Barli Nugent, flute

Claudia Coonce, oboe

David Krakauer, clarinet

Timothy Ward, bassoon

Kaitlin Mahony, horn

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The Aspen Wind Quintet, winner of the 1984 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. They were also the winner of the 1983 Artists International prize. At the time, one of the most dynamic young groups of the decade, their repertoire included works from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras, as well as from the Golden Age of French Wind Music. They distinguished themselves as champions of new music, especially by American composers, with more than a dozen works written for them.

Formed at the Aspen Music Festival, where they were later in residence and on the chamber music faculty, they later served as ensemble in residence at Queensborough Community College. The New York Times stated about the Aspen Wind Quintet, "The Aspen Wind Quintet is one of the best ensembles playing now with the smooth consistency of a grand organ, now with the bumptious charm of a village band."

As part of their Naumburg Award, the Aspen Wind Quintet received a Naumburg commission written by Frank Zappa, Time's Beach (1985) that received its world premiere on the Quintet's Naumburg concert that took place on May 8, 1985 in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. Written for five movements, the Quintet performed four of the five movements -- one of the movements was considered unplayable at the time. The work has never been performed complete. Zappa composed Time's Beach using his Synclavier computer system, enabling highly complex, micro-detailed notation suited for chamber players. The work was named after the notorious dioxin-contaminated town of Times Beach, Missouri, one of the first major U.S. environmental disasters requiring evacuation - a dark, ironic inspiration for this contemporary chamber work. Later two movements were adapted into a wind sextet format and featured on Zappa's ensemble album The Yellow Shark.

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Naumburg Concert, May 8, 1985, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center

The Aspen Wind Quintet, 1984 Naumburg Chamber Music Award

Program

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Suite in G (arr. Ryohei Nakagawa)

Hans Abrahamsen: Walden (1978) New York premiere

Paul Taffanel: Quintet (1880)

Frank Zappa: Time's Beach (1985), World premiere and Naumburg commission

Villa-Lobos: Quintette en forme de Choros (1928; rev. 1953)

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‍Review Excerpt, The New York Times, May 13, 1985

"A concert at Alice Tully Hall Wednesday served to introduce the Aspen Wind Quintet.. the group played very well, deft and fluent... but the newsworthy item about the program was the premiere - actually four-fifths of a premiere -- of a newly commissioned woodwind quintet by Frank Zappa.

Entitled "Time's Beach" the four movements ... lasted 23 minutes... For "Time's Beach, Mr. Zappa has stuck strictly to the classic wind quintet instrumentation and withheld any sort of movement title or explanation...The four movements are certainly serious music.. this is virtuosic stuff, carefully thought out and interesting to attempt to follow." - John Rockwell

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