January 2026
A World of Music
Artist Paul Winter has performed the world over and is a Seven-time Grammy® award-winner according to his website. His current album, Horn of Plenty, was released this past November, and it features the soprano sax of Paul Winter with the Paul Winter Consort. Special guests from Brazil, Russia, Ireland, Romania, and Armenia, along with the voices of Dolphin, Wood Thrush, Blue Whale, and Timber Wolf can be heard on this record.
This past November, the Paul Winter Consort performed a premiere of Horn of Plenty in their first-ever Thanksgiving celebration at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
In this interview, Winter talks about his long history of performing music and his current release.
Jupiter Index: What was it that music gave you and drew you to it as an artist?
Paul Winter: When I was five years old, my parents took me to a Shriner’s dance (in my hometown of Altoona, PA), and they parked me on a chair behind the drummer in the five-piece combo that was playing. I was totally transfixed by what the drummer did with his drum set, with his foot pedals for the bass drum and the hi-hat cymbals, and his hands playing on all the tom-toms and ride cymbals. But what I remembered most deeply was how happy the people dancing seemed to be. My epiphany from that was that music makes people feel good. That was the seed of my destiny as a musician.
JI: You have said playing the saxophone reminds you of the French Horn. In what way?
PW: Saxophone is a very flexible instrument. It’s possible to produce many different kinds of voices on it, and I aspired to create one that has a strong center, like that of a French horn, or Flugel horn —two brass instruments with a comparatively warm, dark sound, as opposed to the more edgy sound that jazz saxophonists often have.
JI: Can you talk about your new release Horn of Plenty, and how it came about? What was the recording process like for it?
PW: The genesis of my Horn of Plenty album was the Thanksgiving radio special that NPR (National Public Radio) asked us to produce last November, which has that same title. I wanted to expand this theme into an album, which features pieces from a diversity of genres in which I’ve had the opportunity to play.
JI: What made you compose “Harvest Faire?”
PW: “Harvest Faire” was inspired by the unique odd-time rhythms of Balkan music, imagining a harvest celebration in somewhere like Bulgaria.
JI: You have performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in 2019. How do you think this performance will with the consort will be different?
PW: Our upcoming “Horn of Plenty” concert on November 29th at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine will be our first-ever Thanksgiving celebration there. In contrast to the Winter Solstice Celebrations we did there for 40 years, this event is more intimate, taking advantage of the extraordinary acoustics in this titanic space.
by G.M. Burns
This past November, the Paul Winter Consort performed a premiere of Horn of Plenty in their first-ever Thanksgiving celebration at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
In this interview, Winter talks about his long history of performing music and his current release.
Jupiter Index: What was it that music gave you and drew you to it as an artist?
Paul Winter: When I was five years old, my parents took me to a Shriner’s dance (in my hometown of Altoona, PA), and they parked me on a chair behind the drummer in the five-piece combo that was playing. I was totally transfixed by what the drummer did with his drum set, with his foot pedals for the bass drum and the hi-hat cymbals, and his hands playing on all the tom-toms and ride cymbals. But what I remembered most deeply was how happy the people dancing seemed to be. My epiphany from that was that music makes people feel good. That was the seed of my destiny as a musician.
JI: You have said playing the saxophone reminds you of the French Horn. In what way?
PW: Saxophone is a very flexible instrument. It’s possible to produce many different kinds of voices on it, and I aspired to create one that has a strong center, like that of a French horn, or Flugel horn —two brass instruments with a comparatively warm, dark sound, as opposed to the more edgy sound that jazz saxophonists often have.
JI: Can you talk about your new release Horn of Plenty, and how it came about? What was the recording process like for it?
PW: The genesis of my Horn of Plenty album was the Thanksgiving radio special that NPR (National Public Radio) asked us to produce last November, which has that same title. I wanted to expand this theme into an album, which features pieces from a diversity of genres in which I’ve had the opportunity to play.
JI: What made you compose “Harvest Faire?”
PW: “Harvest Faire” was inspired by the unique odd-time rhythms of Balkan music, imagining a harvest celebration in somewhere like Bulgaria.
JI: You have performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City in 2019. How do you think this performance will with the consort will be different?
PW: Our upcoming “Horn of Plenty” concert on November 29th at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine will be our first-ever Thanksgiving celebration there. In contrast to the Winter Solstice Celebrations we did there for 40 years, this event is more intimate, taking advantage of the extraordinary acoustics in this titanic space.
by G.M. Burns
