meet the ariel winds



Adi was born and raised in Israel, where she began studying the piano with her mother at the age of seven. At the encouragement of her mother who always wanted to play the flute, she switched to the flute at the age of 10. It was love at first sound! Adi realized that she had so much fun playing the flute and that playing it came very naturally to her. A few months later, she broke her arm in summer camp and couldn't play the flute for a whole month! It was then that she realized how much she missed playing and decided she wanted to become a professional flutist. Adi moved to the United States while in the seventh grade, andcontinued to play her flute in several youth orchestras and bands in the New York area. Playing music really helped her during the time that she was still learning to speak English. She played as soloist with several different orchestras in some beautiful concert halls while she was still a teenager and entered The Juilliard School at the age of 16. The thing that Adi loves the most about being a musician is traveling around the world performing concerts for people. She has performed with her friends in the Ariel Winds all over the United States for children of all ages and has gotten to meet some very interesting people along the way! In her spare time, Adi really enjoys watching figure skating on TV and hopes to play with a skater one day!


Erin was born into a musical family all the way on the other side of the country in Washington State. While growing up, Erin and her younger sister would put together plays and shows and perform them for whoever would come to the house. When she was 8 years old she started taking piano lessons with her mom and loved music so much that when she was in the fifth grade, she decided she wanted to play the clarinet too. After a year and a half of being a clarinetist, Erin tried the oboe and after falling in love with its exotic sound hasn't looked back since. Growing up, Erin had always wanted to be a veterinarian since she loves animals so much - but after her first concert with an orchestra she decided that she wanted to be a professional musician more than anything. Since then, Erin has played her oboe in orchestras all over the country. When she's not having fun playing with her friends in the Ariel Winds, Erin loves to go running in Central Park, cook good food and play with her cat at home in New York.


Anthea was born in a little Canadian town called Peterborough, but grew up in Toronto. Her mother delivers mail for Canada Post and her father is a conductor for three Canadian orchestras. When Anthea was a child, she went to many operas, ballets and concerts with her mom and enjoyed watching her father conduct and play the piano. He would play all of her favorite songs from the musicals Annie and Cabaret and encourage her to sing along. Anthea started playing the piano and the recorder when she was seven and began making squeaking noises on the clarinet with her junior high school band five years later. She took piano and clarinet lessons and enjoyed entering local music competitions because it gave her the chance to perform on a stage in front of lots of people. Being a musician has taken Anthea to some very exotic and exciting places like Paris, France and Beijing, China. Music has also provided Anthea with some unusual job opportunities. She used to play the clarinet in a Canadian army band and wore a big fur hat, a wool uniform and shiny black boots while she marched around in the middle of summer. It was sweaty work, but it helped pay for college! Anthea moved to the United States in 1999 to continue her university studies and to make her dreams of being a professional musician a reality. Now she's Dr. Jackson and makes her living performing and teaching with the Ariel Winds.


Gili was born in Israel and started playing the violin when she was very young. At the age of 15, she discovered the most beautiful sounds of the bassoon and decided that this was the instrument she really wanted to play. She started taking lessons and soon after she joined the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, where she had the chance to play with Bobby McFerrin, who is one of her favorite singers! When Gili joined the Israeli army, she played the bassoon and the saxophone in the Army Band. She had so much fun there and even got to play on the day Israel and Jordan signed a peace agreement. To her surprise, there was a picture on the front page of the Israeli newspaper of her and a Jordanian saxophone player, titled "The Song of Peace". Later on, the bassoon took her to many exciting places in the world like Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Belgium, Holland, France and Russia. Gili moved to the Big Apple and fell in love with this exciting place. She is very happy to play with her friends at Ariel Winds all over the United States. She also teaches bassoon at Brevard Music Center Summer Festival in North Carolina and plays many concerts in New York. For fun, she practices yoga and likes to go to Jazz clubs.


Misty was born in Berea, Kentucky and when she was about 6 years old she started singing in a gospel group with her father and older sister. She loved being on stage and performed every time she got the chance. She started taking piano lessons and learned to read music when she was seven. When it came time to pick an instrument for band, she tried out the trombone and the saxophone. Misty was VERY small for her age, so the trombone felt way too big for her. Her band teacher helped her out by recommending the French horn. Misty loved the beautiful, big sound she could get on her horn and she often spent hours tape recording herself at home. Misty had two old dogs that would howl at the top of their lungs every time she practiced. Her older brother really enjoyed teasing her about that. Misty continued to play the horn and became more and more serious about it as she got older. She went to a few summer music camps in high school very far away from home and made some wonderful friends. There she decided she really wanted to make music for her career. After high school, Misty went to college at the Juilliard School where she studied music all the time. She is a teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic School Partnership program and for the 92nd Street Y. With these two programs, Misty is in New York City public schools almost every week! She teaches students from K-5 to listen to classical music and even write it themselves. Three years ago, Misty married Joseph Pereira who is a percussionist (drummer) in the New York Philharmonic. As you can imagine, with Joe and his drums and Misty and her horn, the Pereira house is always full of music!