The Wind Ensemble is a select of woodwind, brass and percussion players being offered an opportunity to perform challenging music of various instrumentation and styles. Dedicated to performing the finest original wind literature from the Renaissance to the present, the Wind Ensemble utilizes a flexible approach to instrumentation, allowing for stylistic accuracy in the performance of everything from the large military band works of Gustav Holst to the small chamber wind pieces of Mozart. On average the Wind Ensemble plays five formal concerts per school year, with at least one outdoor concert during the Spring semester.
Membership is by audition.
The wind instrument family includes all instruments powered by the human air stream, i.e. all woodwind and brasswind instruments. As for the other instruments, go figure. A wind ensemble differs from a concert band in several respects. Whereas the traditional concert band presented in most high schools is a big bloated ensemble utilizing excessive part doubling, the wind ensemble purposely attempts to maintain a smaller size with one player per part in many sections. Fewer numbers allows a clarity of sound unheard in a one hundred person orchestra or band and promotes stylistically accurate performances.