For almost sixty seasons, the New York Woodwind Quintet has maintained an active performance schedule in the United States and abroad while also teaching the next generation of woodwind performers.

Donald MacCourt, recently retired, has been the bassoonist of the New York Woodwind Quintet from 1973 until 2005. He is also a member of Speculum Musicae and plays principal bassoon in the New York City Ballet Orchestra. He can be heard on recordings with the Quintet, Speculum Musicae, the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble and the Group for Contemporary Music. Until his retirement he served on the faculties of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, SUNY and the Juilliard School. He was on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center from 1985 to 1997. Following his retirement from the New York Woodwind Quintet, he has been succeeded by the bassoonist, Marc Goldberg.

Carol Wincenc, flutist, has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras around the world and has premiered works written for her by many of today’s most prominent composers. She has collaborated with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo, and Cleveland string quartets, and Jessye Norman, Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, and Elly Ameling. Festival appearances include Aldeburgh, Aspen, Budapest, Caramoor, Frankfurt, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Sarasota, Spoleto and Tivoli. First Prize winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute competition, Carol Wincenc has been a member of the flute faculty at the Juilliard School since 1988, and SUNY Stony Brook since 1998.

Oboist Stephen Taylor holds the Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III solo oboe chair with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is also solo oboe with the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, the American Composers Orchestra, the New England Bach Festival Orchestra, the renowned contemporary music group Speculum Musicae, and plays as co-principal oboe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Trained at the Juilliard School with teachers Lois Wann and Robert Bloom, he is a member of its faculty as well as of the Yale School of Music, SUNY Stony Brook and the Manhattan School of Music.

William Purvis pursues a career both in the United States. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor and educator. He is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Yale Brass Trio, the Triton Horn Trio and is an Emeritus member of Orpheus. His extensive list of recordings spans an unusually broad range from original instrument performance to standard solo and chamber music repertoire to contemporary solo and chamber music works. He is currently a faculty member of The Yale School of Music where he is also Coordinator of Winds and Brass, The Juilliard School where he is co-ordinator of the New York Woodwind Quintet Seminar, and SUNY Stony Brook.

Described as the “Paganini of the clarinet,” Charles Neidich not only appears regularly throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber music collaborator, performing with leading orchestras and chamber ensembles, but is also active as a conductor and composer. He began his clarinet studies with his father, Irving Neidich, continued them with Leon Russianoff, and, later studied with Boris Dikov as the first recipient of a Fulbright Grant to study in the USSR. He is a leading exponent of new music, and is also known for performances on period instruments and is the founder of the noted period ensemble, Mozzafiato. Active in education, Charles Neidich is on the faculties of the Juilliard School, Manhattan School, Mannes College, and Aaron Copland School of Music. He conducts master-courses in Holland, Germany, and Japan, and spends time regularly at the Marlboro Festival in the United States.

Photo courtesy of Shirley Singer