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Imani Winds embrace modernity in season opener for the Cleveland Chamber Music Society

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by Stephanie Manning

This season, even more than usual, Imani Winds is booked and busy. Rescheduled concerts from last year, combined with new additions to their schedule, promise a season full of travel and performances. “It’s a lot of making up for lost time,” bassoonist Monica Ellis said in a recent interview. “We’re just grateful that we’re able to be back and have live performances again, in one way or another.”

One performance relocated from 2020 is the Imani’s visit to the Cleveland Chamber Music Society on Tuesday, October 5 in CIM’s Mixon Hall. The 7:30 pm performance will be preceded by a 6:30 lecture by Chris Jenkins. Click here for tickets.

[Read more…]

Black History Month at Oberlin:
a conversation with Jeff Scott
(first of two articles)

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by Mike Telin

“What a series of events — Oberlin really has pulled out all the stops,” associate professor of horn Jeff Scott said during a telephone conversation. “Even more than just showcasing the arts, there are so many talks and conversations happening — moments when you can just listen to perspectives about history and current events. It’s important to combine all of that because it’s more than just a month, it’s a long continuous conversation that this country needs to have.”

On Thursday, February 25 at 7:30 pm, Oberlin Black History Month: A Celebration of Black Artistry continues on Stage Left with a pre-recorded program hosted by Jeff Scott. The evening features three of his own compositions as well as works by Ulysses Kay and Duke Ellington. In addition to Scott, performers include Mark Dover (clarinet/keys), Drew Pattison (bassoon), James Howsmon (piano), the Verona Quartet, and the Oberlin Orchestra. The concert is free. Click here at start time.

Although this is his first year on the Oberlin faculty, Scott has spent a lot of time in Ohio as a member of the acclaimed Imani Winds. “We’ve been all over the state many times and during those twenty-some odd years, there are a few places we call our second home — and Akron’s Tuesday Musical is one of them. It’s great to have presenters who aren’t afraid to take risks with artists,” Scott said. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: Imani Winds at E.J. Thomas Hall (Jan. 25)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Imani-Winds-2017The Imani Winds returned for their third appearance on the Tuesday Musical Association series in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall on Wednesday evening, January 25. Their exuberant performance of brightly-hued works by Elliott Carter, Paquito D’Rivera, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Simon Shaheen, and the quintet’s own Jeff Scott and Valerie Coleman proved that two decades on the road together has only added depth and sheen to their distinguished reputation. [Read more…]

Tuesday Musical: a conversation with Imani Winds bassoonist Monica Ellis

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by Mike Telin

Imani-Winds-2017In today’s classical music world, there are many ways to define the term “modern music,” with all its cross-pollinations of styles and genres,” Imani Winds bassoonist Monica Ellis said during a recent telephone interview. “I think this program has an overriding commonality of modernism, yet that is expressed in so many different ways.”

On Wednesday, January 25 at 7:30 pm, the Imani Winds — Valerie Coleman, flute, Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe, Mark Dover, clarinet, Jeff Scott, horn, and Monica Ellis, bassoon — will return to the Tuesday Musical series in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall for a concert titled “Considered Modern.” The program will feature works by Elliott Carter, Paquito D’Rivera, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Simon Shaheen, and Imani’s own Valerie Coleman and Jeff Scott. This writer will conduct a pre-concert interview with members of the ensemble beginning at 6:30 pm.

“The program also embodies who we are as an ensemble, and the mission we established when the group was formed 20 years ago,” Ellis said. [Read more…]

Save the dates: January events to log in your classical music calendar

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by Daniel Hathaway

gaffigan-jamesFormer assistant conductor James Gaffigan will return to the podium at Severance Hall from Thursday, January 5 through Saturday, January 7 to lead The Cleveland Orchestra and pianist Kirill Gerstein in Bernard Hermann’s Suite from Psycho, Arnold Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto, the original, jazz band version of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Performances include Thursday and Saturday evenings, a Friday matinee and a Fridays@7 event.

From January 6-8, the Philadelphia-based vocal ensemble, The Crossing, will give sixeen performances of David Lang’s Lifespan in Gallery 218 — the glass house that rises above the Cleveland Museum of Art’s East Boulevard façade. Surrounding a 4-billion-year-old rock suspended from the ceiling, three vocalists will whistle and breathe, moving the rock like a pendulum, “a poetic form of wind erosion” (read a preview here). Performances are scheduled for Friday at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, 7:45 and 8:30 pm, and on Saturday and Sunday on the hour from noon to 4:00 pm. Weigh in on your experience by sharing your own comments on the ClevelandClassical.com Facebook page. [Read more…]

Oberlin Artist Recital Series: Imani Winds with Gilbert Kalish (February 9)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Imani2Downsizing seems to be one of the buzz concepts of our era, but the ever-game-for-a-challenge Imani Winds took the idea to a new level of miniaturization on Sunday afternoon in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel, when that excellent woodwind quintet, performing on the Artist Recital Series, impressed the sox off a good-sized audience with their ear-boggling performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in an arrangement by Jonathan Russell.

Well, OK, not the whole piece, but Russell gives the quintet a good twenty-minutes worth of Stravinsky’s score redeployed for flute (and piccolo), oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon, and it worked. In her introduction, oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz noted that the audience would be able to hear inner details that had heretofore been “covered up by loud percussion and obnoxious brass — you know who you are!” she joked to the balconies where some of those blushing conservatory offenders were sure to be found. [Read more…]

Preview: Oberlin Artist Recital Series — Imani Winds with pianist Gilbert Kalish on February 9

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by Daniel Hautzinger

Imani2“It’s just badass,” said Imani Winds bassoonist Monica Ellis about Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which Imani will perform on February 9 in Oberlin’s Finney Chapel as part of the ensemble’s concert on the Artist Recital Series. “It’s this huge iconic piece that’s been pared down to a quintet, which is crazy in and of itself. Behind all that is this crazy cool rhythmic action, melodic action.”

All that “crazy cool rhythmic action” is one thing that connects The Rite of Spring to much of Imani’s repertoire. In addition to Ellis, the quintet consists of oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz, clarinetist Mariam Adam, flutist Valerie Coleman, and French hornist Jeff Scott. They often perform works from outside the traditional classical repertoire, especially focusing on African-American and Latin composers. “We’re attracted to this music because it’s close to us, it has soulful qualities, it’s ‘jazzy.’ It has a story behind it. Things that have a backbeat, a driving rhythm, are fun to play.”

Sunday’s concert program is in some ways an overview of Imani’s repertoire. [Read more…]

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