Gretchen Pusch, flute
Roni Gal-Ed, oboe
Benjamin Fingland, clarinet
Adrian Morejon, bassoon
Karl Kramer-Johansen, horn
Recognized by critics, audiences, and colleagues alike for its polished and passionate performances, the Dorian Wind Quintet is known worldwide as one of chamber music’s pre-eminent and longest continuously active ensembles. The Quintet has traveled around the world – concertizing in 48 of the 50 United States and Canada, touring Europe eighteen times, and playing throughout the Middle East, India, Africa and Asia. The Dorian made history in 1981, as the first wind quintet to appear at Carnegie Hall.
Since its inception at Tanglewood in 1961, the Dorian has collaborated with many of the most transcendent and legendary artists in the world of classical music during the 20th and 21st centuries, including: Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Jean Casadesus, Phyllis Curtin, Lukas Foss, the American Brass Quintet, Claude Frank, Lorin Hollander, Ruth Laredo, Minoru Nojima, Kevork Mardirossian, Jean-Pierre Rampal, James Tocco, Mary Beth Peil, and the Apple Hill String Quartet.
The Quintet has appeared at numerous festivals, including the Stravinsky Festival at Lincoln Center, the International Festival in Warsaw, Caramoor International Music Festival, North Carolina New Music Initiative, Newberry Spring Festival (Great Britain), Ontario’s Stratford Festival, San Luis Obispo Festival, Chamber Music Festival of Aguascalientes, Mexico and the New American Music Festival in Sacramento. The Quintet has served as the resident ensemble for the Mannes College of Music, Brooklyn College, Hunter College and the State University of New York. The group was in residence at Dartington Hall and Newberry (both in England), the Tanglewood Music Festival, and for over 10 years, at the Festival Institute at Round Top, Texas.
To date, the Dorian is responsible for nearly 40 commissions of 20th and 21st century wind music from major composers, including: Luciano Berio, Joan Tower, Mario Davidovsky, Bruce Adolphe, Lukas Foss, Jacob Druckman, Billy Childs, Lee Hoiby, David Del Tredici, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, and George Perle. The Dorian Quintet’s commission of George Perle’s Wind Quintet No. 4 won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1986, making history as the first Pulitzer ever awarded for a wind quintet. The group has recorded on the Vox, CRI, Serenus, New World, and Summit Records labels.
The Dorian Quintet partners with the Pro Musicis foundation, expanding and restructuring its outreach efforts in New York City – bringing chamber music of the highest quality to residents of assisted living facilities, rehabilitation facilities, hospitals, schools, community centers, and retirement communities. Its goal is to provide access for audiences that are prevented from attending regular concert venues, spread joy and inspiration to people in difficult situations, and for the Quintet to continue enriching its beloved New York City community.
The members of the Dorian Wind Quintet are each highly regarded performers, associated with other prominent performing ensembles, venues, and musical institutions, who have united out of a mutual passionate commitment to the advocacy and performance of the wind chamber music repertoire.