Garden Chamber Party: Sauvie Island Winds with WindSync

Artists

WindSync Wind Quintet

Garrett Hudson, flute
Noah Kay, oboe
Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet
Kara LaMoure, bassoon
Anni Hochhalter, horn

Over nearly two decades of performing throughout the United States and abroad, WindSync has proven itself “a major force in the American chamber music landscape” (Arts and Culture Texas), puncturing performing conventions and stretching the boundaries of what the wind quintet can be through fearless programming and a fresh stage presence. WindSync has appeared on some of the country’s most prestigious stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress, at Chamber Music Northwest and the Ravinia, Moab, Orcas Island, and Phoenix Chamber Music Festivals, and internationally in China, Taiwan, Panama, Mexico, and Canada.

In the spirit of the dressed-down, boyband accessibility that inspired the quintet’s cheeky name, WindSync boasts a unique concert experience featuring largely self-generated repertoire—commissioned by the group or arranged in-house—performed frequently from memory and presented always with a personal touch from the stage. Building a new repertoire driven by purpose and growing from close collaboration, WindSync has commissioned new works from leading and rising American composers, including Viet Cuong, Nathalie Joachim, Shawn Okpebholo, Marc Mellits, Miguel del Águila, Nicky Sohn, Akshaya Avril Tucker, and Mason Bynes—many of which have become emerging standards of the wind quintet literature. Commissions-in-progress include new music by Kian Ravaei, a sextet for piano and winds by Timo Andres to be performed with the composer, and a collaborative work with soprano Karen Slack composed by Michael Abels.

Highlights of the 2025/26 season, the group’s 17th, include collaborations with pianists Jon Kimura Parker and Evren Ozel, the Balourdet Quartet, and with the San Diego Symphony as soloists for the premiere of a new work by Ivan Trevino. WindSync also returns to the Grand Teton Music Festival, Chamber Music Tulsa, Caramoor, and the Chautauqua Institution, as well as Chamber Music Northwest for an original collaboration with the dance company BodyVox.

This season also sees the release of Nadia, an album celebrating Nadia Boulanger’s American legacy and christening the ensemble’s exclusive recording relationship with Delos/Outhere Music. The quintet’s 2024 album WindSync Plays Miguel del Águila, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, debuted at number one on the Billboard classical charts.

A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, WindSync presents a year-round concert series as well as the annual Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival in Houston, Texas. Celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2026, the Festival integrates guest artists of national renown with WindSync members and local musicians from Houston’s vibrant music scene for artistic cross-pollination. The 10th anniversary edition of the Festival features a one-of-a-kind collaboration with the Balourdet Quartet for an ambitious chamber performance of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde without conductor.

Since the creation of a costumed and choreographed production of Peter and the Wolf that launched the ensemble’s first performances, education has been central to WindSync’s mission. WindSync has served on the faculty of Madeline Island Chamber Music and as a guest artist at universities, conservatories, and music festivals across the country, including the New World Symphony, Yale School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, Kent Blossom Music Festival, and dozens of others. WindSync also maintains a year-round educational partnership with the Houston Youth Symphony Coda Music Program, and in 2022 was honored with the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association’s Ann Divine Educator Award.

Founded at Rice University in 2009, WindSync embarked on a robust touring career after winning the Concert Artists Guild’s 2012 Victor Elmaleh Competition and the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, continuing as prize winners at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition. WindSync’s tri-coastal musicians—Garrett Hudson, Noah Kay, Graeme Steele Johnson, Anni Hochhalter, and Kara LaMoure—make their homes in New York City, San Francisco, and Houston. WindSync is represented by MKI Artists.

Artist's Website

Garrett Hudson Flute

Recognized by the Winnipeg Free Press for “shaking up the classical music world,” Garrett Hudson is known for his charismatic stage presence and highly personal voice on the flute. His roots lie in Winnipeg, Manitoba where he emerged at the age of 16 in a solo debut with the Winnipeg Symphony. Before embarking upon a dynamic career as an international soloist, instructor, and orchestral and chamber musician, Mr. Hudson held positions in North America’s leading professional training orchestras including the National Academy Orchestra of Canada and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie in Montreal, Quebec, and participated in other world-class training programs such as the Young Artists Program through Ottawa’s National Arts Center. Mr. Hudson completed a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia, studying under Scottish flutist Lorna McGhee and earned his Master of Music degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music under the tutelage of renowned flute pedagogue Leone Buyse. Since 2009 he has served as flutist with WindSync, an ensemble considered to be one of North America’s foremost emerging chamber forces and a recent Gold Medalist in the National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and winner of the Concert Artists Guild international competition for artist management. Mr. Hudson currently serves as adjunct faculty of flute at Lonestar College in Houston, Texas.

