Blythwood Winds

Blythwood Winds is one of Toronto's most sought-after wind ensembles. Founded in 2010, the wind quintet performs at many of Toronto's musical and cultural venues including the Canadian Music Centre, the Music Gallery, Gallery 345, Array Space, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Above all else, Blythwood Winds is committed to the performance of Canadian music. In spring 2015, the quintet gave a concert at the Music Gallery featuring world premieres by Toronto based composers Kevin Lau and William Rowson. In 2016, Blythwood hosted Hogtown Roundup 2: Toronto Graffiti at Toronto’s Heliconian Hall, premiering newly composed music by Jason Doell, Elisha Denburg, and Bekah Simms. In 2017, they presented a concert of music celebrating women composers, Voices of Canadian Women, highlighted by a premiere by Anna Höstman. In March 2018, they presented another all-Canadian concert featuring a newly commissioned work by Canadian composer Emilie LeBel, and the Ontario premiere of Greg Harrison's techno/self.

The group was featured in 2015 on the JUNOfest Classical Nominees’ Showcase presented by CBC Music with the Canadian Music Centre in Hamilton, Ontario where they performed Jacques Hétu's Quintette, Op. 13. Blythwood Winds has a fruitful relationship with the Canadian Music Centre including performances of music by Canadian composers Norman Sherman, Elisha Denburg, and Alan Heard. The quintet has also been involved with the CMC's OPUS Testing, a co-presentation with Musica Reflecta in which the group premiered pieces by Toronto composers for wind quintet and narrator inspired by popular Russian fables. They remounted the Fables in November 2015 for New Music 101, an educational concert series that combined performance and discussion in Toronto Public Libraries. As well as its live performances, Blythwood Winds is featured on the Canadian Music Centre's digital audio archive CentreStreams, with recordings in 2013 of previously unrecorded works by Toronto composers James Gayfer, and other CMC Associate Composers.

This ensemble is a founding member of Wind Quintet International – a network established to promote the production and sharing of contemporary wind quintet repertoire – with the launch of Our Canada: Forecasting the Canadian Wind in September 2018. The project showcased new works by five Canadian composers (Cameron Wilson, Cris Derksen, Carmen Brayden, Daniel Janke, and Emily Doolittle) in collaboration with four other quintets (Ventos/Vancouver, Mistral Five/Saskatoon, Choros/Montreal, and Fifth Wind/Halifax) involving free public workshops and multiple performances live-streamed across the country.

In December 2017, Blythwood collaborated with Canadian jazz trumpeter Suresh Singaratnum for a holiday concert at the McMichael Gallery Art Collection. During the summers they are often invited to perform in concerts series including the Toronto Music Garden, Music at St. James Park, and Music at Mount Pleasant.

In addition to its dedication to presenting the works of Canadian contemporary music, Blythwood Winds is passionate about spreading music to all audiences, performing its own arrangements of symphonic repertoire, holiday music, and movie soundtracks at many Toronto bars and restaurants.