Oberlin College and Conservatory

Artist Recital Series: Imani Winds with Gilbert Kalish, piano

Sunday, February 9, 2014 at 4:00pm to 6:00pm

Finney Chapel
90 North Professor Street, Oberlin, OH 44074

An Artist Recital Series performance with Imani Winds and guest artist Gilbert Kalish, piano.

Valerie Coleman, flute
Toyin Spellman-Diaz ’94, oboe
Mariam Adam, clarinet
Jeff Scott, horn
Monica Ellis ’95, bassoon

Program:

Jeff Scott: Startin' Sumthin'

Jason Moran: Cane

Togo to Natchitoches; Coin Coin's narrative; Gens libre de couleur; Natchitoches to New York

Francis Poulenc: Sextet for Piano and Winds

Allegro vivace; Divertissement; Final

with Gilbert Kalish, piano

Intermission

Valerie Coleman: Dumesnil Trio for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon

Igor Stravinsky (arr. Jonathan Russell): The Rite of Spring

Ástor Piazzolla (arr. Jeff Scott): Libertango

 

TICKET INFO: Tickets to Imani Winds and Gilbert Kalish are $42 ($35 for Oberlin alumni, staff, and seniors; and $13 for students); all tickets are $3 more at the door. Tickets for Imani Winds and other Artist Recital Series concerts—including prorated season ticket packages—can be purchased online, by calling 800-371-0178, or by visiting Oberlin’s Central Ticket Service at Hall Auditorium weekdays from noon-5 p.m.

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More than North America’s premier wind quintet, 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.

Imani Winds’ touring schedule has taken them across the globe. At home, the group has performed in the nation’s major concert venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Disney Hall, and Kimmel Center. The group is frequently engaged by the premier chamber music series in Boston, San Francisco, Portland, Philadelphia and New York, and have also played virtually every major university performing arts series including those in Amherst, Ann Arbor, Austin, Seattle, Stanford, Urbana and countless others. Festivals include Chamber Music Northwest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society, Virginia Arts Festival, Bravo! Colorado, and Ravinia Festival. In recent seasons, the group has traveled extensively internationally, with tours in China, Singapore, Brazil, and throughout Europe. Current season highlights include debuts at La Folle Journee in Nantes, France, and in London’s Wigmore Hall.

The group continues its Legacy Commissioning Project, in which the ensemble is commissioning, premiering and touring 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. Imani Winds make their Naxos debut performing the Legacy-commissioned-work Jebel Lebnan by Mohammed Fairouz on the composer’s March 2013 release, Native Informant.

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 Simone Shaheen, Imani Winds actively seek 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.

Through commissions and performance the quintet regularly collaborates with artists ranging from Yo-Yo Ma to Wayne Shorter. Shorter’s Terra Incognita – his first-ever composition for another ensemble – was premiered by Imani Winds. The group went on to perform extensively with Shorter at major European festivals like the North Sea Jazz Festival, and in North America at venues such as Carnegie and Disney halls. On Shorter’s acclaimed 2013 release on Blue Note,Without a Net, Imani Winds are featured prominently. 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, 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, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and St. Louis.

Imani Winds enjoy frequent national exposure in all forms of media, including features on NPR’s All Things Considered, appearances on APM's Saint Paul Sunday and Performance Today, BBC/PRI’s The World, as well as frequent coverage in major music magazines and newspapers including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The group maintains an ongoing relationship with Sirius-XM and has been featured multiple times and on various channels.

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 Juilliard campus, brings together young instrumentalists from across North America and beyond for an intense week of music exploration.

Imani Winds have five releases on E1 Music, including their 2006 Grammy Award nominated recording entitled The Classical Underground. They have also recorded for Naxos and Blue Note.

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The American pianist, Gilbert Kalish, studied at Columbia College (B.A.) with supplementary studies at Berkshire Music Center and Marlboro Festival. Among his noted teachers were Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova.

Gilbert Kalish was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble (1962-1979), a pioneering new music group that flourished during the 1960's and 1970's. He has been the pianist of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players (1969-1998), and a member of several other ensembles such as Gramercy Chamber Ensemble, Aeolian Chamber Players, and Penn Contemporary Players (University of Pennsylvania). He is noted for his partnerships with other artists, particularly his thirty-year collaboration with mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani, but also including cellists Timothy Eddy and Joel Krosnick, and soprano Dawn Upshaw.

Gilbert Kalish has given solo recitals throughout much of the world. He has appeared at many leading music festivals, such as Mostly Mozart, New York; Brighton and Aldeburgh, England; Ojai, California; Lucerne, Switzerland; Sarasota, Florida; Badenweiler, Germany; Rotterdam and Amsterdam, Netherlands, and many others. Concerto appearances in some of the most significant works of the 20th Century by composers, such as Alban Berg, Luciano Berio, Carter, Messiaen and Igor Stravinsky. He has given numerous concert appearances (about 50 per year) in many of the major world centers including New York concerts at Carnegie, Avery Fisher, Town Hall, 92nd Street "Y", Symphony Space, Tully Hally, Merkin, Miller Theatre (including the first solo piano recital in this newly renovated Columbia University concert hall). He has made tours of Japan, Europe and South America with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players.

Gilbert Kalish has appeared as as a guest with Boston Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, Greenwich Symphony, Newton Symphony, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Concord Quartet, Emerson Quartet, Fine Arts Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Chamber Orchestra, New World String Quartet, New York Woodwind Quintet, Orion String Quartet, Sea Cliff Chamber Players, and Thouvenal String Quartet.

Gilbert Kalish taught at Rutgers University from 1966 to 1969 and at Swarthmore College Associate in Performance from 1966 to 1974. Since 1970 he is Leading Professor and Head of Performance Activities at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. From 1975 to 1979 he taught also at SUNY Purchase. From 1968 to 1997 he was a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center and served as the "Chairman of the Faculty" at Tanglewood from 1985 to 1997. He has also served on the faculties of the Banff Centre and the Steans Institute at Ravinia, and is renowned for his master-class presentations.

Gilbert Kalish has a large discography of some 100 recordings, encompassing classical repertory, 20th-century masterworks and new compositions. These include his solo recordings of Charles Ives' Concord Sonata and sonatas of Joseph Haydn, vocal music with Jan DeGaetani and landmarks of the 20th century by composers such as Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Ralph Shapey and Arnold Schoenberg. He made the world premiere recordings of Charles Ives’ Largo for Violin and Piano, In Re Con Moto et al., Largo Risoluto No. 1 & 2, A Set of Three Short Pieces (mvts: Largo cantabile: Hymn, Scherzo: Holding Your Own, Adagio cantabile: The Innate) and songs The All-Enduring, The Innate, and Song (She is not fair).

Gilbert Kalish has given many first performances, and has had many works written for him (Carter, Crumb, Reynolds, Kupferman, etc.). He gave the first solo piano recital in the newly renovated Miller Theatre at Columbia University. He has received many honours, including three Grammy Award nominations. In 1995 he was presented with the Paul Fromm Award by the University of Chicago Music Department for distinguished service to the music of our time.

Event Type

Artist Recital Series, Signature Programs, Master Class, Music, Black History Month

Departments

Keyboard Studies, Academic, Piano, Woodwinds Brass and Percussion, Conservatory of Music, Administrative

Cost

$42 public, $35 seniors, OC staff, faculty, and alumni, $13 students (purchase tickets) All tickets $3 more at the door

Photo Alternate Text

Imani Winds

Contact Person

Central Ticket Service

Contact Phone Number

1-800-371-0178

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