Artist's Website

Emily Tsai Oboe

Quoted by DMV Classical as having “a consistently lovely tone and [taking] her melodic twists and turns with stylish assurance,” Emily Tsai began her musical studies at the age of four on the violin and started the oboe when she was ten. Based in the Washington, DC area, she is the Assistant Principal Oboe of the Washington National Opera and the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Along with her position at the Kennedy Center, Emily has also performed with the National Philharmonic, Maryland Lyric Opera, Allentown Symphony Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony and others in the DC area. She has made solo appearances with the Alba Music Festival Orchestra, the Amadeus Orchestra, the Paragon Philharmonia, and the Washington Asian Philharmonic among others. Emily is the adjunct oboe professor at St. Mary’s College in Maryland and holds a robust private studio in the DC area. Her main teachers include Mark Hill, Richard Killmer, and Malcolm Smith. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Oboe Performance from the Eastman School of Music with a Performer’s Certificate and the Chamber Music Award, and her Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Rochester graduating Magna Cum Laude. She received her Master of Music from the University of Maryland where she was part of the Graduate Fellowship Quintet. In her downtime, Emily has completed a number of half marathons, a full marathon, an Olympic triathlon, and a Tough Mudder, and loves to go on various outdoor adventures with her husband, Karl. Inside, she can be found playing video games and spoiling her two adorable cats, Xenia and Perch.

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Graeme Steele Johnson Clarinet

Praised as “technically and interpretively impeccable and passionately communicative” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Graeme Steele Johnson is an artist of uncommon imagination and versatility.

The clarinetist, curator and “musical detective” (New York Classical Review) garnered international attention for his rediscovery and reconstruction of a 125-year-old octet by Charles Martin Loeffler, profiled in a full-page spread by The Washington Post. Released on his debut album, Forgotten Sounds (Delos/Outhere Music), Johnson’s world-premiere recording of the work was named one of The New York Times’s Best Classical Music Albums of 2024, nominated for a Gramophone Classical Music Award, and critically acclaimed by BBC Music Magazine, The Times of London, and many others. Johnson led the octet’s first present-day performances at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, Harvard Musical Association, Phoenix Chamber Music Festival, Emerald City Music, and other concert series around the country over three seasons of touring.

Since 2022, Johnson has served as the clarinetist of the award-winning quintet WindSync. Additional recent appearances include the Ravinia, Bridgehampton, Rockport, Moab, and Orcas Island Chamber Music Festivals and performances with the Miró, Balourdet, Aeolous, Callisto, and KASA Quartets, as well as the Twelfth Night, Copland House, and New York New Music Ensembles. Admired for his creative curation and engaging communication, he has presented a TEDx talk comparing Mozart and Seinfeld, authored chamber arrangements heard around the world, and in 2026 will assume the position of artistic director of the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival in Houston.

Under the tutelage of Charles Neidich and Kofi Agawu, Johnson earned a doctoral degree from the CUNY Graduate Center, where his research won the Elebash Dissertation Award. Previously, he earned two master’s degrees from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with David Shifrin and Ricardo Morales, and completed undergraduate study at The University of Texas at Austin with Nathan Williams.

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Rémy Taghavi Bassoon

Rémy Taghavi is a highly sought-after bassoonist and educator based in the Northeast. Rémy is Principal Bassoon of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra New England, the Las Vegas Philharmonic, and the Cape and Princeton Symphonies, among others. He is a Founder and Artistic Director of the Annapolis Chamber Music Festival, a member of the New York-based chamber ensembles Frisson and SoundMind, and an alumnus of Carnegie Hall’s teaching artist and chamber music program, Ensemble Connect. Mr. Taghavi is Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he also serves as the Woodwind Chamber Music Coordinator, and faculty at the Rocky Ridge Music Center’s Young Artist Seminar (Colorado). He completed degrees at the University of Southern California, the Juilliard School, and Stony Brook University. His primary teachers include Frank Morelli, Judith Farmer, and Norbert Nielubowski.

Anni Hochhalter Horn

Born in California and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, Anni is an active musician and innovator in the arts field. Specializing in chamber music, she has launched an exciting career as a recitalist, instructor, and social entrepreneur. Anni graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Music degree in French Horn Performance, studying with leading studio and orchestral musicians Rick Todd, James Thatcher, and Kristy Morrell, along with summers under Roger Kaza as a fellow at the Chautauqua Music Festival and Texas Music Festival. In 2009, Anni won first prize in the Yen Liang Young Artist Competition and performed Richard Strauss’ First Horn Concerto in E-flat Major with the Diablo Symphony. As a touring musician, she has performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles across North America, Europe, and Asia, and performs each summer as principal horn of the McCall Music Festival in McCall, Idaho. Anni is based in San Francisco, California and enjoys trail running and backpacking whenever possible. During the summer of 2020 she backpacked over 250 miles, including a 75 mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail in Washington, and in the last year has run two marathons. Anni currently serves as Executive Director and musician chair of WindSync.

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