August 17: Newport Classical Announces Children's Concert Featuring WindSync in Peter and the Wolf

Photo by Carlin Ma available in high resolution here.

Newport Classical Expands Community Concerts Series with Children’s Concert on August 17

WindSync performs Peter and the Wolf

Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 4:00 PM
Newport County YMCA | 792 Valley Rd | Middletown, RI
Free Registration Encouraged

 “revolutionary chamber musicians” – The Houston Chronicle

Newport, RI – Newport Classical is proud to expand its Community Concerts Series, presented by BankNewport, into the month of August with a free Children’s Concert featuring WindSync at the Newport County YMCA on Saturday, August 17 at 4 pm. This new partnership with the Newport County YMCA strengthens Newport Classical’s mission to provide free access to classical music to Aquidneck Island children and families. 

“We are proud to have provided concerts and programming to our Newport community throughout all twelve months of our 2023-24 season,” says Newport Classical Executive Director, Gillian Fox. “We are delighted to partner with the incredible team at the YMCA for this Children’s Concert, continuing our commitment to provide our community with meaningful access to classical music throughout the year.”

Windsync (Garret Hudson, flute; Emily Tsai, oboe; Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet; Kara LaMoure, bassoon; Anni Hochhalter, horn) will perform Prokofiev's famous Peter and the Wolf for Newport Classical’s inaugural Children’s Concert. With each group of instruments representing a different character, Peter and the Wolf remains a timelessly charming introduction to the orchestra for children of all ages. The free, educational, family-friendly show helps nurture an appreciation for classical music with a concert that brings it to life. Complete with costumes and choreography, this engaging performance introduces the five wind instruments of the orchestra and concludes with an exciting retelling of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev. 

Cori Kilzi, Associate Executive Director of Newport County YMCA, says, “We are excited to join forces with Newport Classical for this Children's Concert on August 17. This partnership provides a wonderful opportunity to spark a passion for music in young audiences, offering memorable experiences that both inspire and educate. We hope you join us for this family friendly event.”

In addition to WindSync’s thrilling retelling of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, this fun, casual, afternoon concert is accompanied by on-site activities, including an instrument petting zoo that provides a hands-on opportunity to get up-close and personal with different instruments of the orchestra, local food trucks, and opportunities to sign up for programs through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the YMCA. 

This concert is made possible through the generous support of Randy and Becky Johnson in honor of their granddaughter Schuyler Madison and is presented as part of the BankNewport Community Concerts Series.

About WindSync: 

Versatile and vibrant, the musicians of WindSync “play many idioms authoritatively, elegantly, with adroit technique, and with great fun” (All About the Arts), showing off the uniquely wide-ranging sonorities of the wind quintet. The group’s charismatic and personal performance style, combined with a three-pronged mission of artistry, education, and community-building, lends WindSync its reputation as ”a group of virtuosos who are also wonderful people, too" (Alison Young, Classical MPR).

WindSync launched an international touring career after winning the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. WindSync has appeared in concert at Ravinia, the Met Museum, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Library of Congress, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Building a new repertoire driven by purpose and growing from close collaboration, WindSync’s recent premieres include works by Marc Mellits, Ivan Trevino, Mason Bynes, Nathalie Joachim, and Pulitzer finalist Michael Gilbertson. 

In demand for their ability to embed in communities, WindSync has served in residencies with the Grand Teton Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Lied Center. Winner of the 2022 Fischoff Ann Divine Educator Award, the ensemble regularly coaches at training programs nationwide, collaborates with youth orchestras, and performs for thousands of young people each year.

On the heels of “All Worlds, All Times,” WindSync’s Billboard chart-topping 2022 release that “will make you want to get up and dance” (The Whole Note), the quintet’s second commercial album, recorded with composer Miguel del Aguila at Abbey Road Studios, releases in 2024.

More about WindSync: https://www.windsync.org/about.html

About Newport Classical: 

Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.

Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc. and previously known as Newport Music Festival, Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.

Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”

In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.

For Newport Classical’s complete concert calendar, visit www.newportclassical.org/concerts