Zéphyros Winds
Now in its 25th season, Zéphyros Winds brings together five soloists known for their virtuosic performance style to perform a wide range of music for winds with “near-symphonic sound” (New London Day). Named for the Greek God of the West Wind, Zéphyros had its New York concerto debut opening the 2004 Mostly Mozart Festival, and has appeared at the nation’s most prestigious concert venues, including The Library of Congress, Wolf Trap, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Dumbarton Oaks and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series.
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“Zéphyros played with impeccable precision and rapt lyricism.”
— The Chicago Sun Times
“The concert was truly an exquisite musical experience.”
— Asheville Citizen-Times
“ensemble so well blended that it glowed from within”
— Classical Voice of North Carolina
“Zéphyros played with passion, total commitment and in one voice.”
— The Daily Gazette
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Programs
The frequent bleakness and sweeping landscapes dotted with color and motion of Scandinavia and Finland influenced music of grand scale and unique tonal imagery. Nordic composers, past and present have written generously for winds. Zéphyros’ program includes favorites by Jean Sibelius and the eternally popular quintet of Carl Nielsen, along with new works by international superstars Esa-Pekka Salonen and Anders Hillborg.
Golden Age of the Wind Quintet
The wind quintet had its quiet birth in 1803, with the publication of three works for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn, by Giuseppe Maria Cambini. However it wasn’t until the 20th century that the wind quintet gained widespread recognition from composers and audiences. Zéphyros’ program is drawn largely from the first half of the last century, a period that was the “Golden Age” of the wind quintet.
American Dream
Zéphyros Winds celebrates the “American Dream” with a program highlighting the diverse compositional styles of the 20th and 21st centuries. Samuel Barber’s lush and expressive Summer Music sets the tone for the program while Irving Fine’s Partita provides a neo-classical counterpart to the avant-garde duo of Elliott Carter. Closing out each half are works by contemporary composers that borrow from and pay homage to jazz, America’s premier art form.
From the pioneering figures of Beethoven and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, to the fantastical imagery of Mendelssohn and Strauss, Zéphyros Winds presents a program of masterworks of the wind literature from the 18th and 19th centuries. In this program with piano, we feature Beethoven’s early Quintet for Piano and Winds and David Carp’s colorful arrangement of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.
“Carpice” Saint-Saens
In 1887, Saint-Saëns invited three celebrated French wind soloists, flautist Paul Taffanel, oboist George Gillet, and clarinetist Charles Turban, to join him for a series of performances in St. Petersburg. Zéphyros takes these Russia programs as a starting point for an exploration of the sophisticated world of Parisian wind playing.
Drawing from luminary German composers Mendelssohn and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and masters of the wind quintet repertoire Franz Danzi and August Klughardt, this program puts on display the full array of colors, textures, and emotion of which the wind quintet is capable. An arrangement of Clara Schumann’s Fugues on Themes of JS Bach and Wolfgang Rihm’s monumental quintet from 2003 round out the program.
Bios
Now in its 25th season, Zéphyros Winds brings together five soloists known for their virtuosic performance style to perform a wide range of music for winds with “near-symphonic sound” (New London Day). Named for the Greek God of the West Wind, Zéphyros had its New York concerto debut opening the 2004 Mostly Mozart Festival, and has appeared at the nation’s most prestigious concert venues, including The Library of Congress, Wolf Trap, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Dumbarton Oaks and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series.
Recent highlights include a performance at New York City’s Music in Midtown, a tour of New England featuring a performance of Irving Fine’s music for the Fine Memorial Concert at Brandeis University and the US premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s Quintet for Winds. The 2017-18 season takes Zéphyros across the country from Pennsylvania to California, including performances and residencies at the Chamber Music Society of Logan, Brigham Young University, Stanford University and the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University.
