The Ventus Machina woodwind quintet was formed in 2011 and is based in New Brunswick, Canada. Our flexible and unique style of performance is focused on themed programs that at once engage, entertain, and educate our diverse audiences. Classically based, we make regular excursions into other genres, including jazz, opera, Latin and pop, challenging ourselves and surprising our audiences. Through educational outreach performances and workshops in both French and English, we reach thousands of New Brunswick students each year. This CD is our first full-length recording, and we are very pleased to present two new works written for us by outstanding composers: Mike Titlebaum’s Short Set and Martin Kutnowski’s Tonadas y Mateadas. We hope that these will both find the place they deserve among the quintet standards. We also present two wonderful arrangements: four songs from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and William Scribner’s lovely setting of Astor Piazzolla’s Milonga sin Palabras. To round out the program, we offer you one of our absolute favorites from the quintet repertoire – Paquito D’Rivera’s Aires Tropicales. - Enjoy!