What is a Wind Ensemble?
The concept of the modern wind ensemble was born when Frederick Fennell created the Eastman Wind Ensemble in 1952. Fennell’s new instrumentation used the instruments generally found in symphonic or concert bands, but reduced the size of certain sections to feature one player on each part. This allowed players who often got buried in large sections in the concert band to rise to the challenges of playing as soloists in an ensemble context. Fennell also encouraged contemporary composers to write for this new instrumentation, which was similar to an expanded orchestral winds/percussion section but included characteristic color instruments from the concert band, such as saxophones and euphonium. A lot of high school and college band directors misuse the name, calling their advanced group a Wind Ensemble even if it consists of 50-80 players, but the actual term “Wind Ensemble” denotes something very specific: Namely, the one-to-a-part mentality.
