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Listen to Valerie's interview on News & Notes with Ed Gordon on www.npr.org.
Check out New York Public Radio, www.wnyc.org, where we have been recently featured on the program "Soundcheck" with radio personality, John Schaefer as well as "Music Party," in conjunction with BBC World Service.
Check out our Saint Paul Sunday 25th Anniversary Season performance www.saintpaulsunday.org.
"You have to admire such a sprawling program...Imani Winds has no precedent that its open-endedness is the brand."
Philadelphia Inquirer, December 2006
"Quintet carves out a repertoire - and much of it works
"Playing with jazz-driven swing in the more rhythmic passages, blending into lush wind textures in the more classically oriented sections, they impressively honored the memory of an extraordinary woman."
Los Angeles Times, October 2006
For French icon, some due credit "Josephine Baker: A Life of le Jazz Hot!" pays a fitting tribute to the singer-dancer and her civil rights activism.
"Imani Winds' publicity material refers to them as 'genre-busting.' There are some genres these days that need busting!" "...their music deserves attention from both classical music and jazz lovers."
JazzReview.com, October 2006
Imani Winds Celebrate the Unquenchable Spirit of Josephine Baker
"Animated melodies were tossed from flute to oboe and clarinet, then back again. Lush harmonies were juxtaposed against darting filigrees and moments of bluesy lyricism, with each segment articulated in a uniquely Shorter-esque manner. The Imani Winds also gracefully executed some of the same pinpoint twists and turns as Shorter and his dazzling quartet did during their own concert."
San Diego Union-Tribune, August 2006
Wayne Shorter's passionate music breathtaking
"Gregarious, subtle and intensely alert to details and phrasing, classically or otherwise, the Imani Winds capture the spirit of each work through loving and brilliant playing."
The Gramophone Magazine, July 2006:
Refinement and exuberance from the ever-questing wind quintet
(Review of the CD "Imani Winds")
"...its unusual repertory approach have excited the chamber music world. [The Mozart]...was as graceful and shapely a reading as you could want."
The New York Times, June 29, 2006:
Imani Winds Spice Up Chamber Music With Global Flavors
"The Imani did their best, delivering a strongly accented performance."
The New York Sun, June 29, 2006:
Mozart Meets World Music in the Park
"...Literally blown away..."
New Haven Independent, June 21, 2006:
Josephine Baker - A Life of Le Jazz Hot
"Don't be surprised if Imani Winds garners another Grammy nomination for this one."
Baltimore Gay Life, May 11, 2006:
Review of the CD "Imani Winds"
"Imani Winds is a true breath of fresh air. The classical music world would do well to take the Imani model to heart."
Washington Post, April 27, 2006:
Kennedy Center Fortas Chamber Music Series
"Imani Winds are doing important work by re-imagining the wind quintet's possibilities, but they also seem to be having more fun in the process than any other chamber music group on the planet."
Barnes & Noble.com, April 10, 2006:
Review of the CD "Imani Winds"
"Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet, inhabits a different world, that of the Webern-like aphorism. The Imani Winds found a clear sense of character in each movement and closed the concert with a lively, even bubbly, performance of the Six Bagatelles."
The New York Times, January 20, 2006:
Many Styles, But Just One Signature:
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's "The Essence of Ligeti Festival"
"wide-ranging and ambitious program...first-rate playing...the Ravel sparkled...important were the energy and the sense that every piece was music that had meaning, for the players and the audience"
The New York Times:
A Little of This, a Little of That With a Fresh Woodwind Sound
"Its goal is nothing less than to change the face — literally — of the classical wind quintet. Imani Winds represents nothing less than the future of the once-quaint notion of the wind quintet."
Washington Post:
Imani Winds At the Clarice Smith Center
"[Imani Winds] absolutely conquered extremely difficult new works by Luciano Berio and John Harbison. What was most impressive, though, about the group's ensemble work was the way the members got into one another's sounds, always blending, always making spontaneous hybrid instrumental colors. Imani savors boldness. Since Harbison's Quintet for Winds traffics in intensity of sound, Imani was the perfect group for it. Hardly anyone got to rest for more than a few moments, yet no signs of fatigue were apparent. Ultimately, whatever freshness of product and presentation Imani brings to the woodwind genre, the quintet will be judged by the classical establishment on the classics. Barber's Summer Music is a formidable calling card, and Imani sensitively adjusted its playing style to suit the piece. The group was generally transparent, making way for solo voices to be bold. Put another way, Imani did what the best group of any kind does: The musicians were, at various moments, an ensemble of one voice and a collection of strongly expressed personalities."
Philadelphia Inquirer:
Quintet gets past the predictable
"The players delivered crisp, balanced readings. In her [Coleman's] slimmed-down concerto, Afro-Cuban rhythms meet those gorgeous, plangent woodwind sonorities. Coleman's understanding of the instruments and her ear for timbral color and texture are formidable. With her Imani colleagues to give her latest works a tryout, and a nudge toward personal expression, her art — and the group's renown — should advance rapidly."
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Vibrant Imani woodwind quintet invites audience into act
"Sparkled with tonal warmth, good ensemble playing...good intonation."
