New CD by APSU’s Gateway Chamber Ensemble Lauded by National Music Magazine

Classical music aficionados were surprised last month when they picked up the latest issue of Fanfare Magazine and read that a chamber ensemble out of Clarksville had recorded the definitive version of Mozart’s “Wind Serenade in B flat” and Richard Strauss’s “Wind Serenade in E flat.” Music critic Jerry Dubins even said the recordings by this previously unknown group ranked above the performances by prominent ensembles from New York, London and around the world.

The Gateway Chamber Ensemble, which consists of Austin Peay State University faculty members and professional musicians from around the region, released its first CD, “Wind Serenades,” in March, and critics with Fanfare Magazine, one of the genre’s pre-eminent publications, immediately took note of the recording’s high quality.

Dubins wrote in his review of the disc that, “Of the recorded performances I know of the Mozart – which include those by the Academy of St. Marin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble and Consortium Classicum, I would pick the new Gateway Chamber Ensemble out of the pack, not only for its refined playing, but for finding that elusive balance between the music’s high-spirited playfulness and its sensuous soulfulness. Merriment and melancholy mix in matched measure in Mozart’s masterpiece.”

The Strauss serenade on the disc received equally high praise.

“For wind playing par excellence, this release receives the strongest recommendation,” he wrote.

The praise, from such an esteemed publication, is extraordinary given that the group formed a little more than a year ago, and the members’ teaching duties at APSU limit their rehearsal time.

“After (our first) concert, there was a gathering and it was very clear that it wasn’t just the personnel from Clarksville getting together to have a good time; this was a niche,” Dr. Gregory Wolynec, APSU associate professor of music and director of the ensemble, said in an interview with Fanfare. 

In February 2009, Wolynec led the ensemble in a live performance of the wind serenades and felt that they had created something “new and fresh.” He contacted a friend, Grammy award-winning producer Blanton Alspaugh, who immediately got the Gateway Chamber Ensemble into a recording studio. Within a few months, Summit Records, a major classical music record label, agreed to take on the project. The CD is now available to purchase online at Amazon.com.

“Wolynec and his colleagues have managed to assemble a top-notch performing ensemble that now enters the big leagues with the national and international release of its new Super Audio CD,” Steven Ritter, Fanfare music writer, wrote in the magazine.  

The Gateway Chamber Ensemble performs regularly for the local community at events such as the Clarksville Community Concert Series and the Dimensions New Music Series. At 3:00pm on August 29th, the group will perform a benefit concert titled “FloodAid Serenade,” with all proceeds benefiting flood rehabilitation. The concert will be in the APSU Music/Mass Communication Building Concert Hall.

For more information about the Gateway Chamber Ensemble, including upcoming musical performances, visit the group’s website, www.gatewaychamberensemble.com.