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| Imani Winds Opens Maverick Season With A Salute To Duke Ellington  Maverick Concerts, the oldest continuous summer chamber music festival in America, presents a concert by the quintet Imani Winds on Sunday, July 1, at 4:00 pm. The concert, titled "Duke Ellington, Paris, and New Orleans" will be the opening concert in Maverick Concerts' 97th season of "Music in the Woods." The program features repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries, some of it familiar to audiences, some of it audaciously out of the ordinary, all of it an homage to the jazz composer and band leader Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington.Among his many other distinctions, Duke Ellington won the hearts of the French public and was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1973. Ellington once said, ''The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician."A featured work on Imani's program will be Maurice Ravel's homage to the glorious French baroque, Le Tombeau de Couperin, in an arrangement by Mason Jones. Jakub Kowalewski contributes an arrangement of a piano pieces by Debussy, and Imani's flutist and resident composer Valerie Coleman offers her portrait of the great African-American expatriate chanteuse, Josephine Baker. Also on the program, a suite by the vibrantly neoclassical French composer Jean Françaix, and a depiction of New Orleans by the Grammy-award winning film composer Lalo Schifrin. Imani Winds 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 ensemble has carved out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming, genre-blurring 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 has performed at most of this country's major concert venues, is frequently engaged by the premier chamber music series and festivals around the country, and has played virtually every major university performing arts series. The group started its Legacy Commissioning Project in 2008, commissioning, premiering and touring new works for woodwind quintet written by established and emerging composers of diverse musical backgrounds. Coming Up at Maverick Concerts Saturday, July 28, 6:30pmCole Porter in Paris: Perry Beekman, vocals and guitar; Terri Blaine, vocals; Peter Tomlinson, piano; Lou Pappas, bass Saturday, August 18, 6:30pm The Ébène Quartet: An evening of jazz, celebrating their recent CD, Fiction Saturday, August 25, 6:30pm Bill Charlap and Renee Rosnes, pianos Saturday, September 8, 6:30pm Fred Hersch, piano: Autumn in Paris Maverick Concerts is the oldest continuous summer chamber music festival in America and a winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming. Built by Maverick Art Colony founder Hervey White, Maverick Concert Hall first opened its doors to music lovers in 1916. The rustic hall is located at 120 Maverick Road, Woodstock, N.Y. 12498. With acoustics ideally suited to the intimacy of live chamber music performance, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. write your comments about the article :: © 2012 Jazz News :: home page |