Our Mission

The Windwood Music Festival aims to provide a space for artists to explore and implement creative projects that help bridge the gap between communities and classical and contemporary music. We strive to bring music to public spaces in ways that interact and coexist with these spaces and the people who occupy them, thus connecting the threads that build a sense of togetherness among all the elements within a community.

“We believe that artists should be stewards—connecting land, people, and music in a way that is sustainable, accessible, and coming from a place of deep compassion.”

-Maitreyi Muralidharan, co-founder

About Us

The Windwood Music Festival presents a series of creative music performance projects by international artists gathering in Airdrie for a two-week residency. In this residency, musicians explore what it takes to create projects that celebrate sustainability, community, and arts in all its forms; whether that be in exploring local landscapes and drawing inspiration from Airdrie’s natural beauty, or working with produce grown by local farmers to create a meal that inspires a performance. These projects will be presented in public spaces around Airdrie including but not limited to parks, cafes, museums, and farms, and are designed by the participants in order to best present a collaboration between community members or aspects of a community and music.

By involving the community in the process and culmination of innovative music presentations across diverse spaces and demographics that would not regularly see live music, we are giving people a chance to see the threads that connect a space and in turn build a community. We aim to showcase the beauty of connection—between land, between people, between all things—in an increasingly divisive and disjointed world. This festival is a space where artists have the opportunity to live that connection, to see the process unfold and understand what it takes to bring projects to life that can have an impact on the well-being of a community as a whole.

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Airdrie, AB

On one side, the endless rolling prairies. On the other, the magnificent Rocky Mountains. In the far distance, skyscrapers rise from the city. And then, there are the clouds, perched at eye level, so it always feels like you’re floating in the sky. It’s my favorite spot on earth.

Home.
The simple, the profound.
The infinitely precious corner of the world.
Our Castle in the Sky.
— Tong Wang, co-founder

Meet the Team

The Windwood Music Festival is co-founded and directed by Duo Perdendosi, violinist Maitreyi Muralidharan and pianist Tong Wang.

Our Story

Duo Perdendosi is a classical and contemporary duo formed by pianist Tong Wang and violinist Maitreyi Muralidharan. They use human-centric design and unconventional programming to foster spaces of connection and present works by immigrant and minority composers to honor their own immigrant backgrounds. Both coming from conservatory backgrounds, they recognized a need for classical and contemporary music to move away from convention and towards connection. In 2022, they created the Windwood Music Festival in Airdrie, Alberta to collaborate with like-minded artists and share the power of music to connect land and people. Maitreyi and Tong embarked on their first tour, “Da Capo,” in April 2023 across seven cities in eastern Canada and the US. They presented a musical storytelling program, “Wanting to Start Again,” during their residency at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in June 2023, and returned to Airdrie, Alberta to lead the first official season of the Windwood Music Festival in August 2023. In May 2024, they performed their second tour, “Dark Tales,” funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, in Hungary, Romania, Toronto, and Montreal. They are based in Montreal and regularly perform around Canada, collaborating with performers, composers, and multidisciplinary artists. Outside of performing, they enjoy cooking, writing, and discovering a “fresh perspective on the familiar” alongside their audiences.