The Hope College Great Performance Series will conclude the 2015-16 season with a performance by the Grammy-nominated wind quintet Imani Winds on Friday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.
Called “nothing less than the future of the once-quaint notion of the wind quintet” by The Washington Post, the ensemble nabbed its first Grammy nomination in the field of Best Classical Crossover Album. The group has now been performing together for nearly 20 years and has won several major chamber awards, and its members were named Resident Artists for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Imani Winds appeared at Hope College in 2006, and now returns to perform in the new concert hall and conduct a masterclass with Hope College students. The concert will include works by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Astor Piazzolla, Valerie Coleman and Paquito D’Rivera.
The group, whose name means “faith” in Swahili, explores the links between European, African and American traditions.
“First-rate playing... important were the energy and the sense that every piece was music that had meaning, for the players and the audience,” said The New York Times in a review. The Philadelphia Daily News has said, “Go hear this exciting group of performers who create a unique sound world and offer a startlingly original musical flavor.”
Through the years, Imani Winds has collaborated with various musicians to push the boundaries of both its repertoire and style. The group now plays music as diverse as classical ballet and tango, but is also committed to new compositions. To that end, the ensemble has developed its Legacy Commissioning Project, dedicated to developing and premiering new works. Lucid Culture has described Imani Winds as being “on a mission to create a repertoire for wind ensembles that rivals what string quartets have to choose from.”
Tickets are $18 for regular admission, $13 for senior citizens, $6 for children 18 and under, and free for Hope College students. Tickets are available online at hope.edu/tickets as well as at the ticket office in the Events and Conferences Office located downtown in the Anderson-Werkman Financial Center (100 E. Eighth St.). The ticket office is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890.
The Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts is located at 221 Columbia Ave., between Ninth and 10th streets.