riel Winds is an all-female woodwind quintet committed to fostering understanding and excitement in their audiences. Hailed as "technically brilliant, refined and innovative", and for playing with "effervescent enthusiasm", Ariel Winds strive to use their youthful exuberance and approachability to break down the performer-audience barrier when working with children and adults alike.

   ounded at The Juilliard School in 1998, the ensemble enjoys an active nationwide touring schedule and has delighted audiences in many of North America's most prestigious concert venues. Highlights of recent seasons include performances in California, Tennessee, Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Washington DC and Illinois. Winners of the Artists International Competition, they recently presented highly successful New York debuts at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and Merkin Concert Hall. Frequent guests of the Bass Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, they presented a week-long series of education concerts and master classes. The quintet was recently featured as artists in residence at the Allegheny Summer Music Festival and on the 2002 Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival.

   n addition to their formal concerts, Ariel Winds strives to build future audiences and make a lasting musical impact through school performances, master classes, university and conservatory workshops, and family concerts. Presentations have been given at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and at several colleges and high schools throughout the United States. Deeply committed to arts education, Ariel Winds has created a wide array of interactive and entertaining programs which have been performed at more than 300 concerts for over 30,000 children. They work regularly through the New York Philharmonic School Partnership Program, 92nd Street Y, Lincoln Center Institute, Chamber Music America, and Young Audiences of New York and Connecticut.

   or the 2000-01 season, Ariel Winds was the featured ensemble in a Chamber Music America Rural Residency in Stephenville, Texas. The residency included: outreach performances for community groups, education performances in public schools, master classes, classroom teaching (K-12), and concerts with community and school groups. "Don't be surprised if some of the kindergarten through third grade children at Siebert Elementary School decide they want to become musicians", said an article in the Eastland Telegram, following an education concert. The residency offered the ensemble a unique opportunity to bring classical music to life for a rural community.

   embers of the ensemble are graduates of The Juilliard School, McGill University, and Boston University. Individual members of the quintet enjoy thriving freelance careers in New York City, and have performed with such groups as Philadelphia Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, in Broadway shows, on television, and on the radio, including an appearance on the McGraw Hill Young Artists Showcase on WQXR radio station. They have also participated in numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Norfolk, Spoleto, and the Banff Centre for the Arts.

   he quintet's objective is to serve as a messenger of music, hence the name Ariel, after the ethereal emissary in William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

   riel Winds is represented by MCM Artists - Musicians Corporate Management.
Anthea Jackson, clarinet Adi Menczel, flute Misty Tolle Pereira, horn Erin Gustafson, oboe Gili Sharett, bassoon