WindSync comes to Ravinia’s Bennett-Gordon Hall April 28 to show off their instrumental playing skills and do a little bit of dancing and acting.
The five-member ensemble consisting of flutist Garrett Hudson, bassoonist Kara LaMoure, oboist Emily Tsai, clarinetist Julian Hernandez and French horn player Anni Hochhalter, debuts at Ravinia, bringing its original interpretation of classical and contemporary music. Hudson founded the group nine years ago.
Winner of the Gold Medal in the Senior Wind Division at the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition with a Carnegie Hall performance under its musical belt, WindSync performs only from memory, something fairly unusual in the world of chamber music performance, said LaMoure.
That practice enables them to stage the performances and interact more with the audience, she said.
All members stand while performing, and even in the more traditional concerts they play “each of us has our own signature dance moves,” LaMoure said.
“We don’t think of them as choreography per se, but if you’re playing the flute for example, you tip the flute to show something rhythmical.”
At the Ravinia concert, the group will engage in some light staging, humming and ghost interpretations when it performs Miguel del Aguila’s Wind Quintet No. 2. Written in 1994, the piece mixes influences from world and new music.
LaMoure said the piece opens with the flute performing a folk melody as the other four performers hum along. “The second movement begins with each of us making percussion sounds on our instrument,” she said. The flutist slaps his tongue while the oboist inhales the reed to make a loud kissing sound.
On the bassoon, “I make a very quiet slap tongue that sounds like a very, dry tympani,” while the French hornist “whacks the palm of her hand on her horn mouthpiece,” she said.
“The end result sounds like a quirky, quiet drum break. I love how clearly the humor shines through in this section, setting up the Caribbean-style dance that follows in such a joyful way.”
The last movement depicts the underworld and some instrumentalists perform backstage to create a meditative feel, she said.
The audience will also hear “ghostly interjections by the offstage flute on his head joint. For me the effect is both chilling and beautiful,” LaMoure said.
For these types of classical recital concerts, “we try to stay away from being shticky, but our style of performing from memory does create a striking visual experience for the audience. You can see us passing melodies to each other, outlining meter changes, and smiling at each other’s creative liberties.”
La Moure joined WindSync two years ago. “I’ve known WindSync trying to do something different from the typical concert experience and I’ve always admired that,” she said. “Each of us is connected in a similar kind of way and the educational aspect is very important to us.”
The group will perform two children’s concerts April 30 at Ravinia. “We will stage ‘Peter and the Wolf,’ performing all the roles of the characters,” she said. The flute is the bird, the oboe is the duck, the bassoon is usually the grandpa. “But I have taken some artistic liberties and the bassoon will be the grandma, too because I have a particularly fantastic impression of grandma.
“In ‘Peter and the Wolf’, we do triple duty — we’re musicians, the narrators, and the actors. It’s fully staged and it’s choreographed. There are even some interactive elements, there’s a wild chase scene straight out of an action movie … It’s one of our favorite things to do, and one of the building blocks of WindSync,” she said.
“Is our mission to generate interest in classical music, per se?” she said. “Maybe it’s more just getting people interested in the music-making experience. That so beautifully overlaps with our training as classical musicians, the vitality and the future of the chamber music world.”
WindSync
When: 8:30 p.m. April 28
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Where: Ravinia Festival, Bennett-Gordon Hall, 201 St. Johns Ave., Highland Park
Tickets: $11 for concert: $50 for dinner and concert
Information: 847-266-5100; ravinia.org
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.