Now in its fourth decade, the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble continues to program and perform first-class repertoire, including works by Benson, Grainger, Hindemith, Holst, Husa, and Schwantner.  The chamber winds, an off-shoot of the wind ensemble, offers students an opportunity to perform works written for smaller forces, including antiphonal brass music by Gabrieli, serenades by Mozart and Dvorak, and theatre music by Kurt Weill.  The ensemble has also been active in commissioning and performing new music for winds, including pieces by Canadian composers Bruce Carlson, Allan Gilliland and Michael Matthews.

The U of M Wind Ensemble has performed throughout Manitoba and Western Canada, has several times been an invited guest ensemble at the Cantando International Music Festival in Edmonton, as well as having performed at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival for the past three years.  The Ensemble has released two CDs of Canadian Wind Band Music, North Winds I & II, with a third in progress. 

LISTEN to the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble! 

Concertino for Four Solo Percussion and Wind Ensemble
Mars from The Planets
Samurai 

LISTEN and SEE the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble!

Dreams and Dances by Richard Gillis.
Recorded live on February 12, 2011 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA.
Allen Harrington, alto saxophone & Richard Gillis, trumpet.
Fraser Linklater, conductor.

The Hut of Baba Yaga from Pictures at an Exhibition by Modeste Mussorgsky.
Recorded live on November 26, 2010 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANADA.
Conducted by Dr. Fraser Linklater.

WIND ENSEMBLE FALL RETREAT

Saturday afternoon, October 2, 2010
Clinicians — Steve Dyer; Allen Harrington; Jeff Johnson; Joan Linklater; Stewart Smith; Andrew Wahl
Special guest clinician — Allan McMurray, Director of Bands, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado

REPERTOIRE — 2010 / 2011

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Concert #1 — Friday evening, October 15, 2010 — Jubilee Place
Frank Ticheli — Nitro
Robert Turner / Paterson — A Childrenʼs Overture
Percy Grainger — Colonial Song
Howard Hanson / Anderson — Serenade, Op. 35 (with Katy Thurmeier — flute)
William Schuman — George Washington Bridge
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Concert #2 — Friday evening, November 26, 2010 — Jubilee Place
Aaron Copland — Fanfare for the Common Man
Aaron Copland / Linklater — Appalachian Spring
Aaron Copland / Sylvester — Old American Songs (with Melanie Nichol — mezzo-soprano)
Modeste Mussorgsky / Hindsley / Boyd — Pictures at an Exhibition
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Chamber Winds — Sunday evening, November 28 — Eva Clare Hall
Felix Mendelssohn — Overture, Op. 24
Antonin Dvorak — Serenade in D minor, Op. 44
Richard Strauss — Serenade in Eb, Op. 7
Gustav Mahler / Linklater — Six Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (with Mel Braun, baritone)
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New Music Festival — Tuesday evening, February 1, 2011 — Concert Hall
John Corigliano — Circus Maximus (with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra winds, brass & percussion)
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Concert #3 — Saturday evening, February 12, 2011 — Jubilee Place
Michael Colgrass — Bali
Richard Gillis — Dreams and Dances (with Richard Gillis, trumpet & Allen Harrington, saxophone)
Karel Husa — Cheetah
Tanner Menard — joeʼs last mix
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Concert #4 — Friday evening, March 25, 2011 — Glenlawn Collegiate
Percy Grainger — Lincolnshire Posy
Michael Matthews — Matrix
Leonard Bernstein / Lavender — ʻSymphonic Dancesʼ from West Side Story

Personnel 2010-2011

Fraser Linklater is an Associate Professor in the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba, where he directs the Wind Ensemble, Concert Band and Chamber Winds and teaches courses in music education and conducting.  A native of Winnipeg, Dr. Linklater holds a Master’s degree in Music Education from the University of North Texas and a Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of Michigan.   

A trumpet player, Dr. Linklater has performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique de Genève (Switzerland), and the Ron Paley Big Band, as well as being a founding member of the Winnipeg Brass Quintet.  His trumpet teachers have included Vincent Cichowicz, Armando Ghitalla, and Edward Tarr.  Dr. Linklater has studied wind conducting in numerous workshops with clinicians such as Frank Battisti, Eugene Corporon, Craig Kirchhoff, Allan McMurray, Larry Rachleff, and Mallory Thompson, as well as with H. Robert Reynolds at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Linklater has guest conducted and adjudicated at various festivals and music camps across Canada as well as the United States.

A co-director of the Canadian Wind Conductors Development Program, Dr. Linklater is also Secretary of the Manitoba Band Association and coordinates all three levels of honour bands for the MBA.  In October 2002, he received the MBA Award of Distinction for his services to music education in Manitoba.  Dr. Linklater is an assistant editor of Canadian Winds, the national journal of the Canadian Band Association.  In May 2006 Dr. Linklater was the guest conductor of the National Youth Band of Canada and has also guest conducted at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s New Music Festival in February 2008, 2009 and 2010.  Under Dr. Linklater’s direction, the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble has released two CDs devoted to Canadian wind band music North Winds and North Winds II with a third CD in preparation.