San Francisco Classical Voice

CHAMBER MUSIC REVIEW

Imani Winds

October 28, 2006

Imani Winds

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Ageless Enjoyment

By Michael Zwiebach

The Imani Winds are a talented, tight wind quintet with a flair for hip, interesting programming. They also have exuberant, winning personalities that were at least half the attraction in their children’s concert on Saturday morning at Herbst Theater. They did what you might expect at a family-friendly event: played some, introduced their instruments, involved the kids, and answered their questions. But they did it with such evident delight and enthusiasm that it was hard to say who had a better time, my 2-year-old daughter or me.

Actually, the Imani Winds are experienced music educators. A tour of their Web site — which has a children’s section — reveals that they have quite an extensive series of age-appropriate education programs, from kindergarten to collegiate master classes. But you could have guessed as much from the polish and expert design of Saturday’s “round-the-world” musical revue, and the players’ easy familiarity with children.

The short and sweet musical portion began with a flexible, conversational performance of the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream music, and a dance, the “Aragonesa” from Four Spanish Pieces by Manuel de Falla. After oboist Toyin Spellman led the audience in a Spanish folksong, the quintet played sort of a “Brazilian version of Dixieland jazz.” That was followed with “Tomcats,” from Luciano Berio’s Opus Zoo, in which the quintet tells a story while playing the piece. The finale was Every Time I Feel the Spirit, arranged by flutist Valerie Coleman. All were done with panache and superior musicality.

Something for everyone

For adults, the concert’s multiculturalism implies a humanist message of social and political equality and tolerance. That message is made explicit in the title of Imani’s first CD, Umoja (“unity” in Swahili). You could say that young children are all postmodernists at heart, that they don’t recognize cultural boundaries as important. The program scored points with them for variety, not for “crossover” daring. The music was plain, unmarked classical to the kids because it was played in a classical concert. And obviously, if Baroque composers could domesticate the racy, Latin American sarabande, there is nothing unorthodox about the mere appearance of a wapango or tango in classical music. We adults like variety, too. Still, I appreciated the program’s premise, and I imagine it widened the horizons of some of the young musicians in the audience.

For all the fine musicianship on display, this concert still allowed kids to be kids — to the relief of their parents. It takes real pros to respond positively to the in-your-face energy of an auditorium full of the young members of our society. One young man was raring to have a conversation with clarinetist Mariam Adam during the introduction, but she took it in stride. When an audience member volunteered that her mother played the flute, Coleman just went with it and asked who else had a family member who played. And the group ignored the few scattered cries and vocalizations, as well as the two children who tried to climb into the balcony.

For anyone interested in music education, the Imani are a lesson in nuts-and-bolts technique. They were funny. Every one of them had stories that they told in an interesting and brief way. They allowed time for questions in the middle of the program, so that we did not have to remember our questions until the end, and their answers were never condescending. In the spoken portions, the players actively listened to each other and cued us in with big, often comic, reactions. This is not glamorous work, nor is it rocket science, but it keeps you on your toes. And no one in the classical music business would question its critical importance. You have to love the Imani players for their faith in the future, and for the commitment and good will they bring to education.