Emerald City Music: Series Debut, 'Wanderlust'

Barber – Souvenirs, Suite for Piano Four Hands
Fung – Birdsong for Violin and Piano
Connesson – Techno Parade for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano
Ligeti – Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet
Tchaikovsky – Souvenir de Florence for String Sextet

Join Emerald City Music, a brand new chamber music series in Seattle, for their debut performance. Thirteen acclaimed musicians from around the world perform exciting chamber music in an intimate South Lake Union coffeeshop.

"Wanderlust" explores the theme of world travel, and the memories evoked by souvenirs. The program opens with Barber's lighthearted Souvenirs for Piano Four Hands, drawing the composer's image of New York in the year 1914. Vivan Fung's Birdsong, commissioned by Artistic Director Kristin Lee in 2014, showcases the intense virtuosity of the violin and piano. Connesson's rampant Techno Parade is followed by Ligeti's Six Bagatelles, performed by the WindSync wind quintet. The evening closes with Tchaikovsky's monumental Souvenir de Florence for String Sextet, composed during a brief visit to Florence, Italy.

Artists: Kristin Lee (violin), WindSync, Ani Kavafian (violin), Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu (viola), Dimitri Murrath (viola), Colin Carr (cello), Ben Hong (cello), Gloria Chien (piano), and John Novacek (piano).

About WindSync

WindSync has established itself as a vibrant chamber ensemble performing wind quintet masterworks, adapting beloved music to their instrumentation, and championing new works by today’s composers. The quintet often eliminates the “fourth wall” between musicians and audience by performing from memory, creating an intimate 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. In 2018, they were finalists at the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. WindSync has appeared in recital at the Library of Congress, Ravinia, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Their commissions and premieres include The Cosmos, a concerto for wind quintet and orchestra by Pulitzer finalist Michael Gilbertson, and recent works by Ivan Trevino, Marc Mellits, Erberk Eryilmaz, and Akshaya Avril Tucker. Their album, "All Worlds, All Times," was released on Bright Shiny Things in 2022, debuting at no. 2 on the Billboard Traditional Classical charts.

WindSync’s thematic programming responds to the people and places where they work. In their artistic hometown of Houston, they curate a four-concert season and present the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival each April, spotlighting everyday public spaces as gathering places for culture. The ensemble’s educational work includes tour stops at public schools and ongoing collaborations with the social music programs Sistema Ravinia and Houston Youth Symphony Coda Music Program. WindSync has been featured in educational concerts presented by the Seattle Symphony, the Hobby Center, and Orli Shaham’s Bach Yard, and the ensemble’s concerts for young people reach over 5,000 students per year. In recognition of this work, they are the winners of the 2022 Ann Divine Fischoff Educator Award.

The members of WindSync have led masterclasses at New World Symphony, Eastman School of Music, Florida State University, and Northwestern University, among others. The quintet has also served as Ensemble-in-Residence for the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington (KY), the National Museum of Wildlife Art, and the Grand Teton Music Festival.

About Emerald City Music

http://www.emeraldcitymusic.org