Who is RIWE?
Our Mission
Founded in 1969, the Rhode Island Wind Ensemble (RIWE) is a concert wind band of more than sixty skilled professional and avocational musicians who believe that live music brings people together—and that it is a gift all people deserve.
We aspire to present the best in traditional wind band repertoire alongside music of underrepresented and historically disenfranchised communities. Our mission is to provide audiences of diverse ages and cultural backgrounds access to live music of the highest quality while demonstrating the enduring value of lifelong music-making.
Our Musicians
The Rhode Island Wind Ensemble is made up entirely of volunteer musicians representing a broad range of occupations—including engineers, teachers, healthcare workers, IT professionals, small-business owners, nonprofit employees, and retirees.
Our members represent multiple generations, from college students to older adults, and come from more than two dozen towns across Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. What unites us is a shared commitment to musical excellence, community engagement, and the joy of making music together.
Our Music
The ensemble performs a wide variety of music at a high level: transcriptions from orchestral and operatic repertoire; traditional, ethnic, and contemporary band works; and selections from jazz, Broadway, and film scores.
We perform in concert halls and outdoor venues throughout Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts, presenting monthly concerts that are accessible, welcoming, and artistically compelling.
We have collaborated with choral, instrumental, community, and school groups including Mount Pleasant High School (Providence), East Providence High School, Blackstone-Millville High School, Scituate High School, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensemble. Our concerts frequently feature instrumental and vocal soloists drawn from within the ensemble and from the professional music community.
Education
In response to evolving community needs, RIWE has expanded its work beyond concert presentation to include public-school-based service initiatives.
One of these efforts is a long-term partnership with the Music Pathways Academy at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence, where RIWE musicians collaborate with students through side-by-side performances, mentoring, and shared musical experiences.
RIWE also operates the Band Instrument Renewal Drive (BIRD), a program that collects donated band instruments, pays for their professional cleaning and repair, and redistributes them to public school music programs in the greater Providence area where families cannot afford to purchase or rent an instrument.
Through this effort, instruments that might otherwise sit unused are placed back into the hands of young musicians who need them.
Community Impact
For the 2025–2026 season, RIWE will present seven free concerts in Cranston, Scituate, Providence, Newport, and Fall River, with total attendance expected to reach approximately 2,500.
Many performances support partner nonprofits, including Rhode Island Latino Arts, the Armenian Missionary Association of America, and Historic Music of Newport.
To ensure access for all audiences, RIWE does not typically charge admission or sell tickets. Instead, we rely on pay-as-you-are-able donations at the door, concert sponsorships, and grants.
RIWE operates on a modest annual budget of approximately $20,000, allowing community support to translate directly into concerts, educational programs, and outreach activities across Rhode Island.