April 14: Emerald City Music Presents WindsyncFeaturing a World Premiere Nathalie Joachim

Emerald City Music Presents Windsync

Featuring a World Premiere by GRAMMY-nominated Flutist and Composer Nathalie Joachim

Plus the Northwest Premiere of Miguel Del Aguila’s Quinteto Sinfónico

Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director

Friday, April 14, 2023 at 8pm 415 Westlake 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/windsync-ft-nathalie-joachim-seattle

Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 7:30pm The Minnaert Center for the Arts 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/windsync-ft-nathalie-joachim-olympia

“[Emerald City Music] loves to host exploratory concerts that both educate and inspire.” – Local News Today www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – On Friday, April 14, 2023 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents the return of Windsync, who will give the world premiere performance of a new work for wind quintet by GRAMMY-nominated flutist and composer, Nathalie Joachim.

Emerald City Music is thrilled to welcome Windsync back to its Seattle and Olympia stages for the first time since the chamber ensemble’s ECM debut on the opening night of Season 01. The award-winning quintet will perform their Gardens and Galaxies program, which features an array of vibrant and imaginative works, including the commission of Stumble, Fall, Fly –– a new wind quintet by GRAMMY-nominated flutist/composer Nathalie Joachim. Primarily commissioned by ECM, the work is co-commissioned with Schneider Concerts at The New School and ECM is receiving the world-premiere.

The performance will feature several other works for wind quintet –– many of them 21st century works –– including ‍Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Pastoral Suite (Arr. Kara Lamoure), ‍Akshaya Avril Tucker’s Hold Sacred,‍ Marc Mellits’ Apollo, Valerie Coleman’s Umoja and Miguel Del Aguila’s Quinteto Sinfónico. A composer local to Seattle, Del Aguila’s work is receiving its Northwest debut with ECM.

In reflecting on their return to the stages of Emerald City Music and the opportunity to give the world premiere performance of Nathalie Joachim's new work, Windsync says: "We are so excited to be back in Seattle with Emerald City Music! Being a part of the very first season in 2016 was a real highlight for us and it will be incredibly special to return this time with the world premiere of a new work by Nathalie Joachim. We can't wait to share it with everyone and can't thank Emerald City Music enough for helping bring this new work to life."

For the performance at 415 Westlake, audiences can enjoy ECM’s flagship “date-night experience,” which combines vibrant classical performance with an open bar, and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The second performance of the program in Olympia will take place at The Minnaert Center for the Arts.

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for their casual environment combined with award winning artists, ECM has gained recognition from several high-profile publications like Seattle Times, The City Arts deemed ECM "the beacon for the casual-classical movement". Unique to only ECM attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes, enjoy the open bar and walk around in order to increase the satisfaction of each of the ECM concerts.

This performance, and all of ECM’s Mainstage performances this season, will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

About Nathalie Joachim

Nathalie Joachim is a GRAMMY-nominated flutist, composer, and vocalist. The Brooklyn born Haitian-American artist is hailed for being “a fresh and invigorating cross-cultural voice”. (The Nation). She is co-founder of the critically acclaimed duo, Flutronix, and comfortably navigates everything from classical to indie-rock, all while advocating for social change and cultural awareness. Her authenticity has gained her the reputation of being “powerful and unpretentious.” (The New York Times)

Ms. Joachim, a United States Artist Fellow, has performed and recorded with an impressive range of today’s most exciting artists and ensembles, including Miguel Zenón, Bryce Dessner, and the International Contemporary Ensemble, and is the former flutist of the contemporary chamber ensemble eighth blackbird. As a composer, Joachim is regularly commissioned to write for instrumental and vocal artists, dance, and interdisciplinary theater, often highlighting her unique electroacoustic style. Upcoming premieres include Joachim’s symphonic debut commissioned by St. Louis Symphony and the In Unison Chorus; new large scale chamber works for Roomful of Teeth, Sō Percussion, and Fuse Ensemble; a micro-chamber opera commissioned by Boston Lyric Opera; and a site-specific performance installation commissioned for Yale University’s Schwarzman Center. Joachim’s current touring project, Fanm d’Ayiti, is an evening-length work for flute, voice, string quartet and electronics that celebrates and explores her personal Haitian heritage.

As an active educator of students of all ages and skill levels, Ms. Joachim is devoted to supporting music education with intention. She holds faculty positions at The Hartt School at The University of Hartford, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Perlman Music Program and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Her youth education workshops, presented internationally with Flutronix in partnership with The Juilliard-Nord Anglia Performing Arts Programme, focus on creative collaboration and igniting the spirit of composition in young people.

About Windsync

WindSync has established itself as a vibrant chamber ensemble performing wind quintet masterworks, adapting beloved music to their instrumentation, and championing new works by today’s composers. The quintet eliminates the "fourth wall" between musicians and audience by often performing from memory, creating an intimate connection. This personal performance style, combined with the ensemble’s 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. In 2015, the quintet was invited by the Library of Congress to perform the world premiere of Paul Lansky’s “The Long and the Short of it,” commissioned by the Carolyn Royall Just Fund and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Other premieres include “The Cosmos,” a concerto for wind quintet and orchestra by Pulitzer finalist Michael Gilbertson, and works by Ivan Trevino, John Steinmetz, Marc Mellits, Erberk Eryilmaz, and Akshaya Avril Tucker. Forthcoming commissions include new works for wind quintet by Mason Bynes, Viet Cuong, and Nathalie Joachim.

WindSync’s thematic programming responds to the people and places where they work. In Houston, they curate a 4-concert season and present the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival each April, spotlighting everyday public spaces as gathering places for culture. In Louisiana’s Opelousas cultural district, WindSync was a pilot ensemble of Sound Places, a year-long project exploring the possibilities of creative placemaking through music led by Chamber Music America with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The ensemble's educational work includes tour stops at public schools and ongoing collaborations with the Sistema Ravinia and Houston Youth Symphony Coda social music programs.

About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director

A recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis PostDispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.

In addition to her dynamic performing career, Lee was recently appointed to the faculty of University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Violin. She is the artistic director of Emerald City Music in Seattle, a chamber music series she co-founded in 2015. Also an accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at Lincoln Center in New York and on tour with CMS throughout each season, as well as a member of Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara, sitting as The Bernard Gondos Chair.

Kristin Lee has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic, and many others. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum in Paris, Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery.

Born in Seoul, Lee began studying violin at age five and within one year won First Prize at the Korea Times Violin Competition. In 1995, she moved to the US to continue her studies under Sonja Foster and in 1997 entered The Juilliard School’s Pre-College. In 2000, Lee was chosen to study with Itzhak Perlman after he heard her perform with the Pre-College Symphony. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.

About ECM

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences in its South Lake Union home venue, 415 Westlake. Catch them on tour also in residence in Olympia, Bellingham, and New York City.

Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.

ECM gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. Artistic Director Kristin Lee –– a touring violinist awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant and who is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center –– is regarded for her innovative programming that both honors the tradition of chamber music while expanding the genre’s boundary past common limits.

Emerald City Music made a name for itself beginning in its second season with a national collaborative commission with Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, and has continued to press the boundary of chamber music with accolades like a tour of Steve Reich’s iconic and rare Music for 18 Musicians, a pitch-black performance of Georg Haas’s “In the Dark” quartet, and the West Coast debut of the Danish folk group The Dreamers’ Circus.

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