Strong winds are predicted for this year’s Blackheath Chamber Music Festival. They’ll be at their strongest on Sunday, April 27, starting at precisely 11 a.m.

That’s no meteorological possibility. It’s a musical fact – thanks to four of Australia’s leading wind players coming together for a one-off concert, Blowing to the Wind.

Featuring flautist Eliza Shephard, Lloyd Van’t Hoff (clarinet), Matthew Wilkie (bassoon), and saxophonist Michael Duke, the bespoke hour-long program will include a new arrangement of Wagambirra (2023) by composer John Shephard, Eugene Bozza’s 1954 work Trois Pièces pour une Musique de Nuit, Jean Françaix’s 1933 Quartet for Winds, and the world premiere of an as-yet-unnamed work by Stephen Adams, inspired by the birds of Blackheath’s bushland.

Lloyd Van’t Hoff: “live music thrives on audience connection”. Photo supplied

“It was the dream of the Blackheath festival’s curator and director, Catherine Harker, to bring together these pieces and do something ‘windy’,” says Van’t Hoff. “I don’t know much about the piece yet, but from what I gather, we’ll be playing alongside field recordings of the sounds of Blackheath itself – such as bird...