About

The Little Rock Winds Story

For thirty years now, dedicated members of the Little Rock Winds have been presenting enriching and entertaining concerts that honor the wind band tradition while keeping the new and unexpected at the forefront.

 

Concert-goers and musicians alike describe the programs of Little Rock Winds as a wide variety of music that leaves listeners and players feeling happy, inspired, and energized. The concerts present a diverse collection of challenging and inspiring wind band pieces that celebrate the wind band’s diverse musical heritage.

 

Little Rock Winds was created in 1993 to recognize the outstanding heritage of the wind band in Arkansas. We are dedicated to the performance of wind band music, including a variety of compositions and transcriptions that inspire our audiences, challenge the players, and preserve the wind band tradition.

 

Little Rock Winds is an important outlet for the wind and percussion musicians in the central Arkansas area.  The approximately 48 professional and semi-professional musicians are selected by audition and participate for personal development and enjoyment and as a service to the community.

 

The band is joined by outstanding soloists with Arkansas ties to produce entertaining performances of superb quality. In addition to the concert series in Little Rock,  the band’s calendar often includes runouts to other communities and has performed statewide, from Texarkana to Cherokee Village, Harrison to McGehee.

 

Little Rock Winds is a participant of the Arkansas Arts Council’s Arts On Tour program.

What Is A Wind Symphony?

A wind symphony (often referred to as a wind ensemble, wind orchestra, concert band, or symphonic band) is a performing ensemble consisting of members of the woodwind, brass, and percussion families of instruments. Unlike a “symphony orchestra” which is mostly strings, a wind symphony contains every wind, brass and percussion instrument, including saxophones, euphoniums, and pitched percussion.  A wind symphony will often include the harp, piano, and double bass, but otherwise, there are no stringed instruments (violins, violas, cellos) in a wind symphony.

 

The “symphony” description simply refers to the primary type of music performed, although many different musical styles (including popular and classical music, military marches and patriotic songs, theater music and jazz, and contemporary original compositions) are part of the core repertoire of wind symphonies. Little Rock Winds enjoys performing this variety of musical styles that always inspires, uplifts and entertains.

 

Since Little Rock Winds performed its first concert on February 9, 1994, it has been our mission to share this bounty of wind band music with audiences across Arkansas.