UW Cultural Programs' Spring Concert Series Continues

March 4, 2008 — Imani Winds, a Grammy-nominated wind quintet with a repertoire combining European, American, African, and Latin American traditions, will perform in the University of Wyoming Cultural Programs' concert series Wednesday, March 12.

The third of four spring concerts begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Concert Hall. Tickets ($18 for the public and $15 for students and senior citizens) are available by calling the Fine Arts Center box office at (307) 766-6666 or at the Web site www.uwyo.edu/finearts.

"Wind quintets are not exactly the most popular performing ensembles out there, so when I kept hearing Imani Winds on NPR, not just once, but two or three times, I noticed," says UW Cultural Programs Director Cedric Reverand. "And when they won the Chamber Music America award for adventurous programming, appeared in a lead story in the New York Times, were nominated for a Grammy and then featured on PBS for their multi-media celebration of Josephine Baker, we thought this was a group our audiences really ought to hear."

Imani Winds, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, has performed across the U.S., from New York to San Francisco and Seattle, and appeared on BBC's "The World," on NPR's "Performance Today" and on "All Things Considered."

As part of its anniversary celebration, Imani Winds is working on a Legacy Commissioning Project, which will extend over five years and include 10 compositions by composers of color. The project opens this summer with the world premiere of a nonet by Roberto Sierra.

The 2008 spring concert season concludes Thursday, March 27, with Irish pianist Barry Douglas, the 1986 Gold Medalist of the Moscow Tchaikovsky International Competition, and his all-Irish orchestra Camerata Ireland.

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Members of the UW Wind Ensemble will share a special chamber concert with the renowned Imani Winds Tuesday, March 11th, at 7:30. This concert is free and open to the public and will be held in the Fine Arts Concert Hall on the UW campus.