Dr. Fraser Linklater | Director
Now in its 5th decade, the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble programs and performs first-class repertoire, including works by Colgrass, Dahl, Grainger, Hindemith, Holst, Husa, and Joseph Schwantner. The Chamber Winds (an offshoot of the wind ensemble) offers students an opportunity to perform works written for smaller forces, including antiphonal brass music by Gabrieli, serenades by Mozart and Dvorak, theatre music by Kurt Weill, as well as concerti by Gershwin, Messiaen and Stravinsky. The ensemble has also been active in commissioning and performing new music for winds, including pieces by Canadian composers Bruce Carlson, Allan Gilliland, Derek Healey and Michael Matthews.
The Wind Ensemble has performed throughout Manitoba and Western Canada, as well as touring the northern United States. It has five times been an invited guest ensemble at the Cantando International Music Festival in Edmonton, as well as having performed several times at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival. The Wind Ensemble has done workshops with, among others, Robert Ambrose, Alain Cazes, Craig Kirchhoff, Allan McMurray, and H. Robert Reynolds. Guest conductors have included Eugene Corporon, Alexander Mickelthwate, and Bramwell Tovey. With the North Winds recording project, the Wind Ensemble has so far released five CDs of Canadian Wind Band Music, including over 80 Canadian pieces, most of them never before recorded.
The Wind Ensemble is very excited to be making their first appearance at the Canadian Rocky Mountain Music Festival in Banff.