Imani Winds Creates a New World

Over the years chamber music has occupied a very definite niche. And that niche, for the most part, is filled with string quartets. 

Sometimes you’ll hear a piano trio (piano, violin, cello) and maybe a violin/viola duet at a chamber music concert. There are other variations, but you can usually bet that string instruments will play the dominant role.

And for good reason.  String instruments blend seamlessly together and the constant motion of the bow arm and the hands on the fingerboard is always interesting to watch. Also, the music played in chamber music concerts are usually 18^th and 19th century pieces written by the great masters.

In the last 20 years, however, the Imani Winds has re-written the chamber music dance card. Here is a chamber ensemble that has created a unique world for themselves, their ensemble, and their audiences.

First off, the woodwind quintet is the most troublesome chamber ensemble to prefect.  Unlike a string quartet, each of the five woodwind instruments is totally different from one another. For a woodwind quintet to develop a homogeneous blend is a difficult challenge.

Take a look – the bassoon is a large wooden instrument with a double reed; the flute is an uncomplicated metal tube with simple a hole with a small mouth rest; the oboe is a high pitched instrument also with a double reed but much smaller than the bassoon; the clarinet has a single vibrating reed affixed to a plastic mouthpiece, and the French horn isn‘t a woodwind at all. However, this brass instrument is in a WW quintet because it is usually included in the woodwind choir within most orchestral works.

And when an audience watches this strange amalgam of instruments perform, there is little action for them to concentrate on – just some fast moving fingers flittering around.

But when I attended last Saturday night’s concert of the Imani Winds, it was a different world. The audience was substantial (for a chamber music event) and the crowd skewed younger than the usual grey haired music lovers. They were engaged from the downbeat to the end.  No one fiddled with their phones or talked among themselves.

As for the music, it was all written in the past twenty years or so and two of the pieces were composed by previous members of group. Two pieces were composed by jazz legends Paquito D’Rivera and Wayne Shorter,

The age of the hip-looking musicians was somewhere between the middle 20s to the later 40s (I estimate) and they were all virtuosos.

This was a concert of surprises.  The music was unfamiliar to most everyone (except for fans of the group) therefore no one knew what to expect. What they got was a wide variety of music from jazz to Latin to romantic to melodic to highly rhythmic.

The ensemble is more than a chamber performing group, it is a music entrepreneurial entity. Since its founding, the IW has been busy creating carving out its place in the chamber music scene. To my knowledge, they are the only full-time professional woodwind quintet on tour.  

The musicians have been busy commissioning new music, writing new music themselves, teaching masterclasses, coaching other chamber groups, recording CDs, creating a foundation, serving as artists-in -residence at universities and recently were hired by the prestigious Curtis Institute to teach chamber music.

When flutist Valerie Coleman and bassoonist Monica Ellis founded the group, they envisioned it as a totally black ensemble. Now, the race of the musicians seems to not make much of a difference.  In the past five years there have been some turnover in group’s personnel, and they even took the plunge by hiring a white clarinetist (Mark Dover).  It was a difficult decision, but in the end, Monica Ellis told me that it became a strictly musical decision.

Ellis remains in the group along with oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz, also an original member.  Newer members are Kevin Newton, French horn and Brandon Patrick George, flute.

The technique of the players is sparkling, and the blend of the quintet sounds like one instrument.

When a musician has a solo moment, the player’s tone magically rises above the ensemble to play with great individuality and soloist quality.  When the ensemble is playing as a unit, the players slink back to play elegant chords and matched musical styles. The concert was performed with delicate nuance and a fiery spirit.

The Imani Winds have invented something new and exciting in the music world.  Something that’s original and fresh.