Since its inception, Zéphyros has performed at many of the country’s most prominent spaces and internationally. In 2010, Zéphyros performed in Beijing, China, at the National Centre for the Performing Arts’ May Festival. The Philadelphia Museum of Art engaged Zéphyros to create a program complimenting their exhibition, “Manet and the Sea”, and at the invitation of the French Embassy in Washington DC, Zéphyros performed a gala concert celebrating the centenary of Francis Poulenc’s birth. Other performances include Duke Performances at Duke University, “The Movado Hour” at The Baryshnikov Art Center in New York City, Da Camera Society of Los Angeles and the Skaneateles Festival.
Numerous Radio broadcasts include “Performance Today” for National Public Radio (most recently in early 2016), Public Radio International’s “Music from Chautauqua” and WNYC’s “Around New York.” Their live recording of Irving Fine’s “Partita for Woodwind Quintet” was released on Bridge Records.
Recognized for their exceptional work as educators as well as performers, Zéphyros Winds have a long history of participating in residencies at schools and music societies. Previous residencies have included University of Maryland Baltimore County, University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of North Carolina School of the Arts and more. Zéphyros has given master classes at The Yale University School of Music, The Juilliard School, The Eastman School of Music and the Idyllwild Arts Academy.
Performances encompass the repertoire for wind quintet, works for winds and piano, winds and strings and works from solos through wind ensemble. In 2016, Zéphyros began presenting a stunning arrangement of Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer 1915” with soprano Elizabeth Pacheco Rose, and the ensemble has also frequently collaborated with pianist Rieko Aizawa. The ensemble’s programs range widely, with programs inspired by Bach, Strauss, Schoenberg and Saint-Seans. Also committed to new music, Zephyros is a recipient of a Commissioning Grant from Chamber Music America to commission composer David Sanford to write a new work for wind quintet. The new wind quintet will be premiered in the 2018-2019 season.
The ensemble gained attention in 1995, when, one year after its formation, it won both the First and Grand Prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, becoming the first wind quintet in the competition’s 22-year history to do so.
The five members of Zéphyros Winds – Jennifer Grim (flute), Fatma Daglar (oboe), Marianne Gythfeldt (clarinet), Saxton Rose (bassoon) and Zohar Schondorf (horn) – all enjoy accomplished chamber and orchestra careers, as well as teaching positions at some of the country’s best music schools
Fatma Daglar, Oboe
Fatma Daglar joined Zéphyros Winds in 2015. In addition to being the principal oboist of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Post-Classical Ensemble, and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Fatma Daglar has held the position of assistant principal oboe with the Louisville Orchestra and has performed on oboe and English horn with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, WolfTrap Opera Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, Washington Concert Opera Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Britt Festival Orchestra, among many others.
An enthusiastic advocate of historical performance, she studied baroque oboe at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and has appeared with the Washington Bach Consort, Ama Deus Ensemble, Brandywine Baroque, Modern Musick, and Bach Sinfonia.
Critics of the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, and the Annapolis Capital have described her performances as “a concerto performance of virtuoso caliber, enthusiastically received”, “extraordinary playing”, “a dexterous technician with attractive tone and a nifty sense of phrasing”, “touching, bittersweet tone”, “terrific”, “well-rounded tone with a beautiful vibrato”.
Fatma Daglar attended the Robert College of Istanbul and the Istanbul University Conservatory of Music where she received her Bachelors Degree in Music. She also holds a Masters Degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Oboe Performance from the Peabody Conservatory where she studied with Sara Watkins. She currently teaches at Towson University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, and the Peabody Preparatory.
