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

Versatile and vibrant, the musicians of WindSync “play many idioms authoritatively, elegantly, with adroit technique, and with great fun” (All About the Arts), showing off the uniquely wide-ranging sounds of the wind quintet. WindSync’s charismatic and personal performance style, combined with a three-pronged mission of artistry, education, and community-building, lends the group its reputation as “virtuosos who are also wonderful people, too” (Alison Young, Classical MPR).

Highlights of WindSync’s 2024-25 season include a weeklong residency at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall series, Chicago; a weeklong residency at Shelter Island Friends of Music, New York; performances at Corpus Christi Chamber Music Society with pianist Jon Kimura Parker; Harvard Musical Association, Cambridge, MA; Chamber Music Kelowna, British Columbia; and a return to Chamber Music Northwest and Emerald City Music, in Seattle and Portland. The group celebrated its 15th anniversary season in 2023-24.

WindSync has enjoyed an international touring career since winning the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The group has regularly appeared on notable stages throughout the United States and abroad, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Ravinia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Phoenix Chamber Music Society, Rockport Music, and Emerald City Music. Building a new repertoire, WindSync’s recent premieres include works by Viet Cuong, Marc Mellits, Ivan Trevino, Mason Bynes, Nathalie Joachim, and Pulitzer finalist Michael Gilbertson.

WindSync has also served in residencies with the Grand Teton Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Lied Center, and they work with local partners to craft musical events for cities out of range of large arts organizations. Winner of the 2022 Fischoff Ann Divine Educator Award, the ensemble regularly coaches at training programs nationwide, collaborates with youth orchestras, and performs for thousands of young people each year.

On the heels of All Worlds, All Times, WindSync’s 2022 release that “will make you want to get up and dance” (The Whole Note), the quintet’s second commercial album, recorded with composer Miguel del Aguila at Abbey Road Studios, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Albums chart in 2024.

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.

Artist's Website

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.

Artist's Website

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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