Imani Winds

Sunday, October 1, 2023 | 8:00 pm

Reynolds Industries Theater

Since its founding in 1997, GRAMMY-nominated Imani Winds has been tirelessly dedicated to expanding the wind quintet repertoire, exploring non-European musical traditions, and recruiting culturally and racially diverse collaborators. This performance caps Imani Winds’ stint as Ensemble in Residence at Duke, where they have given workshops, masterclasses, and special performances over the past several years. For this special event, Imani will perform two newly commissioned works that explore the legacy of immigration and the African diaspora.

Jeff Scott’s Immigrant Songs examines the complex historical interplay between immigration and national identity in the United States, which have again taken center stage in our political discourse. Mr. Baptiste, by Duke alumnus David Kirkland Garner, and featuring new poetry from Jamaican-born Ishion Hutchinson, draws inspiration from the earliest known transcription of West African music in the Americas. It builds directly on research Garner conducted as a graduate student for the interactive website Musical Passage: A Voyage to 1688 Jamaica, placing 300-year-old musical phrases in conversation with contemporary genres, including reggae and dub, in ways that speak to this African inheritance and legacy of colonial resistance.

Immigrant Songs and Mr. Baptiste were commissioned in 2022 by Duke University for Imani Winds. This performance was originally scheduled for September 2022 and postponed due to inclement weather.

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Performers & Program

“The signature contribution of this group [is] a technical ease with extravagant gestures, intense production of sound, and the daring expressive liberties that come only after musicians have developed a sixth sense of ensemble-bonding."