Spring Wind Quintet

Hawaii’s own SPRING WIND QUINTET, founded in 1974, has been at work for almost a half-century bringing chamber music to concert halls, schools, libraries, parks, and to the airwaves via radio and television throughout Hawaii.

The Spring Wind Quintet started small, performing only a handful of concerts per year, but in the late 1970s the Quintet’s activities increased dramatically, thanks to a grant award from Chamber Music America to establish an ongoing chamber music residency program in Hawaii. These activities, along with the creation of a resident string quartet and brass quintet, led to the birth in 1982 of a new organization, Chamber Music Hawaii, which is now the leading presenter of chamber music in Hawaii.

In addition to its resident colleagues, the Galliard String Quartet and the Honolulu Brass, the Spring Wind Quintet has collaborated with the Kronos String Quartet, the Sierra String Quartet, the Annapolis Brass, and the Bergen Wind Quintet, as well as distinguished solo artists such as pianists Jon Nakamatsu, Joyce Yang, and Jon Kimura Parker.

The Spring Wind Quintet has an extensive and varied repertoire, ranging from the standard classics to contemporary, pops, and Hawaiian music. Many new works have been composed or arranged especially for the Spring Wind Quintet. The group has performed concerts throughout Hawaii, in New York, Norway, and Micronesia, and also offers educational programs for all ages, including youth concerts, band clinics, and workshops.

In recognition of its contributions to the quality and quantity of chamber music in Hawaii, the Spring Wind Quintet has been the recipient of grants from many private, corporate, and governmental foundations, including the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the Honolulu Mayor’s Office for Culture and the Arts, the McInerny Foundation, Cooke Foundation, and Atherton Family Foundation, and also several national foundations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Atlantic Richfield Foundation, and the C. Michael Paul Foundation.