Have you ever wondered what it’s like to start a wind quintet and keep it going for 46 years? Meet Svjetlana Kabalin, founding flutist and Artistic Director of the Sylvan Winds and find out about the joys and challenges she faced in starting the group from scratch, building and sustaining an audience, and most importantly – her creative approaches to growing the repertoire for the wind quintet medium.

Join ACMP Executive Director Stephanie Griffin on Sunday, March 29th at 2pm ET, for an interview and Q and A with this trailblazing flutist and pioneer of the wind quintet world.

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About Svjetlana: A founding member and Artistic Director of the Sylvan Winds, a NYC-based wind quintet now in its 47th season, Svjetlana Kabalin is of Serbo-Croatian heritage, and was presented in her New York recital debut at Weill Recital Hall as a winner of the Artists International Competition. One of five Americans invited to participate in the first International Flute Competition in Kobe, Japan, she also appeared as a soloist with the New York String Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and Washington’s Kennedy Center. Ms. Kabalin has served as principal flute with the New Philharmonic of New Jersey, the New Jersey Ballet and Paper Mill Playhouse Orchestras, the Stamford, Jupiter, and Queens Symphony Orchestras, and has played for the PBS-TV Great Performances production of Kern’s Show Boat. She has also performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York City Opera, the New Jersey Symphony and New Jersey Festival Orchestras, as well as the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Kabalin is the flutist of the Paper Mill Playhouse Orchestra, has played numerous Broadway shows, including Chinese flutes on Miss Saigon and Flower Drum Song, as well as the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. Currently on the faculty of the Diller-Quaile School of Music, Ms. Kabalin has also taught in the Juilliard Music Advancement Program, at the Simon’s Rock campus of Bard College, Hofstra and Rutgers Universities, the Killington Chamber Music Festival, and has coached chamber music at the Manhattan School of Music. She has recorded for the Desto, Vanguard, Koch, CRI/New World, North/South, Albany Record, MovieScore Media, and the TVT Soundtrax labels.

About the Sylvan Winds: With over 46 seasons of concerts in New York City, the Sylvan Winds has appeared under the auspices of Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Caramoor International Music Festival. Invited to perform for the Governor’s Arts Awards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they have also appeared at Town Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and Symphony Space. Nationally, the ensemble has performed at the Cape Cod, Killington, Skaneateles, and White Mountains Music Festivals, as well as at Amherst College, the Chicago Chamber Music Society, and internationally at the Sejong Cultural Center in Korea. Their performances can be heard on radio stations WQXR, and WNYC, Boston’s WGBH, Minnesota Public Radio, and National Public Radio’s Performance Today. They have made five recordings for the Koch Classics, CRI/New World, North/South, and Albany labels, the most recent, Resonant Worlds, released in December 2025.