New York Times
"Imani Winds initially raised eyebrows with their unique convergence of Pan-African and European musical sensibilities. But now the group's stubbornness appears to be paying off. Having first captured the hearts of New York's classical underground, Imani Winds are now winning the support of some of the world's most venerable institutions. Imani Winds' groundbreaking approach is evident on the group's independently produced CD, Umoja. A percussion-less classical recording in the European tradition, Umoja...retains an earthiness and rhythmic propulsion that can only be described as "soulful." With its well-tempered mix of original compositions, African-American spirituals...and jazz...Umoja exudes the radiance of a pivotal debut recording. Despite their individual virtuoso reputations, the sum of Imani Winds is greater than its parts. In flutist Valerie Coleman and horn player Jeff Scott, the group boasts two thoughtful composers who creatively reconcile the searing rhythms of the African Diaspora with the melodic intricacies ofEurope. Bassoonist Monica Ellis is the group's ersatz percussionist, providing the roiling undercurrents upon which oboist Toyin Spellman and clarinetist Mariam Adam play their luxuriant melodies."
GRAMMY.com:
They Call The Winds Imani:
Mixing classics, spirituals, jazz and more, group blazes unique trail
"[It was] a performance that radiated vitality, joy and a feeling of fun. In the course of the concert, the musicians took turns explaining the background of each piece. Their comments were concise and informative, their audience rapport warm and natural. The young artists impressed not only with their savvy stage presence, however, but also with their expert musicianship. The performance won a well-deserved standing ovation from the small audience. For an encore, the musicians stood on the edge of the stage to play (from memory) Coleman's infectious arrangement of the spiritual, "Ev'ry Time I Feel the Spirit." It was the perfect feel-good ending to a program that took a welcome new approach to the traditional concert format."
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Winds push classics to jazzy edge
"They play splendidly. They are a deliberately eclectic group, embracing works from multiple genres and perspectives, unafraid to bend and tweak tradition when it suits their collective purpose. To every idiom they brought insight and fluency, wrapped in a gentle imperative that urged listeners to share their pleasures of ongoing discovery. Coleman's own Concerto for Wind Quintet and Orchestra, cast members as participants in a kind of concerto grosso, proved a particularly effective means of highlighting their mutual abilities. Believe me, you're going to look very hard to find an bassoonist who plays with as much sass as Ellis did in this piece. It was a vehicle for unabashed display that managed as well to claim accompanying substance. So did Scott's "Homage to Duke," which cannily rethreaded Ellington's sacred vocal quartet "Come Sunday" into a lushly hued, almost melancholy instrumental version that preserved the essential spiritual flavor of the original. Any way you regard them, the Imani Winds' members understand how to make their scores sound relevant to the moment at hand."
Louisville Courier-Journal:
Imani Winds show sass and fluency in
a repertoire spanning continents
"Imani is Swahili for "faith," and you'd better believe Imani Winds is like nothing you've seen before. The rest of the concert featured a mix of 20th-century luminaries. Again, this alone would be diversity greatly needed in classical circles, but they enhanced it by talking in a relaxed manner about the works to the audience. Imani's showmanship was not showboating -- it was adding the much needed "E" to A&E, an approach many classical groups could adopt. And when it came down to the music itself, there was no letdown. The details of Carter's Quintet were precise, and the whole was uncommonly vivacious. If this ensemble can continue to perform with virtuosity and flair, there's no telling how far it will go or how much it could transform the stuffy traditions that often hinder classical music."
Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
Entertaining Imani Winds quintet
shows classical groups how to be
"[Regarding the Concerto for Wind Quintet] The three-movement work, which required virtuosic involvement by each of the five instrumentalists, displayed a high level of compositional skill on Coleman's part.Their interpretation was notable for its dazzling speed and control. Their performance...was a model of precision and conception. ...imaginative and wonderfully."
Savannah Morning News:
Imani Winds impress Onstage audience at concert
"The Imani Winds program called "How Jeff Got His Groove Back," delighted an audience Sunday at St. Paul's Catholic Church. It may be designed to teach children about musical instruments, but it in no way spoke down to the assembled adults in the audience. The ensemble...has a special skill in communicating through dialogue and physical comedy. Its story involved an enthusiastic schoolboy, who excels as a horn player. One had the feeling that just about any student of any subject could relate to his joy with success. Complete pieces of music helped tell the story. The most familiar was a frantic "Flight of the Bumblebee," with players breaking out of the action for bits of dialogue - all perfectly timed and executed. A composition by the group's flutist, Valerie Coleman, was also impressive. Some of [Imani Winds'] most important work has to be the way they are capturing the attention of young children through fun with classical music. As these children learn to understand it, they might also be tempted to learn to perform it as well as these people do."
The Virginian Pilot:
Imani Winds offers delightful
music program for youngsters
"The bassoon player, Monica Ellis, was exceptional, infusing sassy, confrontational elements into the performance. Rhythmic and melodic interaction between performers brought to mind the conversational tone often heard between free-jazz musicians."
Anchorage Daily News
"Imani Winds, debuted a work by its flautist/composer, Valerie Coleman, that showed a way across that chasm. This was the world premiere of her modern work for winds and orchestra, "Afro-Cuban Wind Quintet in 3 Movements." "Afro" opened with a neo-romantic string motif; Jeff Scott's French horn erupted with rhythmic derring-do, then the other players gathered themselves into similar layers, dazzlingly syncopated. "Vocalise" soothed as horn and bassoon sketched a solemn fugue that pointed toward Toyin Spellman's undulating oboe solo. "Danza" was an allegro Afro-Cuban romp with a conga-huddle sensibility that built to a surprising accelerando."
New Haven Register
"In the self-published release, Umoja, the group has a winning combination of fire power and style."
Philadelphia Inquirer:
An ethnic classical quintet augurs the winds of change
"The playing glows with confidence, a spirit of freedom and the momentum of exciting music making. Go hear this exciting group of performers who create a unique sound world and offer a startlingly original musical flavor."
Philadelphia Daily News:
Changing the Entire Chamber Music Model — Imani Winds
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