The 100 piece Los Angeles Pierce Symphonic Winds are among the growing number of nationally recognized and critically acclaimed community bands in the United States. Since their founding in 1983, the L.A. Winds have become a leading force in Southern California's cultural community. As a result of their annual tours throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe, audiences all over the globe have delighted in the L.A. Winds’ eclectic programs. Their membership is drawn from the vast pool of Los Angeles-based professional, semi-professional and amateur musicians, many of whom have performed with major symphonies, recording studio orchestras and entertainment-world headliners. The one-evening-per-week rehearsal schedule also enables many talented educators and community members to make valuable musical and organizational contributions to the band’s continued success.
The L.A. Winds present a five concert subscription series before sold-out houses in the beautiful Performing Arts Building on the campus of picturesque, suburban Los Angeles Pierce College. In the summertime, the L.A. Winds – along with such musical luminaries as The Kingston Trio, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Juice Newton, Christopher Cross and Kim Carnes – appear before tens of thousands of appreciative concert-goers on the Warner Center Park summer concert Series.
With the help of grants and donations from a variety of governmental, corporate and institutional organizations – including the prestigious Ralph M. Parsons Foundation – the band has been able to sponsor a significant number of community events. The Children’s Concerts introduce our young audiences to the sonic delights of the symphonic band while our Senior’s Concerts offer a nostalgic look back on the unsurpassed richness of our musical heritage.
The 1995 release of the critically acclaimed CD “Raggin’ the Baby to Sleep†– a compilation of original American ragtime music for concert band – helped underscore the L.A. Winds’ commitment to both well known and lesser known music. Premiere performances of works by American composers and arrangers such as Bill Cunliffe, Michael Mention, Michael Daugherty, Lionel Greenberg, John Hoover, Bob Joles, Howie Segurson and Charles Fernandez help advance the quality of wind band music on both a national and international level. In addition, guest artists such as Col. Arnald Gabriel, H Robert Reynolds, Thom Lee, David Whitwell, Donald Caneva, dale Underwood, Jim Self, Charly Davis and Fritz Kaenzig have made significant contributions to the band’s development. The L.A. Winds’ repertoire also encompasses a wide variety of popular and commercial music in exciting arrangements that highlight the diversity of styles and sonorities in the contemporary community wind band.
As a result of their performances at the prestigious Midwest Band and Orchestra clinic in December, 2004 – the first California community ensemble to perform at Midwest – the Winds have been invited to perform at the Mid Europe Festival in Schladming, Austria. That performance, currently planned for the summer of 2007, will mark the L.A. Winds’ fourth European tour since their first tour of Italy in 2000.
For further information on the L.A. Winds and inquiries regarding auditions for membership, please see our website www.lawinds.org. Qualified high school students are welcome to audition, but they must also be current members of their high school ensemble.
