Simple Gifts is a recording by the 2012 and 2016 Ouachita Wind Ensemble. The Ouachita Wind Ensemble is the premier instrumental ensemble from Ouachita Baptist University, in Arkadelphia, Ark. Ouachita Baptist University is a private liberal arts university with an enrollment of 1,500 students. Year after year, Ouachita is ranked among the nation’s top colleges by such publications as U.S. News and World Report and Forbes. Simple Gifts is the seventh recording by the Ouachita Wind Ensemble with Mark Records. The ensemble began the project in 1999. Literature for each recording focuses on music that incorporates hymn tunes or has a sacred context, such as Frank Ticheli’s Simple Gifts: Four Shaker Songs, and John Stevens’ Benediction.