Mission Statement
The Wisconsin Wind Orchestra will perform and record, at the highest professional standards, the most distinguished international literature for chamber winds and percussion.
About the WWO
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The Wisconsin Wind Orchestra was established in 1995 as one of the few professional wind chamber wind ensembles in the world. From 1997-2017 the group was the resident ensemble of Carroll University but established themselves in 2018 as a fully independent corporation with 501(c)3 status. Comprised of Wisconsin's finest freelance musicians, the ensemble builds on the tradition of musical excellence found in major symphony orchestras, the innovation of wind groups such as the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Netherlands Wind Ensemble, and the technical versatility of the premier military bands. The personnel of the WWO regularly perform with other noted orchestras such as the Wisconsin Philharmonic, Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Florentine and Skylight Opera Companies, Present Music, the Madison, Kenosha, Green Bay and Racine Symphonies, the Festival City Symphony, and the Madison and Concord Chamber Orchestras.
The performance repertoire spans a wide range of works, all written by master composers from Mozart and Haydn, to Mendelssohn, Grainger and Mussorgsky. The instrumentation varies according to the demands of the particular repertoire, resulting in eight to more than forty players playing in a given concert. The Wind Orchestra is also committed to the support of living composers and often programs new music that is accessible for audiences and rewarding for the performers.
They regularly perform concerts at venues throughout Wisconsin, have made numerous CD recordings acclaimed by the American Record Guide and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and have appeared in concerts and radio broadcasts at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Conservatorio F. Morlacchi in Perugia, Italy. In their European concert tour of 2017 they were featured artists at the Segni Barocchi Festival of Foligno, Italy and appeared in concert in front of a sold out audience at the Teatro della Concordia in Montecastello di Vibio. In 2015 and 2017 they were also artists-in-residence at the International Music Project's International Conducting Symposium of Umbria, Italy. In 2020 and again in 2024 the wind orchestra completed a 10-day tours of Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California, where they also offered several community and university clinic sessions for developing musicians.
The WWO selects performance repertoire based on the belief that chamber music for winds has historic and contemporary artistic significance. The repertoire determines the specific instrumentation of the group, ranging from harmoniemusik for eight winds up to thirteen players or more (sometimes including piano, selected strings, or percussion), but the most common make-up of the WWO is a double woodwind quintet plus string bass.
We are committed to expanding the repertoire for winds through commissions and have given the premiere performance of several works by prominent American and European composers. Among others, the WWO has premiered Seven Pieces of Wood by Swedish composer, Anders Astrand, Three Movements for Winds by Keith Carpenter, Divertimento for Piano and Double Wind Quintet by Hugo Hartig, and Olde New York by Rick Kirby.
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Goals
For the People of Wisconsin:
For the Musicians of Wisconsin:
For the International Business and Arts Communitites:
- To provide high caliber professional orchestra concerts at a reasonable cost locally, in Milwaukee, and southeastern Wisconsin to smaller Wisconsin communities no otherwise served by professional caliber musical groups.
- To inspire and support young Wisconsin musicians, thus encouraging the continuation of strong arts education in the state
For the Musicians of Wisconsin:
- To bring together the state's top professional wind and percussion players for concentrated rehearsals and performances
- To feature in performance and recordings the top soloists from the Milwaukee Symphony as well as other nationally acclaimed artists living in Wisconsin
- To program and record the best examples of both traditional and contemporary wind music
For the International Business and Arts Communitites:
- To develop mentoring relationships with wind orchestras throughout the world, thus providing a role model for the creation of other similar professional ensembles
- To commission internationally recognized composers to create original music for premiere performances and recordings