The Valley Winds mission is to provide the highest quality of both classic wind band repertoire and new works written for wind ensemble. Its members are professional musicians whose careers encompass everything from full-time performers, music educators, college professors, private instructors, doctors, engineers, extremely talented college students and, of course, musicians who do a little of al
l the above. We perform three concerts each season as well as the summer series “Orchestra in the Orchard” at Small Ones Farm in Amherst, MA. During its development years the Valley Winds performed at The Academy of Music in Northampton, Mount Holyoke College and in the communities of Belchertown, Greenfield, South Hadley and West Springfield. We are thrilled to announce that we plan to make our permanent home at The Academy of Music in Northampton, MA. The Valley Winds has collaborated with many celebrated artists including Grammy-nominated trumpeter Eric Berlin, former principal oboist of the Minnesota Orchestra Basil Reeve, acclaimed soloists including clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois, saxophonist Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, bassist Shigefumi Tomita, percussionist Erica Drake, trombonist Greg Spiridopoulos, hornist Julia Cavagnaro, soprano Mary Hubbell, as well as concerts with the Inés Arrubla Flamenco Dance Theatre, the South Hadley Chorale and the award winning composer Frank Ticheli. Dedicated to community outreach, the Valley Winds values opportunities to work with both high school and college musicians, as well as music educators. The Valley Winds has shared the stage with musicians from the Youth Wind Ensemble of Springfield, West Springfield High School, Belchertown and Greenfield High School, and in their inaugural season, they ended the concert with a mass community performance of the Jacques Press’ Wedding Dance and the Berlioz Symphony for Band with over 100 musicians on stage. In their third season, the ensemble offered a conducting workshop during the Massachusetts Music Educator’s conference open to any music educator in the district. In 2020 we introduced an annual Concerto Competition, the winner of which performs with the Valley Winds at the Academy of Music. The inaugural competition was open to high school musicians and we plan for future competitions to include college musicians. With the encouragement of grant awards and generous donors we are embarking on recording projects, commissions, and greater visibility in Western Massachusetts and beyond. We look forward to growing our audience base and seeing you at our next concert.
