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The latest addition to the Winds’ repertoire this month is Contrapunctus VI from The Art of Fugue by J.S. Bach, in a brand new transcription for wind quintet by composer/bassoonist R. James Whipple. In this amazing piece, Bach casts the theme (the “subject”) against itself moving twice as fast, and often upside-down (“inverted”)!  It’s pretty wild to hear one part enter after another but finish first! And this isn’t all; there’s a direction that the piece is to be performed in “French overture” style, so all the dotted rhythms become “doubly-dotted” which means that the short notes are twice as fast! You can hear this amazing creation on the Winds’ concerts on Saturday and Sunday, May 17-18. Here’s what the first page looks like (the dashed brackets show where the theme is inverted).

The Winds’ reed trio of oboe, clarinet, and bassoon opened the newly-renamed Johnstown Concert Series (formerly the “Chamber Music Series of Greater Johnstown”) on Saturday, September 28th.  The downtown Third Presbyterian Church was an absolute stunning space with at least a three-second reverb! The program included French and American works from the 19th and 20th centuries, transcriptions of two Bach fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier and a suite of Renaissance pieces, and an unaccompanied bassoon solo based on Innuit folk music by the late Canadian composer Milton Barnes, performed by bassoonist R. James Whipple.

The Renaissance City Winds has been awarded a grant from the Heinz Endowments’ Small Arts Initiative for a production of Façade, which will open the 2013-14 season on September 20 and 22.  This is a major chamber work of the early 20th century with music composed by William Walton and poetry by Edith Sitwell.  The narration will be by legendary choral conductor Robert Page and noted actress/singer Kate Young.

Q – Where’s the Renaissance music?

A – We’re the RENAISSANCE CITY Winds, named after Pittsburgh’s nickname.  In the immediate post-WWII years, downtown Pittsburgh was reborn with the demolition of warehouses and industrial facilities and the construction of Gateway Center, the modern skyscrapers where the Allegheny and the Monogahela merge to form the mighty Ohio River. That’s where the “Renaissance City” came from!

While we play a few transcriptions from the Renaissance (1500s), the first original music for oboes and bassoons came along in the early Baroque, and the clarinet at the very end of the Baroque. So most of our music is from 1630-2013!

Winds at Freeport on June 30, 2013 at 6pm

Mark your calendars for the first concert of the Winds’ summer series at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Freeport, Pennsylvania (just up Route 28 from Pittsburgh). Barb O’Brien and John Marcinizyn have a great program of flute and guitar duos worked up for this.  Concert is at 6pm with a reception afterwards. Trinity Lutheran is at Fifth and Buffalo Streets in Freeport. Don’t miss it!

Future events in the same location on July 14 and July 28.  All are Sundays at 6pm.