Jennifer Grim, Flute
Flutist Jennifer Grim’s remarkable depth and breadth as a performer of solo and chamber repertoire is gaining broad national acclaim. First prize winner in several national chamber music competitions, Ms. Grim has performed with such groups as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. She is the flutist of the award-winning Zéphyros Winds, as well as the solo flutist of the New York Chamber Soloists, with whom she recently gave an acclaimed performance of Mozart Concerto in D major at the Morgan Library in New York. Other solo appearances include the Caramoor, Aspen, Norfolk, and Skaneateles Chamber Music Festivals. Ms. Grim was the Principal Flute of the Vermont Mozart Festival and for many years was a featured soloist, performing all of the Mozart flute concerti and the flute quartets. She has also collaborated as a chamber artist with pianists Menahem Pressler, Charles Wadsworth, and Philippe Entremont, and guitarist Eliot Fisk. Recently, she was recently invited by Maestro Entremont to be Principal Flute at the Santo Domingo Music Festival Orchestra.
A passionate advocate of contemporary music, Ms. Grim has performed with some of the leading contemporary groups in New York City, including Speculum Musicae, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Le Train Bleu, ensemble 21 and Sequitur.
A native of Berkeley, California, Ms. Grim holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University. She is currently Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Marianne Gythfeldt, Clarinet
Clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt has played a central role in the music scene of New York City over the past 25 years, as an ensemble player, an electroacoustic music soloist, and educator. Winning the Naumburg chamber music award with New Millennium Ensemble in 1995 launched a wide-ranging career as clarinetist with Ensemble Sospeso, SEM ensemble, Absolute Ensemble, Collide-o-scope Music, Zephyros Winds and Talea Ensemble. As a freelance performer, she has performed with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and many others.
Academic positions include William Paterson University, the University of Delaware and Brooklyn College where she is currently head of woodwinds. Ms. Gythfeldt’s recent solo CD release of electroacoustic works written for her on the New Focus label was called “…stunning, Gythfeldt is setting a new standard for her instrument here.”
Saxton Rose, Bassoon
Saxton Rose is one of America’s most recognized bassoon soloists. His virtuosic interpretations of traditional repertoire, and his dedication to new music have afforded him a prolific and varied career as soloist, orchestral and chamber musician. He is Associate Professor of Bassoon and Director of the contemporary music ensemble at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, principal bassoonist of the Winston-Salem Symphony. Saxton Rose is a J. Püchner artist and performs on the Model Superior/6000 bassoon.
As principal bassoonist of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2008 he performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, in the Casals Festival and on tours to Europe and throughout Latin America. He has held the same position with Winston-Salem Symphony since 2008.
A committed teacher, he has been invited to give master classes throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, and in the US at the finest music schools and conservatories.
Mr. Rose began studying the bassoon in his hometown near Chicago, Illinois. His training includes courses in Germany, Austria and Italy with some of Europe’s most distinguished bassoonists including Gustavo Nuñez and Sergio Azzolini. He graduated with highest honors from the class of Stefano Canuti at the Conservatorio “Agostino Steffani” in Castelfranco-Veneto, Italy and is a former student of William Winstead at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Additionally his teachers include Yoshi Ishikawa and Timothy McGovern.
Zohar Schondorf, Horn
Upon finishing his BM degree from the Juilliard school in 1995, Mr. Schondorf returned to his homeland of Israel for a total of six years to assume two positions, one as Associate Principal Horn with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra and the other as Principal Horn with the Israel Symphony/Opera Orchestra, a position he held from 1997 to 2001.
Relocating back to NYC in 2001, Mr. Schondorf joined the American Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal horn, and is serving as Principal since 2012.
Also serving as Co-Principal at ABT and 3rd/Principal horn with Stamford Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Schondorf enjoys a prosperous freelance career, performing regularly, mostly as Principal, in the studio as well as with numerous international, regional and local orchestras.
Recent appearances include the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, Westchester Philharmonic, American Composer’s Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, the KNIGHTS, NKO in Israel, Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Pops, Encores, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and many more.
Mr. Schondorf has been featured in and on cast recordings of high profiled Broadway shows like Spamalot, Disney's The Little Mermaid, The Addams Family, Ghost, Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady and West Side Story.
Mr. Schondorf joined Zephyros Winds in 2008 and is a member of Sylvan Winds since 2002