Imani Winds Close Out University of Chicago Residencywith Civil RightsFocused Concert
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –02/20/2018
PHOTOS
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CHICAGO – On Friday, May 11, 2018 at 7:30 PM at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts,Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-ResidenceImani Windswill close out their two-year residency at the University of Chicago with a program of social justice–oriented works by contemporary composers. They will be joined by acclaimed jazz pianist Cory Smythe and Bronzeville’sWest Point Missionary Baptist Church Choir.
Marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Imani Winds honors the Civil Rights Movement with a concert to inspire continued progress and change. Frederic Rzewski’s Sometimes, written for Imani Winds, is based on the spiritual “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” and pays tribute to the legacy of African-American historian and civil rights activist John Hope Franklin. Vijay Iyer recalls the Trayvon Martin incident in his piece Bruits, for Imani Winds and Cory Smythe. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill reflects on Chicago and the Civil Rights Movement in a new work to be premiered by the quintet, andperformances of gospel music and American spirituals with the West Point Baptist Church Choir book-end the evening.
Founded in 1997, Imani Winds has become one of the pre-eminent wind quintets in the United States, performing both staples of the repertoire and new works. The ensemble has had a strong focus on education, with regular residencies at university programs across the country. In 2010, the group launched its summer Chamber Music Festival, bringing together young musicians and composers from across the country for an intensive exploration of traditional and new chamber works. At the University of Chicago, Imani Winds has continued its work expanding and diversifying classical music, working with student composers and performers in masterclasses and workshops and performing school matinee’s and family concerts for the South Side community.
Imani Winds is joined in performance by pianist Cory Smythe, who is an active performer of classical and new music, a frequent improviser, a regular collaborator of leading concert artists including Imani Winds, and a core member of the International Contemporary Ensemble. This world-class cast adds a local element to a globally relevant program with the West Point Missionary Baptist Church Choir, which at 100 years old has become a fixture of Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.
This concert is supported by the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture.
The concert is preceded by a talk at 6:30 pm between the artists and Michael Dawson, John D. MacArthur Professor of Political Science and the College.
FRIDAY / MAY 11 / 7:30 PM / LOGAN CENTER PERFORMANCE HALL
6:30 pm pre-concert talk with the artists and Michael Dawson
Imani Winds
Valerie Coleman, flute; Mark Dover, clarinet; Monica Ellis, bassoon; Jeff Scott, horn; Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe
Cory Smythe, piano
West Point Missionary Baptist Church Choir
FREDERIC RZEWSKI: Sometimes (2015)
VIJAY IYER: Bruits (2014)
HENGRY THREADGILL: New work (world premiere)
JEFF SCOTT, ARR.: [A1]Traditional American spirituals
SAM COOKE: A Change is Gonna Come, arr. Imani Winds[A2]
CONCERT LOCATION
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts
915 E 60th St, Chicago, IL 60637
TICKETS
$38 | $30 faculty and staff | $20 Under 35 | $10 Students
Call773.702.ARTS (773.702.2787) or visit tickets.uchicago.edu.
BOX OFFICE
UChicago Arts Box Office, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street
Regular hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 12 pm – 6 pm and through concert intermission;
1 – 4 pm on concert Sundays.
Concert information online atchicagopresents.uchicago.edu.
ABOUT IMANI WINDS
Extolled by the Philadelphia Inquirer as "what triumph sounds like," Imani Winds has established itself as one of the most successful chamber music ensembles in the United States. Since 1997, the Grammy-nominated quintet has taken a unique path, carving out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming, adventurous collaborations, and inspirational outreach programs. With two member composers and a deep commitment to commissioning new work, the group is enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire while meaningfully bridging European, American, African and Latin American traditions.
Starting in the fall of 2016 through 2018, Imani Winds has been appointed as the University of Chicago's Don Michael Randel Ensemble-in-Residence. This multi-faceted residency includes in depth collaborations with wind students, the chamber music department, composition majors and the Hyde Park community and also features world premieres on the University of Chicago Presents Series, the presenting arm of the University.
The group continues its Legacy Commissioning Project, through which the ensemble commissions, premieres and tours new works for woodwind quintet written by established and emerging composers of diverse musical backgrounds. The Legacy Project kicked off in 2008 with world premieres by Alvin Singleton and Roberto Sierra. Since then, projects have included works by Jason Moran, Stefon Harris, Danilo Perez, Simon Shaheen, and Mohammed Fairouz. The group’s fifth album on E1 Music – entitled Terra Incognita after Wayne Shorter’s piece written for the group – is a celebration of the Legacy project with new works written for Imani Winds by Mr. Shorter, Jason Moran, and Paquito D’Rivera. In 2015 they premiered a new work by Frederic Rzewski at Duke University’s Duke Performances. 2017–2018 will include premieres by Valerie Coleman, Reena Esmail, Nkeiru Okoye, Courtney Bryan, and Pulitzer Prize winner Henry Threadgill.
