegger, Jon Deak and Yehudi Wyner. The Quintet has featured many of these pieces in recordings for such labels as Boston Skyline, Bridge, New World Records, and Nonesuch.
A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instruments, such as the jazz quartet or the orchestra. Other music ensembles consist solely of singers, such as choirs and doo wop groups. In both popular music and classical music, there are ensembles in which both instrumentalists and singers perform, such as the rock band or the Baroque chamber group for basso continuo and one or more singers. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles. Some ensembles blend the sounds of a variety of instrument families, such as the orchestra, which uses a string section, brass instruments, woodwinds and percussion instruments, or the concert band, which uses brass, woodwinds and percussion.
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.
The Juilliard School is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leading drama, music, and dance schools.
A brass quintet is a five-piece musical ensemble composed of brass instruments. The instrumentation for a brass quintet typically includes two trumpets or cornets, one French horn, one trombone or euphonium/baritone horn, and one tuba or bass trombone. Musicians in a brass quintet may often play multiple instruments. Trumpet players for instance may double on piccolo trumpets and flugelhorns. There can be variation in instrumentation depending on the type of quintet. In some quintets, the horn is replaced by an additional trombone. Euphonium may also be substituted for the trombone part. While the tuba is considered a standard, the range and style of many pieces lend themselves to being played with bass trombone as the lowest-pitched instrument. Additionally, some pieces call for the use of percussion instruments, particularly the snare drum, tambourine, or timpani.
Robert Nathaniel Mann was a violinist, composer, conductor, and founding member of the Juilliard String Quartet, as well as a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music. Mann, the first violinist at Juilliard, served on the school's string quartet for over fifty years until his retirement in 1997.
When the American Brass Quintet gave its first public performance on December 11, 1960, brass chamber music was still relatively young to concert audiences. The New York Brass Quintet is regarded as the first brass quintet in the United States, having formed in 1954. Other groups soon followed like the Chicago Brass Quintet, formed in 1963. To delineate itself from these other two groundbreaking ensembles American Brass Quintet dedicated itself to "music originally written for brass," and substituted a bass trombone for the conventional tuba voice. That debut concert for them in 1960 marked the beginning of an international career for the ensemble that includes performances in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and all fifty of the United States; a discography now numbering fifty-one recordings; the premieres of over one hundred new brass works, and the inspiration to a whole new generation of brass quintets worldwide. ABQ commissions by Samuel Adler, Bruce Adolphe, Daniel Asia, Jan Bach, Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, Elliott Carter, Billy Childs, Robert Dennis, Jacob Druckman, Eric Ewazen, Anthony Plog, Huang Ruo, David Sampson, Gunther Schuller, William Schuman, Ralph Shapey, Joan Tower, Melinda Wagner, and Charles Whittenberg are considered among the most significant contributions to the brass quintet repertoire. In the past fifteen years alone, the ABQ has released recordings of over twenty-five major new brass quintets. The presentation of challenging contemporary brass music alongside earlier eras carefully edited by ABQ members for modern performance, has become a trademark of ABQ programming, and has helped establish the American Brass Quintet as the leader in the field of serious brass chamber music today.
Eric Ewazen is an American composer and teacher.
Timothy Cobb is the American current principal double bassist with the New York Philharmonic. He previously taught at the Peabody Institute of Music, and joined the Manhattan School of Music faculty in 1992. Cobb also currently teaches at SUNY Purchase, Lynn University, Rutgers University: Mason Gross School of the Arts, YOA Orchestra of the Americas, and Mannes School of Music Preparatory Division. He is the current chair of the double-bass department at the Juilliard School, where he has been on faculty since 2002.
Dan Welcher is an American composer, conductor, and music educator.
Arthur Weisberg was an American clarinetist, bassoonist, conductor, composer and author.
Frances Blaisdell was an American flautist, widely recognized as one of the first female professional flautists. She held positions with the National Orchestral Association, the New Opera Company and the New Friends of Music. In addition, she was the first woman to appear as a soloist and wind player in concert with the New York Philharmonic. In addition to playing, she also held teaching positions at the Manhattan School of Music, New York University, Dalcroze School, Mannes School of Music, and Stanford University where she taught for over 35 years. Blaisdell's teachers included Georges Barrère, Marcel Moyse and William Kincaid.
Linda Strommen is an American oboist. She is Professor of Oboe at Indiana University and has been a regular visiting Oboe Instructor at the Juilliard School of Music for more than ten years. A former member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Santa Fe Opera, she has held principal and assistant principal position with Milwaukee, Honolulu, New Heaven, Wichita, and Baton Rouge Symphonies and acting principal oboe positions with the Rochester Philharmonic and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. In addition to being a former member of the Timm and Lieurance Woodwind Quintets, she has been a regular participant in summer festivals such as the Marlboro, Bellingham, Bard and Masterworks Festivals. Ms. Strommen commissioned and premiered the oboe concerto for oboe and string orchestra “Down a River of Time” by Eric Ewazen. Her recording of this work with the International Sejong Soloists, “Sejong Plays Ewazen,” has been released by Albany records.
Dr. Philip Jameson graduated from Wooster High School in 1959 and attended Baldwin Wallace College for one year.
Michael Benjamin Nigrin is a musician and music composer at large who has scored the music for numerous independent and experimental films and is a double bassist with the Grammy Award winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, a not-for-profit, symphonic orchestra based in Buffalo, New York.
Clare Shore is an American composer, music educator mezzo-soprano, and conductor.
Victoria Ellen Bond is an American conductor and composer.
The Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet was an American wind quintet that was officially founded in 1962 when Pablo Casals asked its members to become the woodwind faculty of his newly founded Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. It is known worldwide for its many international tours sponsored by the United States Department of State including three tours of South America and three of Europe. Over 25 original chamber works for winds have been written for the members of Soni Ventorum including compositions by Claude Arrieu, William Bergsma, Jean Francaix, Gerald Kechley, Joseph Goodman, John Verrall, and William O. Smith. In 1972 the quintet won the silver medal at the International Instrumental Ensembles Competition in Rio de Janeiro.
Carol Wincenc born June 29, 1949 is an American flutist based in New York City. She is known for her solo and chamber music performances and her support of new music for the flute. She is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and Stony Brook University.
Mordechai Rechtman is an Israeli bassoonist, conductor, educator and arranger.
Roxy Coss is a saxophonist and composer who is based in New York. She also is a winner of the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, and has attracted attention from major music magazines and organizations. In addition to recording a number of albums, she has performed internationally.