Sensory Friendly Concert 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.

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