Imani Winds has received Concert Artists Guild’s inaugural $5,000 Richard S. Weinert Award for Innovation in Classical Music, to be given annually to a CAG artist or ensemble for an outstanding proposal for a distinctive project. Imani Winds’ project is to create a work for wind quintet and steel pans with composer Andy Akiho, designed for performance not only on the concert stage but also at detention centers. The members of Imani Winds are Brandon Patrick George (flute), Toyin Spellman-Diaz (oboe), Jeff Scott (French horn), Mark Dover (clarinet), and Monica Ellis (bassoon). Says Spellman-Diaz of the award, “When we decided to work with Andy Akiho, we knew we had a special kind of alchemy that had the potential to create something larger than the sum of its parts. Andy’s music is powerful in part because of its universality, and if there ever were a place where something positive needed to be heard by everyone it would be in these centers. We will do our best to have this music-making provide strength, compassion, and love to all who hear it.”
Posted June 20, 2019
