The Dallas Winds was founded in 1985 by Kim Campbell and Southern Methodist University music professor Howard Dunn.

It was originally organized as a "reading band" to allow local professional freelance musicians (many of them music teachers and band directors) to play challenging wind ensemble music as they had in high school and college.

The reading sessions led to performances, first at Southern Methodist University's Caruth Auditorium and then around the Dallas–Fort Worth area, with a formal concert season established at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in 1990.

After the death of Howard Dunn in 1991, the DWS launched an extensive national search for a new artistic director.

[1] Excerpts from DWS concerts are frequently heard on American Public Media's Performance Today show.