The wide range of programs offered by Imani Winds demonstrates their mission to expand the repertoire and diversify new music sources. From Mendelssohn, Jean Françaix, György Ligeti, and Luciano Berio, to Astor Piazzolla, Elliott Carter and John Harbison, and to the unexpected ranks of Paquito D’Rivera and Simon Shaheen, Imani Winds actively seeks to engage new music and new voices into the modern classical idiom. Imani members Valerie Coleman and Jeff Scott both regularly contribute compositions and arrangements to the ensemble’s expanding repertoire, bringing new sounds and textures to the traditional instrumentation. Recently, a concert-length new work by Mr. Scott was written for Imani Winds, jazz trio, and string quartet entitled The Passion, which musically explores the idea of a fictitious meeting between J.S. Bach and John Coltrane.
Through Wayne Shorter’s Terra Incognita – his first-ever composition for another ensemble – Imani Winds went on to perform extensively with Shorter at major European festivals like the North Sea Jazz Festival, and in North America at the Montreal Jazz Festival and venues such as Carnegie and Disney halls. Imani Winds are also featured prominently on Shorter’s acclaimed 2013 release on Blue Note, Without a Net. The group’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center residency culminated in a recital in New York’s Alice Tully Hall with renowned clarinetist/saxophonist/composer Paquito D’Rivera. The ensemble has also worked with luminaries such as bandoneonist Daniel Binelli, the Brubeck brothers, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, clarinetist David Shifrin, and pianists Gilbert Kalish and Shai Wosner. Their ambitious project, "Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot!" brought chanteuse René Marie with them to New York, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and St. Louis.
Their excellence and influences have been recognized with numerous awards including the 2007 ASCAP Award, 2002 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, as well as the CMA/WQXR Award for their debut and self-released recording Umoja. At the 2001 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Imani Winds was selected as the first-ever Educational Residency Ensemble, in recognition of their tremendous musical abilities and innovative programming.
Imani Winds’ commitment to education runs deep. The group participates in residencies throughout the U.S., giving master classes to thousands of students a year. In the summer of 2010 the ensemble launched its annual Chamber Music Festival. The program, set on the campus of Mannes School of Music, brings together young instrumentalists and composers from across North America and beyond for an intense exploration and performance of traditional and new chamber music compositions. Now in its seventh year, the participants have gone on to successes around the world, ranging from winning positions in orchestras, expanding entrepreneurial endeavors, founding their own music educational programs and forming their own chamber music ensembles.
ABOUT CORY SMYTHE
Pianist Cory Smythe works actively in new, classical, and improvised music. He has performed widely, making appearances as soloist and chamber musician at the Darmstadt International Festival for New Music, the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City, the Green Mill jazz club in Chicago, and the Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center. In recent seasons, Smythe has played alongside violinist Hilary Hahn in concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. A Washington Post review of the duo’s performance at the Kennedy Center praised Smythe for “…the ferocity and finesse of his technique.” Their Grammy-winning album, In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores, documents Hahn’s diverse collection of newly commissioned encores for violin and piano.
As a core member of the new music group the International Contemporary Ensemble, Smythe has given numerous premieres, collaborated in the development of new pieces, and worked closely with composers John Zorn, Philippe Hurel, Dai Fujikura, George Lewis, and Alvin Lucier among many others. ICE’s 2013 release on Mode Records features Smythe as the piano soloist in Iannis Xenakis’s ‘Palimpsest’. Smythe has also been a featured guest and soloist with many new music ensembles throughout the United States, including Milwaukee’s Present Music, the Boston-based Firebird Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. He performs regularly in collaboration with many of the leading concert artists of his generation, appearing this last season with the cellist Joshua Roman, violinist Karen Gomyo, the Imani Winds, and members of the Providence and Rubens string quartets.
An innovative improviser, Smythe performs as a soloist and in collaboration with a wide array of jazz and creative artists, among them, most recently, Peter Evans, Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman, and Anthony Braxton. This season will see the release of recordings featuring Smythe in projects led by Tyshawn Sorey and Nate Wooley. Smythe’s own album, Pluripotent — described by celebrated jazz pianist Jason Moran as “hands down one of the best solo recordings I’ve ever heard” — is available for free download at corysmythe.bandcamp.com.
Smythe holds degrees in classical piano performance from the music schools at Indiana University and the University of Southern California, where he studied with Luba Edlina-Dubinsky and Dr. Stewart Gordon, respectively. He currently resides in New York City.
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESENTS
Now in its 74th year of bringing the world's best artists to Chicago, The University of Chicago Presents offers 25 unique performances in six distinct series in the 2017/18 season, from early music to classical, contemporary, and jazz. This season celebrates the richness that music has to offer with unrivaled musical experiences that bring passion and virtuosity to the stage.
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[A1]Awk or ok?
[A2]When was arrangement written?