Symphonic Winds of Southwest Florida makes the case that, when it comes to orchestral music, you can lose the strings without forfeiting a second of soul.
The robust, 40-person wind orchestra (a string instrument-free riff on the classic ensemble) hosted their inaugural show in 2022 with exuberant adaptations of Leonard Bernstein’s playful “Overture to Candide” and Aaron Copland’s pastorally elegant “Variations on a Shaker Melody.” The scores’ reputation as string-fueled compositions wasn’t lost on cofounders Joe Duffy and Richard “Dick” Miller. They meant to prove a point: Winds can carry their own weight.
Photography by Brian Tietz
symphonic winds clarinet player
This orchestration is full of delights. The complexity of reeds and brass gives familiar melodies a new, more intimate tone that can be, by turns, sweeter or more insistent. Truth in advertising: I played trumpet in the Piqua Catholic Cavalier Marching Band, so I have a deep affection for big brass moments.
Joe and Dick handpicked the ensemble’s array of regional brass and woodwind masters for their commitment and skill. Symphonic Winds is a purist’s game. The members don’t accept payment for their performances and happily fork patron donations over to the Music Foundation of Greater Naples, which offers music lessons, scholarships and adult programming. Joe is the foundation’s president.
They may not get paid, but Joe and Dick rebuff the ‘community band’ moniker. Both men have spent time on the hobbyist circuit, but Symphonic Winds is different. “These are 100 percent very serious musicians,” Joe says. Most members rank in the top slots of the one to six difficulty scale developed for instrumentalists. Conductor Timothy Yontz, head of instrumental studies and director of bands at Florida Gulf Coast University, selects the orchestra’s music—meaty scores the challenge-ready ensemble can sink their teeth into.
Photography by Brian Tietz
Conductor Timothy Yontz symphonic winds
Conductor Timothy Yontz, the head of instrumental studies at Florida Gulf Coast University, leads the 40-person wind orchestra. Catch the group onstage on February 21 and April 4 at Moorings Presbyterian Church.
Timothy has worked with wind ensembles for more than four decades, studying current composers and squirreling away a list of all-time best works for wind ensembles. The result: programs that might pair familiar stemwinders—like Franz von Suppe’s “Light Cavalry Overture”—with jazzy, contemporary pieces like Frank Ticheli’s “Blue Shades.”
Together, the Symphonic Winds members form an elite group, each ready to bring a unique voice to rehearsal with no warm-up necessary. “These people are here because they want to play,” Joe says.