Clarinet Choir

A chamber voice inside Tara Winds.

The Tara Winds Clarinet Choir (TWCC) is a chamber ensemble drawn from the clarinet section of Tara Winds: the whole family of the instrument, from the high E♭ to the contrabass, gathered into one voice.

Founded in 2011 by music director and principal conductor Dickson Grimes, the choir is made up of accomplished adults from music education, engineering, business and technology, most with collegiate training, playing for audiences of every age.

The journey

TWCC through the years.

2025

Atlanta Clarinet Day

The choir returns every year to play the day's clarinet choir performance. In 2025 that meant a world premiere by Andrés Soto, and a Billie Eilish medley.

The Clarinet Choir performing on a school stage, conducted from the front — Atlanta Clarinet Day

Members of the Clarinet Choir performing in matching green sunglasses — Green shades for the Billie Eilish set

2024

ClarinetFest, Dublin

Invited to the International Clarinet Association's festival, chosen from applications by clarinet ensembles worldwide. Performed works included Brahms, Grainger, Dupré, Florence Price, and a new transcription of The Rocky Road to Dublin by Dickson Grimes.

The Clarinet Choir posed together in green festival shirts, the River Liffey behind them — At the Convention Centre Dublin

Six choir members in front of a vintage blue and yellow Dublin double-decker bus — Off duty in the city

2024

Radium Girls, in the studio

A February session recording Jack Aguirre's incidental music for a staging of the play at Atlanta International School.

The Clarinet Choir seated in a recording studio, seen from above, with the producer at a mic stand — Recording session

2023

La Croix Valmer, France

Street performances on the Côte d'Azur, at the Festival of Reeds.

A woman with a microphone introducing the seated Clarinet Choir, café tables in the foreground — Introduced to a café crowd

The Clarinet Choir playing outdoors in the shade of a white canopy — Playing under the canopy

2022

Carnegie Hall

The choir's debut on the Stern Auditorium stage, in June.

Conductor and choir acknowledging the Carnegie Hall audience — Taking a bow

2014–2020

Festivals and symposia

A run of invitations across the decade: two ICA ClarinetFests, the Midwest Clinic with Julian Bliss, Kennesaw State with Sqwonk, and the clarinet symposium at UAB.

The Clarinet Choir performing in a recital hall to a seated audience — UAB clarinet symposium, 2020

The Clarinet Choir seated with their instruments on a recital hall stage, facing the camera — UAB clarinet symposium, 2018

The Clarinet Choir performing on a darkened stage under a single wash of light — ICA ClarinetFest, Baton Rouge, 2014

2012

Southern Division CBDNA

One of the choir's earliest performances, at Kennesaw State University.

The Clarinet Choir performing in a rehearsal hall in front of a pale curtain — Performing at CBDNA

Every year

Atlanta Clarinet Day.

Atlanta Clarinet Day is the Georgia Clarinet Association's annual gathering, hosted at Kennesaw State University and drawing clarinetists from across the state: a day of breakout sessions, masterclasses and faculty recitals for middle schoolers, high schoolers and adult players alike. The choir returns each year to give the day's clarinet choir performance.

In 2025 the day carried a premiere. Capricho was written for the choir by Andrés Soto, a Latin Grammy nominated composer. He and choir member Dina Rosas became close friends as undergraduates at Hofstra University in 2005 and kept the friendship through two careers, his in composition and hers in music education. They had imagined working together for years, and in the summer of 2025 he agreed to write the piece.

Soon after, Dina's father passed away unexpectedly. It was a loss that deeply moved them both, and it gave the timing of the work new meaning. Capricho is not a memorial piece. It captures the spirit and spark of a friendship: fast, fun, and sometimes a little frantic, just like the pace of life that has always connected these two musicians.

Pictured here are additional performances at Clarinet Day in 2024 and 2023.

The Clarinet Choir seen from above, seated in a wide arc on a wooden floor

The Clarinet Choir performing under blue stage light to a seated audience

A collaboration

Radium Girls.

Radium Girls was composed by choir member Jack Aguirre and premiered with TWCC in November 2023. It takes its subject from the women who painted radium watch dials in the early 1900s, unknowingly ingesting the radium as they worked.

When the theater department at Atlanta International School staged the play of the same name, the two came together: in February 2024 the choir recorded the incidental music with AIS clarinetists and the composer in the room, which gave the students a session in a working studio rather than a classroom.

On video