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Prairie Winds quintet to perform Feb. 20 at BPC

The Prairie Winds, who have captivated audiences throughout the United States with performances that present the finest wind quintet literature in concert programs that entertain as well as enlighten, will perform at Brewton-Parker College on Monday, Feb. 20, as part of the college’s Dennis and Quinelle Sikes Fine Arts Series.

Their performance will be in the Gilder Recital Hall of the Miller Music Building and begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Members of the quintet and their specialties are: Jonathan Keeble, flute; Jelena Dirks, oboe; Susan Warner, clarinet; David Griffin, horn; and Timothy McGovern, bassoon.

Since their debut in 1996, The Prairie Winds have performed at a number of celebrated music festivals, including Ravinia, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Chamber Music America¹s Education and Residency Institute, and the Britt Festival in Oregon, where the group served as quintet-in-residence for four years.

In 2003, they began an annual residency at the Madeline Island Music Festival in Wisconsin, which offers a chamber music program for collegiate wind players. In July 2005, the Prairie Winds premiered Darius Milhaud's score from Calvalcade de Amour (1939) as a multimedia presentation combining live music with film.

In addition to their busy touring schedule, the quintet also has an active radio presence‹recent broadcasts include full-length concerts for Chicago's WFMT “Live from Studio One” program and for listeners of Minnesota Public Radio.

In 2000, the Prairie Winds teamed with Albany Records to release Gale Force, a critically acclaimed recording of 20th-century wind quintet music by North American composers. The group also has collaborated several times with pianist Ralph Votapek, a Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist, with whom they performed works for winds and piano by Mozart, Beethoven, and Poulenc.

The members of the quintet pursue active musical careers outside the group, as teachers, touring artists, or members of world-renowned performing ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra.

Each musician is dedicated to musical education, and Prairie Winds encourages a love of music in tomorrow’s audiences with workshops that enhance the traditional concert experience through theater improvisation, movement and composition.

Dennis and Quinelle Sikes founded Brewton-Parker College's fine arts series in 1990, to bring worldwide performers to Brewton-Parker College for student and community audiences. The Sikes Fine Arts Series performance is offered to the public at no cost.

Inquiries concerning The Prairie Winds’ performance at Brewton-Parker College may be made by calling Dr. Pierce Dickens, associate professor of music and the Quinelle McRae Sikes professor of piano at Brewton-Parker, at 583-3133.

-BPC-